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Face To Face: Patriots' Super Bowl Appearance Produces Roger Goodell Subplot

The Patriots' appearance in Super Bowl LI is "much more than a shot at ring records and ... immortality," as it will be a "showdown" with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to a front-page piece by Dan Shaughnessy of the BOSTON GLOBE. The Super Bowl presents the Patriots with an "opportunity to make Goodell swallow his shield." Patriots Owner Robert Kraft yesterday following the AFC Championship win said, "All of you in the stadium understand how big this win was. But we have to go to Houston and win one more." Patriots QB Tom Brady added, "We’ll see if we can write the perfect ending in a couple of weeks." Shaughnessy writes Goodell after two years of staying away from a game in Foxboro now "won’t be able to avoid the fury" of Kraft, Brady and coach Bill Belichick in the lead-up to the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak during the third quarter yesterday was featured on the Gillette Stadium videoboard "holding a yellow sign that read, 'Where is Roger?'" While the scoreboard then "quickly cut away" from Zolak, "Where is Roger?" chants began emanating from the crowd (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/23). CBSSPORTS.com's Bill Reiter wrote Kraft "didn't mince words," as his postgame message was "quite clearly directed at Goodell." The mood at Gillette Stadium "bristled with contempt for the league" (CBSSPORTS.com, 1/22). NFL.com's Judy Battista wrote Kraft was a "thinly veiled allusion to the trials of the last two years" (NFL.com, 1/22).

SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT PROUD: YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel noted Kraft's speech was "anything but cryptic." The game "could prove a weeklong nightmare for Goodell" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/23). In Boston, Steve Buckley writes it is now "necessary for Goodell to watch the Patriots," as he "no longer can avoid Team Trump." It "became a story when Goodell didn’t make a regular-season visit" to Gillette Stadium, and it became an even "bigger story when he missed the divisional round game" against the Texans (BOSTON HERALD, 1/23). In Ft. Lauderdale, Dave Hyde writes Brady-Goodell is an ending "worth watching" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 1/23). In DC, Thom Loverro writes Deflategate will "get its final dramatic chapter." America will be "rooting to see" Goodell on the same stage with Kraft, Belichick and Brady (WASHINGTON TIMES, 1/23). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jason Gay writes this has "been a weird NFL season." But Super Bowl LI "delivers the delicious subplot" of Goodell "potentially atop a championship stage with an iconic player he dared to suspend for a quarter of the season" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/23). In Boston, Karen Guregian reported Kraft, as an owner, "still conducts business with Goodell," as that is "just how it is." Kraft: "Whether the commissioner comes here, or doesn’t come here, it’s his decision. There are certain rules and regulations, and you provide certain accommodations. But that’s a decision he makes." Kraft, on whether security would be an issue were Goodell to appear at Gillette Stadium, said, "I hope not. We need to treat all people with respect" (BOSTON HERALD, 1/22).

TIME CHANGE: THE MMQB's Peter King writes he understands "why the NFL moved" Goodell's annual press conference from late Friday morning to Wednesday afternoon in Houston. With the Patriots in the game, there was "no way the league wanted to have the buildup to the biggest game of the year marred by the wet blanket of countless recitations of Deflategate in papers and websites and sportscasts on the day before the Super Bowl." The league "did this to try to keep interest building in the game itself as it approaches." But Goodell "should have taken his Patriots’ medicine sometime in the regular season." Meanwhile, King writes he loves the Super Bowl matchup, because there is "so much new and interesting" about the Falcons, while there is "historical stuff on the line" for the Patriots (MMQB.SI.com, 1/23).

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