Drew Brees Speaks Out on Roger Goodell

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was diplomatic, but his message was clear.

Roger Goodell screwed up.  And his days as a one man disciplinary crew should come to an end.

In an ESPN.com story, Brees criticized the commissioner's office for a lack of transparency and said the time has come for a new disciplinary system that is fair and includes the NFL Players' Association and independent experts, instead of the system that has been in place, mainly total authority by Goodell with "no checks and balances."

"Too many times, I'd say especially over the last few years, a punishment's been handed down and nobody has really seen the evidence except for those in the league office - supposedly," Brees said. "So decisions were made in kind of a, 'Hey, trust us.' But did the public see any of the facts? Did the accused see any of the facts? In most cases, no."

Brees went on to say the discipline by Goodell has been based on emotion rather than just the facts.  Brees said a new policy on discipline would keep that from ever happening again.

"I think it's a great tie-in because obviously the same things that I've heard, the same things that I feel (about Goodell) are the quotes that were thrown out at members of the Saints organization in regards to why they were being punished," Brees said. "Things such as, 'Ignorance is no excuse,' and, 'if you didn't know you should've known,' are things that would absolutely apply in this case, except the roles are reversed and it's going back at Commisioner Goodell and the league office."

Brees declined to say whether he felt Goodell should step down as Commissioner.  But teammate Zach Strief, the Saints player rep, said he feels Goodell should get suspended for a year, just as Goodell did to Sean Payton in regards to the alleged Saints' bounty system.