Roger Goodell and Bill Belichick have had a… complicated relationship over the years.
While the longtime NFL Commissioner has been on hand to bestow the Lombardi Trophy to Belichick and the Patriots three total times, Goodell has long established himself as an antagonist in Foxborough due to the league’s heavy past sanctions against New England.
Under Goodell’s watch, the NFL fined Belichick $500,000 and docked New England of a first-round pick following the “Spygate” controversy in September 2007.
Over seven years later, the league suspended Tom Brady for four games, fined the Patriots $1 million and took away the team’s first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-round selection in 2017 following the “DeflateGate” saga.