Mike Reiss on What it Would Take for Zero Games For Brady

[DarrylS]

Do not see Goodell going to zero, he needs to affirm his role as supreme ruler of the NFL.. anything less would diminish his power and say he was wrong. Have felt from the onset this is less about Brady and more about the ineptitude of the NFL in the Ray Rice fiasco.. it is about reasserting their power and appearance that they know what they are doing..

What I do see is Kessler having one of his minions camping out in Minnesota, and as soon as anything more than 0 games is doled out during the appeals process, that minion running over to Judge Doty's Court and filing an appeal..

Arbitration will not make this go away, legal action in federal court probably will.. I also think that if it gets to Court the NFL will have to make changes on the way it administers "justice" as the due process rights of any NFL player seem to be significantly compromised.

OTOH reducing the penalty to 0 games by Goodell might be beneficial to the NFL as if they go to court they may suffer the perverse result of unintended consequences...

 

[Interception]

Goodell cannot be negotiated with. Bring it to court and sink or swim there.

I don't understand why media members, even good local ones, are talking about this as if Brady and the PA are aiming to get this settled in the appeal. That isn't what they want at all! They want to expose this appeal process as the joke it is and blow the whole thing up. Brady and the PA don't want to play Goodell's game, they want to flip the board.

Did Brady tell you that himself or is that your opinion?

 

[flasox27]

I feel if by some miracle Goodell eliminates the suspension the case stops there. What Im foresee is the real possibility that Goodell reduces the suspension to two games and Kraft pressures Brady to take it for the good of the team. I only hope that Brady tells Kraft and Goodell to f-ck off and see you in court.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I feel if by some miracle Goodell eliminates the suspension the case stops there. What Im foresee is the real possibility that Goodell reduces the suspension to two games and Kraft pressures Brady to take it for the good of the team. I only hope that Brady tells Kraft and Goodell to f-ck off and see you in court.

I don't see Kraft telling/threatening TB to call off the dogs. I think he may have probed him to understand how committed he is to the fight.

Kraft is obviously an owner. He has demonstrated that while his heart may be on Brady's side, every other fiber that he is made of is with Goody and what he think is best for the Pats and the other owners.

 

[tigerjohn]

If Goodell wants an out, this is it: "Tom Brady gave me new information, and allowed me to review all relevant phone, text and email conversations that he did not provide to the investigators. I do not find that he was aware that a scheme to deflate footballs was going on or that he violated the integrity of the game. However, due to his reluctance to cooperate with the investigation, the punishment will be 1 game suspension and $100,000."

Goodell has already hinted that he is open to new information. If takes the above approach, the patriots are still viewed as guilty, Brady is still disciplined and most constituents (owners and fans) will be satisfied. Brady loses the cheating label. Goodell's got to be nervous about having the entire shoddy investigation exposed in court not to mention the capricious and arbitrary punshiment and appeal process. It could lead to major changes to the process a big reduction in his authority. Whether he's smart enough to do so, I am not sure and I am not sure if Brady would accept a "not cooperating" punishment.

Do not see Goodell going to zero, he needs to affirm his role as supreme ruler of the NFL.. anything less would diminish his power and say he was wrong. Have felt from the onset this is less about Brady and more about the ineptitude of the NFL in the Ray Rice fiasco.. it is about reasserting their power and appearance that they know what they are doing..

What I do see is Kessler having one of his minions camping out in Minnesota, and as soon as anything more than 0 games is doled out during the appeals process, that minion running over to Judge Doty's Court and filing an appeal..

Arbitration will not make this go away, legal action in federal court probably will.. I also think that if it gets to Court the NFL will have to make changes on the way it administers "justice" as the due process rights of any NFL player seem to be significantly compromised.

OTOH reducing the penalty to 0 games by Goodell might be beneficial to the NFL as if they go to court they may suffer the perverse result of unintended consequences...

