PHOENIX — Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman knows his opponent in Super Bowl XLIX won't be punished for "Deflate-gate." His reason: Commissioner Roger Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft are too close for the NFL office to come down hard on the organization's latest rule bending/breaking.
"Will they be punished? Probably not," Sherman said during Sunday's media availability. "Not as long as Robert Kraft and Goodell are taking pictures at their respective homes. I think he was just at Kraft's house last week for the NFC championship. Talk about conflict of interest."
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Sherman agrees with what's being said on the New England side that no discipline is anticipated, but he kept pointing to how much Kraft and the Patriots have the league in their pockets.
"As long as that happens, it won't affect them at all," Sherman said of Kraft and Goodell's buddy-buddy-ness. "Nothing will it looks like."
Sherman didn't talk of any players specifically, but the Patriots, dating back to the Spygate scandal eight years ago when they were punished for videotaping opponents' practices, don't sit well with him. He thinks the whole idea of deflating footballs to their advantage just adds to the shady perception.
"I think the perception is the reality. It is what it is," Sherman said. "Their resume speaks for itself. You talk about getting close to the line ... their past is what their past is, their present is what their present is."
