Joe Nocera, Columnist

Ezekiel Elliott's Case Shows Deflategate's True Lesson

Fairness doesn't matter in NFL discipline. The contract does.

September 6, 2017 at 1:37 PM UTC

Joe Nocera is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. He is the host and writer of the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door."

Running to court.
Photographer: Tom Pennington/Getty Images

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Remember Deflategate?

Sure you do. For a span of 18 months -- from January 2015, when the New England Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game, until July 2016, when Patriots quarterback Tom Brady agreed to accept a four-game suspension imposed by National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell -- Deflategate consumed the NFL, not to mention millions of football fans.