 

[SacPete1]

I think the whole defense rests on challenging the conclusions of the ball testing at half-time. Specifically, the procedures (gauges, timing, number of balls) and the total disregard for the ideal gas law and more so, the likelihood that nobody testing even knew of the gas law and how this ignorance resulted in a faulty measurement procedure.
Renowned experts on the topic would need to be involved and attack the assertions by the group used by Wells.

 

[everlong]

This is about power and not the actual case. If Goodell thinks he can bring this to court and force the NFLPA to live with his judgments going forward there's no way he reduces anything. If he thinks it's a coin flip he may offer Brady a reduced sentence if and only if he agrees to drop the matter then and there and not pursue it in court. He can even color it as for not cooperating vs cheating to entice Brady but then he sets the precedent that if players don't hand over evidence including their phones they're screwed going forward.

If you look at the carefully worded language in all of Goodell's statements he's setting this up to go to court. I think both the league and NFLPA want to take this to the mat. I think that's what makes Kraft's sins so much worse. It was spelled out to him that this was about precedence and keeping the players in line and they couldn't have a franchise balking at the commissioner's power and enabling a player to do so. So Bob sold Tom down the river to remain in the good graces of the 31. I've been consistent in saying there's no master plot from Bob to screw Roger down the road. His capitulation speech and waxing poetically about being a member of the Billionaire's club said it all.

The NFLPA are idiots for signing away all their rights in the last CBA and they'll probably do it again in the next one. The players should have voted out Smith and gone with a hardliner like Gilbert after that one sided deal.

 

[RobertWeathers]

If Goodell wants an out, this is it: "Tom Brady gave me new information, and allowed me to review all relevant phone, text and email conversations that he did not provide to the investigators. I do not find that he was aware that a scheme to deflate footballs was going on or that he violated the integrity of the game. However, due to his reluctance to cooperate with the investigation, the punishment will be 1 game suspension and $100,000."

Goodell has already hinted that he is open to new information. If takes the above approach, the patriots are still viewed as guilty, Brady is still disciplined and most constituents (owners and fans) will be satisfied. Brady loses the cheating label. Goodell's got to be nervous about having the entire shoddy investigation exposed in court not to mention the capricious and arbitrary punshiment and appeal process. It could lead to major changes to the process a big reduction in his authority. Whether he's smart enough to do so, I am not sure and I am not sure if Brady would accept a "not cooperating" punishment.

Thoughtful post but based on your rationale the penalty should be $25k or the $50k the nailed Favre with.

Any suspension is unacceptable as they cannot prove he did anything manipulative with the footballs.

 

[DarrylS]

If Goodell wants an out, this is it: "Tom Brady gave me new information, and allowed me to review all relevant phone, text and email conversations that he did not provide to the investigators. I do not find that he was aware that a scheme to deflate footballs was going on or that he violated the integrity of the game. However, due to his reluctance to cooperate with the investigation, the punishment will be 1 game suspension and $100,000."

Goodell has already hinted that he is open to new information. If takes the above approach, the patriots are still viewed as guilty, Brady is still disciplined and most constituents (owners and fans) will be satisfied. Brady loses the cheating label. Goodell's got to be nervous about having the entire shoddy investigation exposed in court not to mention the capricious and arbitrary punshiment and appeal process. It could lead to major changes to the process a big reduction in his authority. Whether he's smart enough to do so, I am not sure and I am not sure if Brady would accept a "not cooperating" punishment.

As the NFL had the phones of Jeremski and McNally, all of the texts pertinent to this case have already been divulged.. Goodell is acting more like a petulant child who wants what he wants, and he wants it now..

Brady's phone will not offer any new info on this case, the investigation is complete.. not sure you can add all that much to it..

Goodell is only open to selective information that will substantiate the findings of the Wells Report and reinforce that he is the ultimate power of the NFL...

I am not even sure a fine of any type is called for.. Minnesota got a warning for warming footballs, and nothing has really been proven in this case..

 

[1960Pats]

I don't see Kraft telling/threatening TB to call off the dogs. I think he may have probed him to understand how committed he is to the fight.

