Doyel: Robert Kraft victimized by Roger Goodell? How quickly he forgets

Long past the point of stupidity, the 18-month-old scandal we’re calling Deflategate has reached the point of absurdity: Patriots owner Robert Kraft is now arguing with himself.

Kraft doesn’t seem to realize that, but hypocrites never do. Even as another court decision came down last week on the side of the NFL, even as Deflategate mastermind Tom Brady finally dropped his appeals — deciding to serve his four-game suspension to open the 2016 season over seeking an injunction from the Supreme Court — even as all that was happening in the federal court system … Robert Kraft was deciding that what happened to his quarterback is downright un-American.

Tom Brady announces he won't fight Deflategate suspension further in court

“What Tom has had to endure throughout this 18-month ordeal has been, in my opinion, as far removed from due process as you could ever expect in this country,” Kraft said Friday in a statement issued on the heels of Brady’s white flag.

Cleary, Robert Kraft is unhappy with the collective bargaining agreement that gives NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell the power to be judge, jury and appellate court in disciplinary matters such as this one: one team willingly cheating another in the AFC title game by underinflating its footballs.

To understand how Goodell came to get that power, let’s revisit the negotiations that led to the current CBA, which was adopted in 2011 after the owners — represented by Goodell — locked out players for 132 days. Let’s look at the people on Goodell’s side, the owners, who gave him all that power in 2011.

Well, what do you know …

Perhaps the strongest owner in 2011, the one credited with bringing the players and owners together, the one who then-Colts player rep Jeff Saturday hugged and credited with “help(ing) us save football”?

Robert Kraft.

Try to keep up, and here I’m talking to our friends from New England, who have this charming habit of flooding IndyStar whenever we write about their cheating franchise — and leaving comments below that make you weep for humanity. To you people, I’m talking here:

Try to keep up.

Goodell has the power he has because his owners wanted him to have it. And the owner who did the most work to get that CBA done in 2011 was the same one who now thinks Roger Goodell has too much power.

Delicious.

Elsewhere, NFL fans around the country are tired of this story. That exhaustion — as well as the low approval rating of Goodell — explains Tom Brady's emergence as a sympathetic figure in a scandal he directed. Assuming you believe the low-level Patriots flunky who let the air out of those footballs, nicknamed “The Deflator,” was doing it at the behest of his team’s quarterback. And that after six months without a single call or text between them, Brady and “The Deflator's" buddy — another low-level Patriots flunky — were phoning (eight times) and texting (15 times) incessantly in the 72 hours after the scandal broke because Brady wanted to make sure they had their stories straight. And that Brady destroyed his cellphone rather than give it to the NFL because that's what guilty people …

Look. It's pretty clear what happened in the days after Patriots 45, Colts 7 on Jan. 18, 2015. Let’s not remove our brain from our head and deflate the damn thing, OK? Similarly, let’s not pretend for a second that the NFL version of discipline is fair. It’s not.

The NFL commissioner has no business overseeing every level of league discipline. Going forward, when the next CBA is negotiated, NFL owners have to know it can't continue. If they’re smart, they’ll hang onto that power until they need a concession from players, then offer to diversify the league’s discipline process in exchange for said concession.

In the meantime, though, let’s remember that Goodell does have the power to be judge, jury and appellate court. NFL players have given that power to the commissioner since the first CBA in 1968. Goodell has the same power as predecessors Paul Tagliabue (1989-2006) and Pete Rozelle (1960-89).

Goodell maintained that power in 2011 because the players allowed him to maintain it. And because the owners wanted him to maintain it.

So let’s bid adieu to Tom Brady’s fight of his four-game Deflategate suspension by telling TB12 the following:

What you have had to endure throughout this 18-month ordeal has been, in our opinion, as far removed from due process as you could ever expect in this country.

And for that, Tom, you can blame the people who negotiated the CBA in 2011. That includes your union. That includes your team’s player representative, former left tackle and bodyguard Matt Light.

And that includes your owner. Bob Kraft. The man who saved football in 2011 — while giving Roger Goodell the power to ham-handedly smack down cheaters like yourself.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter:@GreggDoyelStar, or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.