Brees, a one time Superbowl MVP, strongly disagrees with the way the NFL Commissioner handles incidents and made a strong argument as to why there should be a new disciplinary procedure. Hit the jump for details.
Via TD Daily:
“Too many times, I’d say especially over the last few years, a punishment’s been handed down and nobody has really seen the evidence except for those in the league office — supposedly,” Brees said. “So decisions were made in kind of a, ‘Hey, trust us.’ But did the public see any of the facts? Did the accused see any of the facts? In most cases, no.”
Those were the biggest complaints among Saints players and the NFL Players Association during the drawn-out fight over bounty suspensions in 2012 — which ultimately led to former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue vacating all of Goodell’s player punishments.
Saints leaders such as coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis, however, had no such recourse with which to fight against Goodell’s severe punishments since Goodell handed out the discipline and heard the appeal.
“That’s why you have multiple parties to make sure everyone comes together, cooler heads prevail. The decision isn’t just based on emotion at the time, which I can say I believe has happened in the past in regards to commissioner discipline. It’s been based upon emotion as opposed to maybe the facts,” Brees said. “And (a new disciplinary policy would) prevent that from ever happening again.”
Brees also echoed the sentiment of many former Saints players and media analysts who have pointed out that Goodell has not been held accountable for mistakes made during the investigation of Ray Rice’s domestic violence incident. And Goodell is not holding himself to the same standard to which he held Saints leaders to in the bounty punishments.
“I think it’s a great tie-in because obviously the same things that I’ve heard, the same things that I feel (about Goodell) are the quotes that were thrown out at members of the Saints organization in regards to why they were being punished,” Brees said. “Things such as, ‘Ignorance is no excuse,’ and, ‘if you didn’t know you should’ve known,’ are things that would absolutely apply in this case, except the roles are reversed and it’s going back at Commisioner Goodell and the league office.”
When asked if he feels that Goodell should step down after the way he’s handled such issues as the Rice investigation, Brees said, “That’s not up to me. I’m more focused on the solution, as far as creating and then maintaining policies that you can be consistent with and open with and transparent with, and bringing together all parties that should be involved. The players association, the NFL league office and independent experts.”
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