New England Patriots: Rob Ninkovich addresses t-shirt drama

Recently, there has been some drama surrounding New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and his decision to wear a Roger Goodell is a clown shirt.

Due to the penalties received at the hand of Roger Goodell, he is not someone that New England Patriots fans like. Knowing this, Goodell has avoided going to New England.

In 2016, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for the first four games of the season because of the DeflateGate scandal. The Patriots were able to survive the suspension for Brady, as they ended up going 3-1 in those games. It was hard to project how the Patriots would play without Brady, but they ended up doing very well.

When Brady returned, the Patriots were the best team in football. Brady lost just one game that he started in, and he also won his fifth Super Bowl. The 2016 season certainly felt like a revenge tour for Brady, and it was a successful one.

After the Super Bowl, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was seen getting off the team plane in a ‘Goodell is a clown’ t-shirt. The shirt certainly received a lot of laughs around the league, as Goodell is not well-liked. However, it reportedly really upset Goodell. Recently, Rob Ninkovich expressed his feelings on t-shirt drama. As a veteran of the Patriots, here is what Ninkovich had to say about the situation.

"“Everyone has the right to wear whatever shirt they want,” Ninkovich said to the Boston Hearld. “Everyone has to wear a shirt, right? You can’t just wear no shirt. I think someone threw it at (Patricia), and he said, ‘All right, nice shirt, it’s cool, it’s blue, so I’ll put it on.’ I thought it was a funny shirt.“I don’t think it’s a big deal. . . People want to take it how they want to take it. If you really think about it, everyone has to wear clothes, so you just put a shirt on, and you know, it is what it is. I think it’s a nice shirt. It’s blue. I love blue. My favorite color is blue.”"

With the Patriots opening the season and raising the banner against the Kansas City Chiefs to start the season, Goodell is expected to be in attendance. While we know that New England certainly doesn’t like Goodell, it appears that the feeling could be mutual.

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Because the Patriots are Super Bowl champions, it would be unheard of for the Commissioner not to be there. However, it likely wouldn’t surprise anyone if something came up for Goodell on that Thursday.