Hurley On Toucher & Rich: Nothing Roger Goodell Says Is The Truth -- Ever
CBSBoston.com's Michael Hurley joined Toucher & Rich on Thursday morning, and the guys offered a bit of a split introduction. Fred painted him as a bit of a local whiner, while Rich and Jon were complimentary.
And so, the interview began, "So now, what's your problem?"
"Well, I had to listen to Roger Goodell speak yesterday, so I guess that would be my latest problem," Hurley said. "Nothing he says is the truth, ever. It's just, at this point, I'm ready for a new liar. I know the next guy's going to lie, too, but I'm ready for a new one."
Rich then asked Hurley about the most pointed question directed at Goodell on Wednesday, which came from Tom E. Curran and focused on the leaks that came out of the NFL office and were proven to be false. Goodell sidestepped the question completely.
"It was a pointed but a pretty amicable question, and Goodell bristled right away: 'Well, Tom ... We specifically asked Wells to address that,'" Hurley said. "And it's the same thing with the Mueller report. They didn't want to get exposed publicly. They wanted to pay someone a lot of money to produce a lot of pages and a lot of documents to make it look like everything was hunky-dory at league headquarters. And so, he brushed it off with a non-answer, and then Curran came back without a microphone and asked specifically about that 11 of 12 footballs being 2 PSI under report, and Goodell just said, 'Well, Ted had that. Ted could've analyzed it.'
"So it's just passing the buck, it's just not taking any sort of responsibility. And then a minute later, he's saying, 'It's our job to police our values, our rules,' and it just doesn't apply to his own employees. So it's just, at this point, mind-boggling."
READ: Six Key Takeaways From Roger Goodell's Press Conference
Wallach then asked Hurley how Goodell's comments, punishments and entire handling of DeflateGate is likely being received nationally.
"I don't know. It's just a matter of how much people care to actually do research on it. And I think that's what he's banking on, that most people don't have an hour-and-a-half to read a terrible, 200-page document on the PSI of footballs," Hurley said. "So I think he's banking on the fact that public opinion leans one way, and he can cash in on that, for sure.
"But I mean, nothing the guy says is genuine, and I just don't know how that plays in other cities. Are people buying that? I find it hard to believe, but you're right, for anyone who wants to believe what he's saying? Sure, it definitely plays well."
Rich asked Hurley about Goodell's quote about applying the rules in a uniform fashion.
"Right, well, Brett Favre refused to hand his phone over in the case of his sexual harassment, and all he got was a $50,000 fine. So that obviously isn't as important to the league as the PSI in footballs," Hurley said.
"Then, Goodell basically said Adam Schefter was wrong. I think if you're going to take a Tale of the Tape of who's telling the truth -- Roger Goodell or Adam Schefter -- I think that's a pretty easy decision."
Fred then asked the million dollar question: "Why is the league doing this, then? Why is the league being unfair to the Patriots? What's in it for them?"
"That's actually something I've been wondering really deeply about for the past day, as I've wondered why I've wasted four months of my life on this little issue, and I just can't figure it out. I don't know why, for the first time ever, PSI was a big deal," Hurley answered. "I do buy into the fact that there are a lot of people -- not necessarily Goodell, I don't think Goodell was 'up on' this operation -- but I think there are a lot of people that work for the league that have a grudge to hold against Bill Belichick. Because he's won for 15 years, and he's never made an effort to make a friend along the way. I can't think of many rivals that he's really tried to befriend along the way, and I think that catches up to you at some point in a league full of such huge egos.
"So I think there were people that really wanted to catch him doing something, to embarrass him. And after what he did coaching-wise, where he coached circles around John Harbaugh in the divisional round, I think it rubbed some people the wrong way. And then for Tom Brady to laugh afterwards and say, 'They need to learn the rulebook,' I think that definitely sparked a certain attitude change and it started getting people going.
"Now, I don't believe there was a big conspiracy, a sting operation, things like that, because I don't think Goodell knew about it. I think by the time Goodell caught wind of it, it was too far along for him to rightfully ignore it. So if I had to think of a theory, that would be it."
Listen to the full interview below:
