Posted on 09/05/2015 12:50:07 PM PDT by big'ol_freeper
"The regular season starts tomorrow morning and I can't wait to fully commit my energy and emotion to focus on the challenges of the 2015 NFL season," Brady said in the statement. "I want to thank my family, my friends, all of the fans, past and current players and my teammates for the support they have given me throughout this challenging experience. I also want to thank Judge Berman and his staff for their efforts to resolve this matter over the past five weeks. I am very grateful. My thanks also to the union's legal team who has fought so hard right along with me. "While I am pleased to be eligible to play, I am sorry our league had to endure this. I don't think it has been good for our sport — to a large degree, we have all lost. I am also sorry to anyone whose feelings I may have hurt as I have tried to work to resolve this situation. I love the NFL. It is a privilege to be a member of the NFL community and I will always try to do my best in representing my team and the league in a way that would make all members of this community proud. "I look forward to the competition on the playing field and I hope the attention of NFL fans can return to where it belongs — on the many great players and coaches who work so hard every week, and sacrifice so much, to make this game great. Most importantly, I look forward to representing the New England Patriots on Thursday night in our season opener. I hope to make all of our fans proud this year ... and beyond!"
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
“I blame the NFL for this mess. They establish some sort of vague inflating guidelines and then put the teams in charge of the balls. How dumb is that?”
Not dumb at all if you want to give every edge possible to increase scoring so as to attract the highest number of casual fans who think scoring = excitement.
“The NFL decided to try and make their star QB a scapegoat instead of accepting responsibility.”
Will the TV ratings for this season be higher or lower due to this story being in the media in the off season?
Freegards
My mistake. Brady’s sole punishment was the suspension. Nonetheless the Pats lost draft choices and a million bucks. Your claim they would have that overturned on appeal is incorrect since there is no chance they would not appeal to recover the draft choices at the minimum.
As far as the NFL and what we could be talking about, I don’t care. I like football and watch the games but it is to me not important in the real world.
One thing is for sure. Brady’s credibility is forever shot except in his fan base. No one who read the 3 reports including Bermens decision would not believe Brady was not at the very least knowledgeable re the deflated balls.
It would take a massive disconnect from reality to think two low level equipment guys deflated the balls on their own.
This is the Pats, one of the things they excel at is trading down and getting extra draft picks. As of now they’re still at 7 picks in 2016 even with the one pulled, they’re at 6 in 2017 with the one pulled, but they’ll fix that.
You might not care, but the league does. Usually it 7 months worth of positive talk, this year it’s 7 months wort of negative talk.
Brady’s credibility is no more shot than Jerry Rice’s (who during the course of this admitted he used stickum, and then realized he did so while it was against the rules). He’s got all the records that matter for his position, and most importantly 6 (so far) trips to the Super Bowl 4 (so far) of them wins. The only people who think his reputation is tarnished already didn’t like him. Multiple news sites have run multiple polls and the vast majority find it a non-issue.
I’ve read the reports. What I see is a league that behaved stupidly. The right move for them was to change the procedure so tampering couldn’t happen. The fact that they didn’t do that decades ago tarnishes the LEAGUE’S reputation for just not thinking things through. Every other football league does what the NFL now does, and didn’t have to spend $3 million investigating their star player to figure it out.
Lol, gimmee a break!! Jerry Rice using a substance he was UNAWARE was illegal in no way compares to Brady knowing about illegal deflation, it’s not even close.
Polling I saw said over 70% of NFL fans believe Brady was involved in deflategate and as we all know, perception is reality.
It’s done. No matter what happens going forward there will always be questions about Brady and the Pats regarding their honesty and credibility. The fact you love they and the jock sniffing sports writers carry his water means nothing. Brady’s stats will always carry an asterisk next to them in the eyes of all but the devoted Brady fans.
As for the NFL suffering? Doubt it but the attendance and viewer numbers will tell us that immediately. Those who opposed the NFL taking action in this matter are NOT among the 70% who believe Brady was involved.
Talk about give me a break. Rice may have FORGOTTEN stickum was illegal, but at the time EVERYBODY knew it was illegal, and he used it.
Yes they believe he was involved, and they don’t care and think all this fuss is stupid and it doesn’t damage his reputation.
It is done, and there won’t be a question.
And now you’re reduced to insults. So now that we both know you’re wrong, bye.
Have no idea what insult you refer to but if that is your out for discussing this it is fine with me.
FYI there are at least two polls currently out in which the 70% number of fans believing Brady is guilty is holding, except this time the question was “Do you believe Brady’s 4 game suspension should have been overturned”
Results conclusive:
56% think it should have remained and about 24% think it should have been reduced to two games.
Other poll more simple. “Should suspension have been overturned”
About 64% said no.
As far as Brady’s creds and reputation are concerned, it’s gone forever except among his fans.
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