Kraft is obviously an owner. He has demonstrated that while his heart may be on Brady's side, every other fiber that he is made of is with Goody, what he think is best for the Pats and the other owners.

I can't see any way that Kraft's capitulation is good for the Pats or Brady.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Breh, Re - read the bolded. And then try to grasp what is really going on.

do you not realize that goodell and the rest of the world equate not turning his phone over as guilt? I get it - the league has McNally and Jamestreski's phones which have all their conversations. But the NFL wants to see if there is evidence of Brady texting others about the deflation of footballs including teammates. Also, for all the league knows, McNally's phone could be only a year old and may not have everything on it since 2006. I also get that if Brady turns his phone over it would turn into precedent for other NFL players to turn in their phones. I wouldn't care if I were him - it's his legacy.

 

[1960Pats]

Thoughtful post but based on your rationale the penalty should be $25k or the $50k the nailed Favre with.

Any suspension is unacceptable as they cannot prove he did anything manipulative with the footballs.

They can't prove that anyone did anything with the footballs, at least not anyone from the Pats.

It makes me wonder if the two ball attendants might have a lawsuit on their hands. They were fired for no reason other than to make the Pats look bad.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Goodell is only open to selective information that will substantiate the findings of the Wells Report

Yep. I think Goody was ok saying that because he knows that there is no new evidence. The Wells Report is as good as it gets.

By Goody saying that he is not weded to it already smells like he is giving himself an out if TB12 tells Kessler to sick the NFL in court.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I can't see any way that Kraft's capitulation is good for the Pats or Brady.

It's not. Authorizing the context report helped him with his case. That's it.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Yep. I think Goody was ok saying that because he knows that there is no new evidence. The Wells Report is as good as it gets.

By Goody saying that he is not weded to it already smells like he is giving himself an out if TB12 tells Kessler to sick the NFL in court.

Goodell wants to avoid going to court over this which is why he is giving TB a chance for more information in the appeal. I would not be surprised at all if he is looking to rescind the suspension all together but he needs a strong basis to do so - otherwise the public will call for his head.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

They can't prove that anyone did anything with the footballs, at least not anyone from the Pats.

It makes me wonder if the two ball attendants might have a lawsuit on their hands. They were fired for no reason other than to make the Pats look bad.

In goodell's world it doesn't matter. The league does not need 100% proof.

 

[turkeyneck]

Goodell's got to look down the road. Either the Pats and Brady are right and nothing happened, the balls lost pressure by natural causes, or the balls are immune to nature and were tampered with. There will be occasion this season for balls to be measured in cold weather games and it will be the case that they will show a drop in pressure. What then, Goodell? Will those teams be guilty too? In fact, they would have to be considered even more guilty since they were warned by the example set with the Pats. What penalties will they require for the even more serious violation of flouting previous rulings? Two firsts? Season long suspensions? Or, realizing your ignorant mistake, do you just drop the subject? Then, what about the Pats penalties?
Where do you go next when you start penalizing teams and players for natural phenomena?

 

[RobertWeathers]

They can't prove that anyone did anything with the footballs, at least not anyone from the Pats.

It makes me wonder if the two ball attendants might have a lawsuit on their hands. They were fired for no reason other than to make the Pats look bad.

Yep.

I had heard that the NFL forced the Pats to put Jaz and McNally on indefinite leave as opposed to being fired.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Goodell wants to avoid going to court over this which is why he is giving TB a chance for more information in the appeal. I would not be surprised at all if he is looking to rescind the suspension all together but he needs a strong basis to do so - otherwise the public will call for his head.

Yep. I think there is some maneuvering that can be done before going to court. I think Goody wants to contain this mess as much as possible.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

They can't prove that anyone did anything with the footballs, at least not anyone from the Pats.

It makes me wonder if the two ball attendants might have a lawsuit on their hands. They were fired for no reason other than to make the Pats look bad.

I hope they sue and Kraft has to pay each of them $1,000,000