Posted on 07/30/2015 7:37:25 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Icon of the cheatin’est franchise?
When did this become about peyton manning and the broncos?
Anybody that cannot understand Goodell smeared Brady and the Pats are either blind or cannot see. Brady was railroaded by Goodell for some reason, probably to set an example of who is the boss. His prosecution of Brady reminds me of some of the antics the democraps pull on people that disagree with them. I think it is called Alinsky tactics.
Brady will win this in court and I hope he does not accept a compromise that will be offered when the league sees defeat bearing down on them in the periscope with bucket loads of shame. Goodell and the league will be shown as bullies piling on an innocent player.
I go with what Theisman said when he threw deflated balls. He couldn’t tell a damn bit of difference. Goodell should have written this deal off as a non-event and was probably unintended and protocol will be changed in the future.
- I don’t particularly like the Pats nor Brady and haven’t watched a complete football game for 10 years or more.
Brady is successful and he is white. How much more guilty can you get.
Well, he broke the rules.
When did he cheat in the game?
All this is is just another one of asshat goodell’s BS axe grinding witch hunts because he’s still butt hurt because belichick stiffed the jets.
“I’m amazed at how well Brady sycophants’ arguments line up with Hillary and IRS apologists”.
Brady is a conservative republican.
Belichick and the Patriots have a history of cheating. Do you think that’s the only game in which they used doctored balls? The NFL has no balls. A four-game suspension for one player? It’s a joke. The Patriots should have been stripped of the title, with a one-season team suspension. Minimum.
“You’ve contributed to this, and should be ashamed.”
I don’t like Brady, I don’t like the Patriots, and I despise their coach.That said, this whole ordeal is BS. It will end up in court and I don’t think it will be a win for Goodell
The NFL has no balls.
...
The NFL has no proof.
Even one of the Colts balls was underinflated, and they only measured four of them.
All the report did was prove that the NFL’s methods are shoddy. Further, Brady has shown that he plays great with legally inflated balls. He had no motivation to underinflate them.
As framed by the news media, the dodgy reputation of the Patriots and Belichick required Goodell and the NFL to undertake a prosecutorial style investigation to find and punish the guilty. Once an investigation on those terms was begun, the credibility of the NFL then rested on ultimately delivering punishment -- and not just as to the immediate perpetrators, but also against the principals at fault. Inevitably, that would have to lead to damage to making allegations against the team and Brady.
Goodell was blind to the looming pitfall that he set for himself and the NFL. The investigation careened out of control, with no logical end point except that someone important had to be identified as guilty. Similarly, in the Duke lacrosse case and the recent Rolling Stone article about the supposed rape culture on college campuses, once it was assumed that a rape occurred, someone must be identified as a rapist.
What should Goodell and the NFL have done? Commission a purely fact-finding investigation into the Deflategate episode. Permit the investigation to yield recommendations for changes in NFL rules and practices to assure the security and proper inflation of footballs, with any decisions left to the good judgment of the league and its owners. From the start, the investigators should have been expressly cautioned against making factually unsupported or unfair accusations or inferences against individuals or against the Patriots organization.
With such a caution, the investigation would not have fallen into impugning Brady and the Patriots as if the investigation was a grand jury and Brady and his team are unindicted co-conspirators in a major Mafia crime. Meanwhile, Goodell, with the support of the league owners, could have pressed the Patriots to accept several years of a compliance and monitoring program as a remedy for letting the mess develop in the first place. Most of the owners would have backed that, and the Patriots would have been wise to embrace such a proposal as a way to mollify the sports media and the public while avoiding a worse outcome.
Perhaps the most pressing issue now is not what happens to Brady and the Patriots but what happens to Goodell. The NFL owners are no doubt wondering why a smart guy paid so much money has not done a better job of protecting the reputation of the league and preventing needless damage to one of its greatest teams and quarterbacks. Every owner, coach, and player now realizes that, in a pinch, Goodell may miss his blocking assignment and leave the league, its teams, and players unprotected.
My high school football coach told the team we were not going to mow the home field that week because the team we were playing was faster than us. He figured the higher grass might slow them down. Deflategate is on the same level as that, and it is ridiculous.
Tom Brady also made that choice. Did you see his original press conference?
And then he destroys the phone on the day it was requested?
