this has no chance of ending him. the bottom line, is that goodell works for the owners. he has led this league to unprecedented levels financially. thats all that matters to these guys. i agree about the union part. thats a tricky spot. the owners dont want to give them any ground. they want goodell to protect that advantage. also i dont see him folding. its reduced by a game or two TOPS. no way brady plays in the first two. not a chance.
It should speak volumes that the P*ts have forfeited their chance to appeal. The only way I see Br*dy earning reduced sentence is by claiming 'ignorance', which is a word that often reminds of Sean Payton. Now that the P*ts have forfeited their appeal Br*dy should come clean and end this game. 'Br*dy was at least generally aware'; enough evidence for the original 4 game boot. He knew.
How are they going to explain a 4 month delay on an appeal? I also doubt there was any discussion on Br*dy's appeal, this was about Kr*ft finally coming to terms with all the evidence being against him and realize every minute he carried on with his charade of innocence was another minute of him looking like a fool.
if it's reduced to 2 games arbitrarily, i would consider that folding. negotiating something that doesn't need to be negotiated, in an attempt to appease Kraft. while the owners have loved what Goddell has brought to their wallets, the league's image has really taken a hit under his watch these last 2 years. that can eventually catch up to the wallets, and the owners have to be a little concerned with what has transpired recently. showing favoritism to another owner, whose team has directly compromised the integrity of the game, while giving up ground to the NFLPA? Goddell's job would be entering shaky ground. those owners have the ability to oust him, and would do so for image repair (aka revenue repair) if needed. he needs to proceed carefully imo..
Pats fans are 100% convinced that nothing worthy of a meaningful punishment happened, and that the Wells report has zero usable evidence against them. The schadenfreude was fun for a bit, but it's kind of eye-opening the level to which that fanbase has taken the querulous paranoia. I have some very good friends from NE who I respect greatly, who I don't even want to discuss this with anymore because it has begun to feel like they are legitimately delusional.
Greg A. Bedard ✔ @GregABedard Was told by a high-ranking NFL source that Kraft's decision to stand down does not include a deal on Brady. Surprising to me.
All solid points. We differ on how much the money matters to these owners is what I'm seeing. People haven't turned off the tv. They haven't stopped buying the merch. The tickets are still selling. The sponsors aren't leaving. To me, those are what the owners care about. Once those things start happening, is when I believe they will turn on him. I will always believe that it's all about the dollar when it comes to the league. These guys don't really care about the image. They only say they do to appease the talking heads and keep somewhat of a better image. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Pats fans reacting like they were going to make a deal. This isn't a negotiation, its a damn punishment for violation of game rules and lying after the fact. Deal with it
I have no idea what the NFLPA's case is here. But they seem to get player suspensions reduced a fair amount of the time. It's not like its some strange, unheard of phenomenon. What exactly the gameplan is, I've no clue. But I'm sure they'll gin something up.
Okay, bro. I'm not going to beat this into the ground any further. The NFL and the Patriots have a much different relationship legally with one another than the unionized employees do with their employer. It affects the recourse each has in this case. Brady's recourse is much different than Kraft's.
It's just by chance this happens at the owners meeting? He's getting pressure from the other 31, and what makes that obvious is the fact that the Patriots footballs averaged 11.4 psi at halftime of the game. Exactly where they should have been after being in cold weather. They would deflate, just like 4 out of 4 colts footballs did. Beyond all that, he can't appeal per NFL bylaws. All he can do is file a lawsuit against the other 31 owners. This is Godfather sh*t. Aside I'm disappointed, because f*ck them. Brady I don't expect to drop his appeal. And I don't imagine him leaving the NFLPA high and dry in such a clear cut battle over the CBA itself. Beyond all that - there's zero evidence to prove the Patriots footballs were under inflated in the first place - never mind who did it and why. The statement is being weighted too heavily here. It's merely not wanting to get into a fistfight with the other owners and a commissioner he himself lobbied them to vote for. I don't know if it's weakness or senility.
But that doesn't mean it's good recourse. He was given an opportunity to cooperate completely; he chose not to. The independent investigator conducted an investigation based on all the evidence he had available to him, and came to the conclusion that there's a better than 50% chance that Brady knew there was cheating go on regarding the footballs. And "better than 50%" is the standard for implementing discipline (as agreed upon on the CBA). There's precedent for similar punishments for, what I would consider to be, far lesser rules violations (like the Browns GM texting the field) and far more cooperation (again, the Browns GM).
"Kraft gets to hide in his tower and make billions. Meanwhile, I can't wear a single item of Patriots clothing without ridicule and being called a cheat. Thanks for pissing on all your fans, so the other 31 can gleefully rip us apart." HAHAHAHAHA damn straight you fuckin cheat!
it will be interesting to see how the NFLPA approaches this. some appeals have been overturned by arbitrators which Goddell has agreed to appoint. they already lost on that approach, as Goddell decided to hear the appeal personally. has the NFLPA won cases in federal court? i think they did with the Saints players. that really was unprecedented punishment though..........a full year. and it was easy to see that the NFL had an ulterior motive. my guess is they attack the evidence specific to Br*dy's knowledge, and claim Br*dy's ignorance rather than deny wrongdoing happened at all. ie, throw the equipment guys under the bus. classy. if they take the approach of ignorance, and lack of evidence to disprove ignorance: A) can Br*dy be summoned to take the stand, and testify under oath? He would risk perjury if testimony proven false. B) can McNally and the other idiot be summoned to take the stand, and be assured protection from legal action being taken by Br*dy or the Pats against them for their testimony? you know they've been either threatened or well compensated to shut up. maybe federal court compels them to open up. If the NFL can accomplish A and B, then game over. that would actually make Br*dy and the Pats look even worse than they already do.
haha nice trolling in the pats forum: Ozymandias I'm beyond disgusted right now. I haven't had the patience nor the desire to ever post on this issue and this result has always been why. Once Brady and coach Belichick are gone, so am I. I am done with the NFL.
