Like many other NFL players, coaches, owners, analysts, and fans, Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas thinks the entire Deflategate scandal is dumb. It's why he's glad that Tom Brady is fighting Roger Goodell and the NFL and trying to get his four-game suspension reduced. But Thomas also thinks that what Goodell is doing is kind of brilliant. He has, in essence, turned the NFL into a 24/7/365 business over the last six months simply by keeping the Deflategate investigation going.
"I'm not sure if he realizes what he's doing is brilliant," Thomas said in an interview with ESPN over the weekend, "but what he's doing is brilliant because he's made the NFL relevant 365 [days] by having these outrageous, ridiculous witch hunts. It's made the game more popular than ever and it's become so much more of an entertainment business and it's making so much money."
Thomas then went on to say that what Goodell is doing for the NFL is kind of like what Kim Kardashian has done for herself through reality TV and social media.
"We're talking about a different NFL now," he said. "Before it was more about the game. Now it's such an entertainment business. It's almost like the Kim Kardashian factor that any news is good news when you're in the NFL."
And he finished things off by comparing Goodell to Vince McMahon and the NFL to the WWE.
"I'm glad [Brady] is fighting it," Thomas said. "Because it's good for the game. It's an entertainment business. It's turning into the WWE really. It's like the Vince McMahon stuff. Basically, Goodell is like Vince McMahon."
He's not wrong. This whole Deflategate saga has started to seem a little bit like a bad WWE storyline.
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[via ESPN]