This isn't a court of criminal law. It's a court of public opinion, and it's the NFL league management. The burden of proof is not "beyond a reasonable doubt as in a crimninal case. Why is anybody pretending that is, or should be, the standard here? That is mere obfuscation.
On the contrary, the standard is "preponderance of evidence" as in a civil case. That standard is quite reasonable under the circumstances.
Basically, Brady was totally obstinate from the beginning. I refer you once again back to his original press conference. Does that video look like somebody who is totally innocent? Brady had to give the NFL a compelling reason to hit him so hard, and he has done precisely what is necessary in order to guarantee that outcome.
I was very surprised that Brady's suspension wasn't reduced to 2 games, and the fact that it wasn't reduced tells me that the Commissioner is confident of his ruling.
The Patriots and Brady seem to think that they're bigger than the rest of the league, and can dictate their own rules and outcomes.
I don't see where Commissioner Goodell had any motivation to impose this strict punishment, unless he honestly believes that something which threatened the integrity of the game occurred, something which the Patriots apparently feel is of no consequence whatsoever.
Let's remember that in the past, Commissioner Goodell has been accused of being too friendly and cozy with Patriots owner Robert Kraft. This incident certainly obliterates that notion.
I just don't see Roger Goodell doing this without holding some strong conviction regarding what happened.
Notwithstanding that, there have been several opportunities for Brady and the Patriots to diffuse this situation, and instead they have acted more and more defiant. Their response is to go "scorched earth". So be it.
So I say let the chips fall where they may, because both the NFL owners and the NFLPA (the players' union) have granted the commissioner the power to make exactly the decisions he has made.
If the Patriots and the NFLPA are smart, they'll get this resolved before the season starts; otherwise, Brady may end up serving his suspension towards the end of the season when the games really count.
No team is bigger than the league, and the Commissioner is preparing to establish that fact, methinks. The other team owners I've heard from, including, for example, Dallas' Jerry Jones, are staunchly supportive of the commissioner in this case. So the Patriots should probably wise up and realize that they're not going to win this one, and going "scorched earth" will simply cement the perception in people's minds that the Patriots think they get to operate by different rules than other teams.
And if any other teams or players are guilty of doctoring the balls, then hold them responsible as well, I say.
This episode could have remained the tempest in the teapot that it started out as, but Brady and the Patriots are primarily responsible for it getting blown out of proportion, IMHO.
I keep coming back to the idea that Goodell upheld the full 4-game suspension. I just don't see him doing that without being strongly convinced that it was justified.
Yup. The NFL had heard rumors about this. They could have fixed the procedures so the balls could not be tampered with. But they wanted to run a sting to catch NE. Made the league look foolish. Nice job commish.
Wow. His only motivation was to make sure they were not over inflated. So he was involved with changing the game balls but hey he was just making sure they were done properly.
I have always wondered since the refs touch the ball every down why is this even an issue....
The first people to have noticed a deflated ball should have been them...
“Brady is a conservative republican.”
So is Peyton Manning. Notice, though, that he’s never cheated, lied about it, and destroyed or withheld evidence afterward.
One of the reasons I don’t even watch Pro or College sports any more .... they are either cheating like crazy or are on the fix.
“Notice, though, that he’s never cheated, lied about it, and destroyed or withheld evidence afterward”.
Neither has Brady. There had never been one hint of cheating on Brady before this sad episode. There were no rules put in place about footballs. They don’t exist. Well they do now, as of about week ago. Brady was under no requirement to turn over his private property to Roger Goodell or anyone else. In the long run Goodell will get his ass fired for ruining the reputation of one of the all time greats and a great ambassador for the game. He needs to concentrate on rapists and players that beat their wives half to death and not footballs.
“I don’t see where Commissioner Goodell had any motivation to impose this strict punishment, unless he honestly believes that something which threatened the integrity of the game occurred, something which the Patriots apparently feel is of no consequence whatsoever.”
Will the NFL be in the off-season news cycle more often or less often because of it? Is it likely that the NFL will lose any money because of it?
Billion dollar + businesses would have had different protocols for pointed spheroids in place if ball inflation was actually that big of a deal to them. If inflation is actually a big deal to the outcome of games, then NFL fans are complete rubes. Imagine watching a sport that only has a 16 game season, and each game can be so affected by the inflation of pointed spheroids. Then imagine the ruling body just not caring if they get messed with. In fact, different sets of balls are under the control of EACH team.
Freegrads
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