New England Patriots

Patriots Talk: Roger Goodell Answers Deflate Gate Questions In An Interview

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Friday seems to have been a busy day in regards of the thought to be dead DeflateGate saga. First the piece on Chris Mortensen on the Ringer, and now NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sat down and answered questions on DeflatGate and the Patriots in an interview.

This is what happened during WFAN’s “Chalk Talk” this week when the New York Daily News’ Gary Myers sat down with Goodell.

Myers asked why the NFL went after Tom Brady without direct evidence.

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“Gary, one of the things, we obviously disagree on this, you’ve made your position clear — the No. 1 thing here is protecting the integrity of our game,” Goodell said. “The rules apply to everyone in the league — every team, every player. It doesn’t matter whether you are the MVP or a Super Bowl champion, or any other team. They apply equally. This is the single most important thing that the commissioner’s job is — that is the responsibility.

“We had an independent study and an independent investigation that came back with the conclusion. We went through all the process’ because, yes, we do believe we have the rights under the CBA. The Second Circuit made that entirely clear. You may not agree. I understand that. It was clear to us there was a violation of policy.

“Second, it is an obligation of people to cooperate. They must cooperate with the investigation. That includes not only cooperation, but also not destroying evidence. Those are the factors we had to consider with this context. We did that to protect the integrity of the game and we’ll continue to do that.”

Myers followed it up by asking Goodell when he would return to Gillette Stadium, as he hasn’t visited the stadium since Deflategate began, including when the Patriots raised the banner for winning Super Bowl XLIX.

“I don’t know, Gary. I will go wherever I need to go,” he said

Every-time he is an interview these are the main topics of discussion:

Starting to seem like the league as a whole has a very big image problem being associated with all of these touchy topics. I am betting Roger Goodell will never visit Gillette Stadium again as commissioner, which at the moment might not be very long.

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