Congressman Pat Fallon goes on weird DeflateGate rant with Roger Goodell during Washington Commanders hearing
BOSTON -- Anyone who watched the hearing on Wednesday held by the House Oversight Committee regarding the toxic workplace environment in the Washington Commanders football organization can report that the proceedings were ... odd.
Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) clearly took the testimony of the victims very seriously and sought to hold Roger Goodell, Daniel Snyder, the NFL and the Commanders organization accountable for the actions that were deemed to have taken place. Some of her colleagues did as well. Republicans on the committee, however, expressed their disapproval of the entire hearing, stating that the committee had no business interfering with the private sector, and opting to point out what they deemed to be failures of the Joe Biden administration during their allotted time to speak. Instead of addressing the matter of hand involving some serious misconduct within a football organization, pointed comments were repeated about inflation, grocery costs, tampon and baby formula shortages, and the southern border of the United States.
It made for a rather strange scene. Yet perhaps no moment was weirder than the one created by Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).
Fallon, who was born in Pittsfield, Mass., decided to use his one-on-one time with Goodell to litigate DeflateGate in Congress. It was quite the show.
After touching on the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, here's how Fallon connected the two great American scandals:
A scant seven and a half years ago, another scandal rocked our nation, threatening the very core and foundation of our republic. That being of course, DeflateGate, where in an AFC Championship Game, the NFL footballs -- the pigskins, the rock, the pill, the hand egg, the melon, and the leather -- was mysteriously underinflated by 2 PSI (pounds per square inch.) This led to a multifaceted investigation -- months long, thousands of dollars spent -- where the GOAT, Mr. California Cool, The Real Slim Brady, The Master of the Tuck, The Lord of the Rings, Tom Terrific, Tom Brady was suspended by the league.
Mr. Commissioner, I'm sure you're aware that many in New England worship Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. as a demigod of sorts. And being a New England native myself, I don't blame them one bit. So my point here, sir, is that this country simply can't afford another scandal, particularly a preventable one.
So I am surprised that in reviewing the league rules to prepare for this hearing -- this critical hearing -- we uncovered that the NFL requires footballs today to be inflated to a gauge pressure of between 12.5 and 13.5 PSI. And the rules don't state and specify the temperature at which these measurements are to be made. And the pressure temperature law states that there is a positive correlation between the temperature and the pressure of a gas when there's a fixed volume in mass. So how can we, Commissioner, guarantee the consistency of the PSI levels of footballs moving forward?
In a hearing that was centered on sexual harassment, bullying, intimidation, and workplace misconduct, that particular rant was ... not expected.
(Goodell, of course, lied in response, saying that the Wells report was so long because it included scientific studies that accounted for altitude, temperature, and all sorts of variables involving the PSI of footballs. In fact, that report did no such thing. Alas, that is not particularly important anymore. But it is nevertheless consistent with the way Goodell has "answered" any and all DeflateGate questions over the past seven years.)
Alas, the "grilling" on DeflateGate was merely a sarcastic performance by Fallon, who then offered his "sincere apologies" to Goodell for having to endure the hearing, which Fallon called "a sham," "a farce," "a clown show," and "a terrible waste" of time for Goodell, the committee, and the American taxpayers.
Unfortunately, even though the NFL confirmed that the abhorrent accusations against Daniel Snyder and his organization were true, nobody has really been held accountable for creating and fostering that environment. In a league full of unseemly incidents, the handling of this situation has been particularly detestable. Wednesday' hearing seemed as though it may represent a moment of reckoning for Goodell and Snyder, but Snyder himself didn't even show up, and too many committee members essentially opted out of participating in the hearing.
The many victims who have courageously stepped out into the public to tell their stories deserved a lot better than what they've gotten over the past two years, and they deserved a lot better from the committee on Wednesday.
While the Congressional charade was certainly unproductive on most levels, its lone accomplishment was augmenting the tale of DeflateGate -- the strangest, dumbest "scandal" in the history of mankind -- by adding one more appropriately bizarre chapter.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
