it will probably neuter him a little. He will play it safer handing out punishments as appose to the seat of his pants attitude he's carried his entire time as commish.
I dont' think there was any chance for him to be found innocent, because the court had nothing to do with actual facts. Just that Goodell violated the CBA. I don't care what team you root for, but this is a win for every single team out there. Unless you agree that: NFL can leak false information while a team is preparing for Super Bowl and is forced to answer to the media for two weeks straight, based on that false info. NFL investigates and uses millions of dollars. The same investigation uses science that wouldn't pass an 8th grade science test. The only evidence (or so called evidence) that they keep coming back to is a text message from 6th months earlier where Brady is upset about overinflated footballs... by the Jets, I might add. When the NFL finds zero evidence on ball tampering, they say "you know something might have happened and maybe he was aware of it", and gives a 4 game suspension. When the PSI-levels in the Wells report have been proven false by anyone and everyone who have ever passed high school level chemistry, Goodell moves the goalposts and upholds the suspension because, wait for it, Brady didn't give his personal(!!!) cellphone to the investigator. Aaaand at the same time, Wells (that investigator) has told Brady that there would be no punishment for not handing out his phone. Does that make sense to you? This is not Calvin and Hobbes and Goodell is not Hitler either. You can't make up things and suspend players without proof, and you can't keep moving the goalposts when you are exposed for all the lies that you have been spewing for 9 months straight. 5 million dollars used for that "report", that's the biggest scandal by far. And this can happen to every single team, player and team personnel. It already happened to few guys on my favorite team, the Dolphins, and now the guy is suing the NFL (and he will win also). Goodell has no business making millions of dollars every year. I wouldn't let him run a McDonald's. If you don't see that, you are a moron.
In Goodell's decision he practically ties himself up in knots to avoid implicating Bellicheck. That's very odd in my opinion. He hammers the team for a million bucks and two draft picks and doubles down on Brady. But leaves BB completely unscathed. I think he's fine with the owners. The last thing they want is someone to let the betting public behind the curtain and let the suspicion that the games are rigged take root. Kind of like why he destroyed the tapes.
the optics were horrible for Br*dy no matter what as well, but he kept appealing, and was going to continue to do that until he got a verdict he liked. i think the NFL will follow the same path, and appeal, as this case was more about the CBA than Br*dy's cheating.. so it's become a very important issue to the NFL.
I fail to see what the Tagliabue reference has to do with anything. So what if 20 years ago they had never suspended somebody for obstruction? Now they have. I'm also not sure if the first point is required, I am guessing those will be the points they appeal on.
Since this is the NFL forum, I'll leave this thread open another 48hrs. After that, it gets closed down and everybody returns to their neutral corners. For you Pats Fans, that means go home.
Whilst you're at it, can we change the title of the thread in the Jets forum proclaiming Brady innocent? _
if you read the actual report you would see that the Judge specifically makes a point to say he is ignoring the Brady guilt/innocence debate completely.
The appeal, at this point, wouldn't be about Brady and their defending their position that he cheated and therefore warranted a suspension. The appeal is much greater than that, that they even have the ability to suspend any player where defined suspensions for the specific actions haven't been outlined and agreed upon. This ruling significantly neuters their power and has nothing to do with the whether they look foolish in their rationale. This is about their procedure and the reach of their authority. They have to appeal it IMO, just to try and save their positioning. I think this a great ruling for all players regardless if whether the conduit was Brady to make it happen.
The Tagliabue quote is from the Bounty Gate re-arbitration. It's the most recent NFL decision on obstruction punishments. Basically the Judge is pointing out that the NFL has no written policy on obstruction, and all previous internal decisions have resulted in only fines (or less), that is the established punishment, therefore the NFL cannot change the punishment to a suspension without prior notice being given to the players.
Its like suspending Jane for using a heavier rock in hopscotch. To the game...taking air out of the ball is cheating to the max. Taking Jane to a judge will never work. We can argue all day long that this was about no direct link to Tommy boy. Only a real football fan knows Tommy had EVERYTHING to do with this.....start to finish. A judge...as soon as the little girl cried and picked up his underinflated balls and ran to the courts it was over. Like Jane....a court has no idea how to even backtrack to make.sense of any of this. They get locked in the....where's the real life evidence?.....and lets face it....the Nfl is as make believe as hopscotch. I love Karma. Lets see how this plays out this season
That's what is so hard to believe. Why does this have nothing to do with his guilt / innocence? I guess that since cheating in not against the law the judge doesn't care. The NFL should have to answer to the Fans and to fans the fact that Brady is a cheater is a big deal.
Some important parts from the pdf I linked earlier...what it comes down to is the NFL didn't have any clear policy for players about competitive integrity so the NFL tried to shoehorn delfategate into the same class of violations as performance enhancing drugs. At no point does the ruling find that Brady is "Not guilty" of conspiring to deflate balls to gain a competitive advantage. The Court finds that no player alleged or found to have had a general awareness of the inappropriate ball deflation activities of others or who allegedly schemed with others to let air out of footballs in a championship game and also had not cooperated in an ensuing investigation, reasonably could be on notice that their discipline would (or should) be the same as applied to a player who violated the NFL Policy on Anabolic Steroids and Related Substances. — The Players Association contends that "nstead of applying the Player Policies, Vincent punished Brady pursuant to ... violations of the Competitive Integrity Policy, which is only incorporated into the Game Operations Manual and provided to 'Chief Executives, Club Presidents, General Managers, and Head Coaches,"' and not to players such as Brady. ———— A player's right to notice is at the heart of the CBA and, for that matter, of our criminal and civil justice systems. While "[ m ]any controversies have raged about the cryptic and abstract words of the Due Process Clause ... there can be no doubt that at a minimum they require that “deprivation of life, liberty or property by adjudication be preceded by notice .... "
according to the PDF 'Analysis' portion of the report (page 20), this is why suspension was overturned. has nothing to do with guilt/innocence, but we all knew that wasn't what this case was about. i just can't believe it was overturned with this legal BS rationale: a) Br*dy wasn't notified he could potentially be suspended during the investigation b) denial of Br*dy's team to interview Pash during the Goddell led appeal c) denial of Br*dy's team to investigative interview notes just wow.... the first point is a joke. the other two points suggest the NFL as obstructing the counter investigation, when the initial investigation was obstructed by the team conducting the counter investigation. so how would one side get off for obstruction without simultaneously being held responsible for their end of obstruction? ie the defendant can obstruct but the plaintiff has to comply with every request of the obstructing defendant. really weak rationale on the suspension ruling. i believe the NFL will and should appeal.
