NFL manages to execute bookend blundering to open season

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In January, NFLPA president Eric Winston opined that a toddler could run the National Football League and it would still generate billions.

From Thursday to Sunday, we got a perfect illustration of that. The game –-- in its beauty, brutality, drama and absurdity -- is so much damn fun to watch.

And it works in spite of the boobery of the people running it who, just about every time they step out and make a proclamation, run face-first into a plate-glass window

Perfect bookend examples of that were supplied on Thursday night and Sunday afternoon.

First, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin delivered his sneering, “I’m not saying, I’m just saying . . . ” swipe after communications issues at Gillette Stadium -- a fact-of-life that is epidemic in virtually every NFL stadium.

The first story dropped on the only national site that matters, Pro Football Talk, at 9:13 p.m. on Thursday. Between that time and Friday night at 6:37 p.m., when a story headlined “NFL on headset problems: ‘Patriots had nothing to do with it' " appeared, the life cycle of the “scandal” was easy to trace in the headlines.

A sampling of some of the 11 posts included: A couple on Tomlin’s postgame comments. Bill Belichick noting that the Patriots had issues, too. (Yeah, a likely story . . . )  An NFL statement that failed to note both teams were impacted. Ben Roethlisberger complaining about something else that insinuated Patriots rule-bending. Mining for old occasions of headset problems at Gillette. And then the Steelers saying, “Never mind . . . "

If a league spokesperson was given clearance to comment when the issue first bubbled up, he could have pointed out that this stuff -- unfortunately -- arises frequently. He could have added, for the record and for a national audience, what I told people on Twitter at 9:24 p.m. on Thursday night: The Patriots were having the same issue.

The league still could have done its investigation on Friday and, if it turned out there was more to it, they could have (would have) leaked that info then.

Instead, they let it fester long enough so that the lasting takeaway won’t be Friday evening’s absolution but Tomlin’s accusation.

The timing could not have been better for anyone trying to explain why there was such a visceral reaction from fans and media members in New England to the ESPN and Sports Illustrated stories published last week.

For fans, Headsetgate represented a whiny, baseless attack that took attention away from a win and a banner-raising.

For media, we were experiencing a call to arms for the equivalent of a playground insult from Tomlin. And pointing out that the Patriots had the same issues and the complaint about headsets around the league are legion were -- of course -- dismissed as a New England whitewashing.

Like it was when we were pointing out how logistically unlikely it would be for a kid to sneak into the visitor’s locker room during pregame warmups and steal a script of the opponent’s first 20 plays, one of the allegations in the ESPN opus.

So there was your instance of the league not getting in front of something.

And here is your instance of the league just not learning.

On Sunday morning, a story citing a league source said discipline could be coming for John Jastremski and Jim McNally after they met with NFL VP of Operations Troy Vincent.

The meeting was fine. Vincent had to okay their return, per the announcement of the NFL’s statement on the team’s alleged violation.

But also in the statement on the violations was the discipline already handed down: “Jastremski is prohibited from having any role in the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs to be used in NFL games during the 2015 season. McNally is barred from serving as a locker room attendant for the game officials, or having any involvement with the preparation, supervision, or handling of footballs or any other equipment on game day.”

So here was a league source who was either A) ignorant of the process in one of the most high-profile cases in NFL history, B) chest-puffing to try and make the Patriots, McNally and Jastremski quake or C) both.

Whatever, it was bad information -- again -- from a league source related to the Patriots and the deflated football scandal.

Bad info like 11 of 12 were significantly underinflated and none of the Colts balls lost any air. I mean, it starts and it will end with inaccurate information from league sources pawned off by design or dopiness.

Of course, unlike 11 of 12 or the incomplete statement saying the Steelers experienced headset issues, this was something that made the NFL look bad. So within two hours, the word was out on PFT: There would be no further discipline for McNally and Jastremski.

So I guess it wasn’t all bad. They were more efficient tidying up Sunday’s gaffe than they were explaining Thursday’s “scandal.”

I wonder why?

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