Deflategate may only be the start of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s problems.
A Colorado inmate has filed a lawsuit against the league seeking more than $88bn in damages because of the overturned catch that ended the Dallas Cowboys’ season, WFAA-TV in Dallas reports.
Terry C. Hendrix, an inmate at Fremont Correctional Center in Cañon City, Colorado, names the NFL comissioner, referee Gene Steratore and vice president of officiating Dean Blandino as respondents in the handwritten petition. He seeks $88,987,654,321.88 from the league “for but not limited to: negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and also [reckless] disregard.”
Hendrix’s suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in northern Texas, centers on the decisive play in the Cowboys’ season-ending playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers on 11 January at Lambeau Field.
Trailing 26-21 with 4:06 remaining, the Cowboys faced a 4th-and-2 on Green Bay’s 32-yard line. Dallas quarterback Tony Romo connected with Dez Bryant on a 31-yard pass that was ruled complete. While Packers coach Mike McCarthy dutifully challenged the ruling, it appeared from replays Bryant’s catch would be upheld.
Yet Steratore ruled the receiver did not maintain possession through to the ground and overturned the catch, giving possession to the Packers on loss of downs and all but ensuring Green Bay’s progress to the NFC Championship game.
Hendrix, 51, claimed the video review and reversal was “fraud” and “gross negligence” that caused “true injury” to the plaintiffs and the “loss of a Super Bowl.”
“Dean Blandino, Gene Steratore, and Roger Goodell are wrong and have stolen a victory from the plaintiff(s),” Hendrix wrote. “The Cowboys’ offensive line would have perfectly created an ‘Autobahn’ for DeMarco Murray to drive into the endzone for the score and victory.”
Hendrix purports to proceed as counsel on behalf of Bryant, the Cowboys’ cheerleaders and fans, “and all people in or from the sovereign republic of Texas.”
