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JARRETT BELL
Roger Goodell

Bell: NFLPA has figured out how to sap Roger Goodell's power despite CBA concession

Jarrett Bell
USA TODAY Sports
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell have been frequent adversaries.

Just like the other high-profile court cases in recent years pitting all-too-familiar adversaries from the NFL and NFL Players Association, the postgame review of Deflategate is, well, pressurized with an essential question: Why in the world did NFL players ever sign off on a labor deal giving Roger Goodell so much power?

Fair question, but begging for context.

The NFL commissioner has had such sway for decades. But as U.S. District Judge Richard Berman noted Thursday in dismantling the league's case against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and vacating his four-game suspension, Goodell was again reckless in swinging his hammer.

The NFLPA may not have limited Goodell's power in the collective bargaining agreement, but the union still seems to have found a way to do just that, always ready to pounce in the courtroom when the commish egregiously misfires.

Sure enough, when the last labor war was waged over a lockout in 2011, reducing Goodell’s power was indeed an objective for union chief DeMaurice Smith — just not a big enough priority for his constituents to miss game checks. (It would have taken that.) In striking the current CBA, an unheard-of 10-year pact, the NFL compromised to allow for neutral arbitration in drug cases. Finally. But when it came to the commissioner’s authority over player conduct and integrity-of-the-game issues, a deal breaker was evident.

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Now, you can’t write the history of pro football without the Hail Mary, the Immaculate Reception and how Deflategate rolled on with Article 46, the clause in the CBA that seemingly secures Goodell’s clout.

Maybe Deflategate will be the game changer that thaws the Cold War between the league and union. Maybe not. There’s such a vast gap in trust between the sides, it’s difficult to see Goodell and Smith hashing out issues and policies like their respective predecessors, Paul Tagliabue and Gene Upshaw, once did.

Then again, it took Tagliabue and Upshaw much time and multiple legal battles to get to the point of working like the partners who eventually produced 17 years of labor peace. Perhaps in time, some history will be repeated. If not, though, it’s apparent that the NFLPA has found a key for achieving what it could not accomplish during the CBA talks: stripping power from Goodell.

Sure, the NFLPA had help from an unlikely source, the NFL itself. As Berman detailed in his ruling, the league had the audacity to conduct a process for discipline that lacked basic fairness and transparency. Not allowing Brady’s legal team to examine NFL lead counsel Jeff Pash? Not allowing Brady’s side access to interviews and notes from the Wells Report?

Brady got slammed, deservedly, for not cooperating with the investigation, and the destruction of his cellphone makes the reigning Super Bowl MVP look like a cheater in cover-up mode. Add the heavy dose of text messages and contact with an equipment staffer, and it takes a fool not to believe that something was up.

Yet as it turns out, the NFL, without anything stronger than circumstantial evidence against Brady, didn’t fully cooperate, either. That helped the NFLPA — bolstered by the NFL’s worst nemesis, star outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler — extend its legal win streak against the league.

Ray Rice. Adrian Peterson. Now Brady.

Even cases settled by arbitrators who were considered to be league-friendly have not supported Goodell’s rulings. Goodell’s former boss, Tagliabue, vacated the suspensions of the New Orleans Saints players in the bounty scandal. And this summer, Tagliabue’s former labor chief, Harold Henderson, reduced Greg Hardy’s 10-game suspension, stemming from a domestic assault cases, to four.

The bread-and-butter call in the NFLPA playbook? Dial up Kessler. It's a costly strategy, considering the billable hours. Yet with Thursday's victory, which had to feel like a huge upset on the NFL’s home field (in its preferred court), momentum is on the union's side.

It’s tough to envision a scenario where the NFL would renegotiate a collectively bargained issue that isn’t driven by increased revenues. But the league’s image keeps taking a beating. Something must give, especially if a significant number of owners want to reconsider the disciplinary process.

With added fuel from Deflategate, that’s an essential consideration now in the quest to move forward.

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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell

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