NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stated that the New England Patriots would not get their forfeited 2016 first-round pick back despite a letter from team owner Robert Kraft asking for it, according to a tweet from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Despite Robert Kraft's request, Roger Goodell said the Patriots will not be getting back this year's first-round pick.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 23, 2016
The Patriots forfeited the pick prior to the start of the season as part of the penalties from the Deflategate scandal. Kraft said to reporters at the owners meetings in Boca Raton, Florida this week that he had written Goodell and asked for the pick to be returned because New England hadn’t been accused of any shady tactics during the 2015 season.
But in typical Goodell iron-fisted fashion, the commish has decided that New England’s first-round pick will not be returned to the team, and rightfully so. Regardless of whether Deflategate is valid, Goodell would lose any remaining shred of credibility he has left if he were to go back on the punishment. It would basically be saying “Roger Goodell will punish you for breaking a rule but if you write a letter to him and ask nicely that he stop, he will.”
Thus, despite how some fans may feel about it, the New England Patriots will not be making a pick in the first round of next month’s NFL Draft.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
