Drew Brees: Roger Goodell 'definitely has too much power'

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees made the media rounds on Tuesday and didn't mince words when he was asked about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Most notably, Brees said he doesn't trust Goodell and the league when it comes to investigating alleged wrongdoing.

"I think we would all agree that he definitely has too much power,” Brees said to SI Now's Maggie Gray. “He is judge, jury and executioner when it comes to all the discipline. I’m not going to trust any league-led investigation, when it comes to anything. It’s not transparent.

“At times, I feel like there is a desired conclusion or agenda that they have in mind and that may prevent the absolute truth from being told or the absolute facts from being presented. At the end of the day, we as the public, we as players don’t ever get to really see that. We don’t get to see those facts, those truths and those things. That’s the unfortunate part of this whole thing.”

Brees was asked about Goodell in light of Monday's Federal Appeals Court decision, reinstating Tom Brady's four-game suspension for his supposed role in Deflategate and affirming that Goodell has the power to do pretty much whatever he pleases thanks to Article 46 of the collective bargaining agreement.

The 37-year old made similar comments to Maggie Hendricks of USA Today.

"I thought the issue was over," Brees said of Deflategate. "There’s a bigger issue at play. I don’t think it’s necessarily about Brady. I think it’s more about the commissioner’s authority to levy that type of a punishment, and him be the unilateral decision maker when it comes to player discipline on a lot of those decisions. If there’s any disagreements, there’s no level of neutrality. ‘This is my decision, this is how it’s going to be’.

"There’s no level of transparency as to the investigative processes. That’s the part that’s hard to understand and to deal with from a player’s perspective, and from a fan’s perspective, as they read it and try to understand why certain things have happened. What’s the basis? What are the grounds? What are the facts? We never get to see that."

A longtime player rep to the NFL Players Association and former member of the union's executive committee, Brees has of course seen first-hand how Goodell and the league work in these type of situations, through the Bountygate investigation and sanctions.

Brees was asked if Goodell's power has gone beyond what the CBA allowed.

"I don’t think any of us ever thought the power would be exercised quite like it was. It’s one thing for someone to have that type of authority. I think Goodell has done a lot of great things for this league and for the growth of this league," he said. "But, unfortunately, this is one of those things where, it’s been a bit of a black eye for the league.

"If you go back to Bountygate, I know first hand with the way that was portrayed, and you have to look at the deeper picture. The league was under a lot of scrutiny at that time for player health and safety. This climate was the league was under attack for negligent behavior on what it knew about concussions from the 90s and into the 2000s, and it was never communicated. There were thoughts it was covered up. A lot of that has been pretty well-documented. There were congressional hearings with the league and with Goodell.

"The climate was they were under attack, so they needed a way to show that they were taking a stand for player health and safety, and it so happened, they were going to single out the Saints to accuse us of a pay-to-injure program, otherwise known as Bountygate, which was completely false in the way they were trying to portray it. If anything, it was a pay for performance, incentivized thing that happens in every locker room in the NFL. Yet, they’re going to single us out. Players and coaches. Levy these unprecedented suspensions only to find out a year later that the entire investigation was rigged to get to a certain decision to make it seem like they’re coming in to clean up the league. All of our players were vindicated, but unfortunately, it was too late. Perception is reality. Everyone assumed this had taken place.

"But at that moment, I think everyone realized, wow, this is the type of power the league has, the commissioner has. They can literally conduct an investigation, lead it to a certain direction to the agenda they have, and literally have no facts or truth or basis behind it, but we’re all supposed to believe that this is what happened.

"Then it carries over to to Deflategate. So many things along the way, you have to question the process. I think so much of the argument on our behalf, the players’ association, is the process by which they choose to investigate, how open and transparent it is, and it’s not. If there’s any wrongdoing, there’s no apology. There’s certainly no recognition saying, ‘You know what? We could have done things a little better.’ That’s the part that frustrates me at times. So many great things about our league, so many great things the commissioner’s done, but this one thing looms. This isn’t right. This isn’t working."

Brees, who did a series of interviews through his work with Tempur-Pedic mattresses, also told Hendricks he'd like to play into his 40s.