Why is Roger Goodell being booed in New England?

New England fans rarely forgive, and they’re less likely to forget. After taking on Tom Brady and the Patriots, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell shouldn’t expect either this lifetime.

Goodell, more than the Yankees, Manning brothers, or English monarchy of the late 18th century, has become the most hated man in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. When he arrives in Foxborough on Thursday for the 2017 NFL season opener between the Patriots and Chiefs, he can expect evil eyes, clown towels, and a chorus of boos loud enough to rival any of the cheers that accompany Tom Brady’s return to the field for 2017.

It’s a shocking turnaround for a man once stationed in Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s circle of friends. Where Patriots fans were once indifferent to him, they now seethe at the mere mention of Goodell. With one non-scandal scandal, a nation of New England fans turned against the commissioner of America’s favorite sport. While Thursday isn’t the first time he’s made an appearance in Massachusetts since becoming the region’s top villain — he was in town back in August for a preseason game — it will certainly be the most notable.

On Jan. 18, 2015, in the midst of a 45-7 blowout, Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson hauled in a Brady interception. When he brought the ball back to the Indianapolis sideline, officials noticed it was softer and easier to grasp than most regulation footballs. At halftime, they inspected the Patriots’ cache of game balls and found 11 of 12 were underinflated according to league regulations — though many by just a small amount. The balls were pumped back up and brought back to the field, where the Patriots scored 28 straight points using them.

It was a footnote to a boring game, but it followed a familiar narrative of shady dealings involving Bill Belichick’s team. Years earlier, the Patriots had been fined $250,000 and docked their first-round draft pick for recording video of Jets coaches as they relayed defensive signals to the field (Belichick was fined $500,000 for his role). Other complaints, such as Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s allegations that his headset typically loses signal whenever his team plays in Foxborough, painted the Pats as repeat offenders.

Whether the balls were deflated as a result of the cold New England weather and the ideal gas law or on direct orders from Brady himself will forever be debated in the country’s seedier sports bars, but Goodell’s punishment was unambiguous. After nearly four months of investigations — including an incident where Brady destroyed his cellphone rather than turn it over to league investigators — he suspended Brady four games without pay, fined his team $1 million, and forced the franchise to forfeit its upcoming first-round draft pick.

Kraft accepted the punishment as it was handed down. Brady refused to accept it.

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) appealed the decision days later, but with Goodell serving as the arbitrator, it seemed unlikely Brady would bring any kind of meaningful change within the league’s system. On June 23, 2015, Brady sat through a 10-hour hearing with the commissioner. Thirty-six days later, his suspension was confirmed.

One day later, the NFLPA filed an injunction to prevent the discipline from taking effect. Brady took to his Facebook page to deny any wrongdoing and express his frustration with the process.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York eventually vacated the NFL’s ruling, but the league refused to accept defeat. Goodell brought the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and swayed two members of the three-judge panel in order to reinstate Brady’s suspension. With only the U.S. Supreme Court left to appeal to, Brady resigned himself to suspension as the 2016 season approached.

Goodell may have won the battle, but he alienated a franchise and its passionate fan base in the process. His indecipherable system of punishment — the same one that subjected domestic abusers to one-game bans while Brady missed four for possibly deflating footballs — riled New Englanders and made him a very public enemy.

In the end, Goodell’s sanctions had little effect. While we can’t know the damage stripping 2016’s first-rounder had, taking Brady off the field did little to hurt Brady, the Patriots, or Brady’s checkbook.

The savvy quarterback reworked his deal with the Patriots while he was facing his Deflategate suspension, reducing his base salary to $1 million and reducing a possible $2.25 million in lost wages down to $250,000. The Patriots, starting Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett in his stead, went 3-1. The extended auditions for each player managed to boost their trade values as well — Brissett was recently shipped to the Colts in exchange for 2015 first-round pick Phillip Dorsett.

That 3-1 stretch was key in the team’s 14-2 regular season run, clinching home-field advantage and setting the stage for a berth in Super Bowl 51. Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last seven months, you know what came next.

Goodell hasn’t come out and said he’s avoided New England since handing down harsh penalties to the Patriots, but it’s clear he’s done his best to limit contact with the fan base that thinks the least of him. Typically, the NFL commissioner attends the season opener held by the league’s defending champions. In 2015, he passed on his chance to see Brady and Kraft in Foxborough when they raised their fourth Super Bowl banner and opened their season against the Steelers.

That became a trend. Since the Colts’ complaint about underinflated footballs in the 2014 AFC Championship Game, the Patriots have hosted three postseason games, including last year’s AFC title tilt. Goodell opted to watch back-to-back Falcons games in Atlanta rather than venture north. New England fans, enjoying a 36-17 rout that set the stage for the team’s fifth Super Bowl title, serenaded the Commish via satellite, chanting “Where is Roger?” loudly enough for CBS’ cameras to pick it up and beam it across the world.

Goodell, for the record, has also passed on 10 primetime regular season games at Gillette Stadium. Fans haven’t forgotten about his war with the franchise — but neither have the team’s coaches and executives. Defensive coordinator Matt Patricia wore a T-shirt with Goodell’s face on it, adorned with clown makeup and a red nose, on the team’s post-Super Bowl trip back to Boston.

Brady made sure he couldn’t avoid him forever. At Super Bowl 51, minutes after closing out the most epic comeback in NFL history, Brady watched as the man who suspended him for four games was forced to announce the Patriots as his league’s latest champion. Fortunately for both men, their handshake wasn’t super awkward.

Kraft alluded to Deflategate just seconds after Goodell handed him the Lombardi Trophy. The crowd, littered with Patriots fans basking in the refractory period following their fifth Super Bowl win, washed out Goodell with boos. Expect that, just several multitudes louder, on Thursday.