Rozner: Goodell's campaign against Brady another black mark

The NFL is on one of the longest winning streaks in sports history, growing bigger by the year and putting more distance between the shield and the rest of professional sports in America.

But what you may have suspected is now official: This is happening not because of Roger Goodell, but in spite of him.

He runs the league like an organized crime syndicate, directing his captains to dole out information and punishment however he deems fit.

They stand before the press over and over again insisting that the sun rises in the West, saying it so many times that even if Goodell doesn't believe it he thinks saying it enough makes it so.

His people put forth false information so effectively and with such ferocity regarding deflated footballs that it might as well be a government operation.

Apparently, Goodell has a similar crew around him.

You can take your pick but there was probably nothing worse than the Ray Rice debacle, with Goodell pretending the entire time that he had never even heard of Ray Rice, let alone a police report which stated that Rice had knocked his fiancee unconscious.

Goodell gave Rice two games for punching his wife so hard in an Atlantic City casino elevator that he knocked her out cold and had to drag her limp body into the lobby.

Two games because Goodell said that's all the information he had at the time, and because he never saw the video.

As smell tests go, that one reeks of skunk.

But Tom Brady got four games for his part in deflating footballs based on evidence that to this point Goodell has not provided anyone, and in fact he seems to have based his opinion on his own disappointment that Brady has not crawled to the throne.

The Patriots might be guilty and Brady might be complicit, but the NFL has not made its case.

In particular, Goodell claims he was distressed by the fact that Brady met with equipment assistant John Jastremski after the AFC championship when the news broke and the two - according to the NFL - discussed only football preparation for the Super Bowl.

Said Goodell in his report, "The sharp contrast between the almost complete absence of communications through the AFC championship game undermines any suggestion during the three days following the AFC championship game that the communications addressed ONLY preparation of footballs for the Super Bowl rather than the tampering allegations and their anticipated responses to inquiries about the tampering."

That would be hard to believe if Brady had actually said that, that he had claimed to have never spoken to Jastremski about the scandal.

But Brady didn't say that. As the NFLPA pointed out in a brief, "Brady actually testified - at length - that he did discuss the tampering allegations with Jastremski."

As is the case with so many things in this "investigation," Goodell is completely wrong and contradicts portions of his own ruling and the Wells Report. It was actually said under oath right in front of Goodell himself.

Yet, Goodell presented it in such a way as to make Brady look guilty in the eyes of the public, continuing a campaign of misinformation.

So angry that the Patriots - and Brady specifically - didn't bow before him and hand over that cellphone, Goodell has gone full-out Nixon administration on Brady.

It's shameful.

Now, even while looking ridiculous in court this week, he's insisting Brady stipulate to the facts as he wants the public to see them, or he won't offer Brady a settlement.

Brady must admit to the NFL version or Goodell won't even consider a deal because he's more concerned with saving face than putting an end to an NFL embarrassment.

This is something well beyond a God complex. He's Hyman Roth with the foresight of Fredo Corleone.

It's not easy to watch, but with gambling comes TV ratings, and with TV ratings comes TV money, and when each franchise gets $226 million in revenue sharing, owners look the other way and tell a naked Goodell his clothes look lovely.

The result is that in Goodell's league, you get two games for destroying a woman's face and four games for destroying a cellphone.

That is NFL justice. That is Roger Goodell's legacy.

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.