Brady v. NFL Court Hearing Thread (8/31) - Live Update and Tweets

[aluminum seats]

Hoping for a settlement today. End this for good.

What kind of settlement are you hoping for?

 

[QuantumMechanic]

11, I figure it might end around noon (and that's when we get news...when it's over).

It occurs to me that if the public hearing starts on time that's a good hint of no settlement whereas if it starts late there might be a settlement to announce.

 

[Tony2046]

BTW- has anyone posed the question WHY the mere presence of John Mara increase the possibility of there being a settlement. WTF is John Mara going to say that will suddenly make a difference to Tom. "Gee, Tom, we'd really appreciate if you'd help us make this all go away", is NOT going to do it.

All I know about John Mara is that he is reportedly a very nice guy. But I don't recall him ever being mentioned as being one of the more influential owners or him being on any of the important committees. So again I ask, what is John Mara bring to the table that could possibly influence this procedure?

Geez, if Judge Berman starts to pepper Mara with questions about if he agrees how Roger has handled this or if he realizes that deflategate was all over 2 tenths of 1 psi, I will wonder how much time Roger has left in the NFL.

Getting owners dragged into this thing might be a bad thing for Roger.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Interesting...

NYDN Sports I-Team ‏@NYDNSportsITeam 28m28 minutes agoManhattan, NY
Tom Brady arrived at the courthouse about 15 minutes ago. He was accompanied by Michigan teammate Jay Feely, the former Jets kicker.

Even odder is that Feely's name has been bandied about as another replacement kicker for the Steelers. LOL, imagine if Feely testifies that the Jets have been deflating footballs for years!!!!!!!

(PFT is now reporting that the Steelers have traded with JAX for Josh Scobe, so Feely is free to rat on the Jets!!)

 

[XLIX]

Interesting...

NYDN Sports I-Team ‏@NYDNSportsITeam 28m28 minutes agoManhattan, NY
Tom Brady arrived at the courthouse about 15 minutes ago. He was accompanied by Michigan teammate Jay Feely, the former Jets kicker.

Wasn't he the Jets kicker when the Jets equipment manager tampered with balls?

Is this Kessler's equivalent of bringing in Airman O'Malley and Airman Rodriguez??

 

[raduray]

Sorry, no. Total victory and unconditional surrender.

Scorched earth, baby!

 

[PatsfanTN]

Geez, if Judge Berman starts to pepper Mara with questions about if he agrees how Roger has handled this or if he realizes that deflategate was all over 2 tenths of 1 psi, I will wonder how much time Roger has left in the NFL.

Getting owners dragged into this thing might be a bad thing for Roger.

Yes and maybe no. Yes, because he is the guy hired to handle this stuff. Getting owners drgged into court over disciplinary actions is not good.

Maybe no, because this will directly affect the power of the league office. The owners have a very direct interest in that, plus i imagine they are tired of taking a beating in court.

 

[mihap]

The mere thought of Brady accepting any settlement at this point fills me with dread. I cannot figure a single settlement scenario that would come close to not ending up being a TOTAL win for Goodell and his cronies. Not only that, any settlement would kill the likelihood of a defamation case, since Brady would in essence be admitting some level of culpability. I cannot understand why he's even thinking about a settlement when his case is so strong, and gets stronger every day. Why "settlement" is even being speculated on is beyond me.

I dont think his case is strong. For us it is, but as for legal system is more complicated than we think. I cross my fingers for Tom.

As for defamation. Would u be ready as famous person to go for defamation knowing that ur personal life is going in public. Dont think so.
And for defamation u must have direct evidence that person is trying to hurt u. In this case is very complicated. U have Mortensen source, but that is it. Unless someone is gonna testify that Goddel ordered him to mislead Mort, or that they find goddel email, than u have case. Otherwise is just dirty laundry for Tom

If his stinky owner have guts and goes against 31 teams and fans over 0.3PSI, i d be very happy. Now they ve lost 2016 picks and pats will be cheaters for 30 years. And he throws Brady to lions pit.

 

[ChoWZa]

And for defamation u must have direct evidence that person is trying to hurt u. In this case is very complicated. U have Mortensen source, but that is it. Unless someone is gonna testify that Goddel ordered him to mislead Mort, or that they find goddel email, than u have case. Otherwise is just dirty laundry for Tom

You don't just have the source, you have the email chain of them ignoring the Patriots begging them to correct the PSI numbers. You have Peter King specifying a league source gave him bad data on top it (even if it wasn't intentional, not correcting the numbers WAS intentional). You also have Goodell butchering Brady's testimony at appeal. If that doesn't win a defamation suit, I'm not sure what would.

 

[patfanken]

Mara is on par with Kraft in terms of power. He is the Chairman of the League's Chief Executives Committee or the committee that directly works with Goodell. It was Kraft AND Mara who got Goodell his job. Mara is very influential.

That said, I think he doesn't want anything to do with this and will do his best to stay out of it. Berman thinks that since he is in charge of the committee that directly works with Goodell, he needs to be a cool head to negotiate a deal.

Good, thanks for the info. But there's another guy we need a deposition from for the defamation suit. If he's an influential owner and chair of the committee that's supposed to have oversight over Goodell, then WHERE the F**k has he been the last 8 months?

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Geez, if Judge Berman starts to pepper Mara with questions about if he agrees how Roger has handled this or if he realizes that deflategate was all over 2 tenths of 1 psi, I will wonder how much time Roger has left in the NFL.

Getting owners dragged into this thing might be a bad thing for Roger.

agreed. Too bad our owner has been MIA since may

 

[Mr. Objective]

I cannot understand why he's even thinking about a settlement when his case is so strong, and gets stronger every day. Why "settlement" is even being speculated on is beyond me.

Well, one reason might be that if Judge Berman vacates Goodell's arbitration award there is a good chance he will also order the parties to submit the case to an independent arbitrator. In which event, the case is hanging over Brady's head the whole damn season. I'm certain a settlement wouldn't involve an admission by Brady that he did anything wrong other than, possibly, fail to cooperate fully with the Wells investigation.

Remember a settlement ends this forever, everything else has the potential to make this shat show continue on and cost everyone involved time and lots and lots of money.

Exactly.

 

[JDot]

PFT on Mara showing up.

“Requested” is probably putting it mildly. The case filed by the league in Judge Berman’s court listed only one party as the plaintiff: The National Football League Management Council. Mara, not Commissioner Roger Goodell, is the chairman of the NFL Management Council. So Judge Berman has every right to not request but to demand that Mara attend.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/08/31/mara-shows-up-for-brady-hearing/

 

[raduray]

Michael McCann@McCannSportsLaw
Judge Berman likely doesn't want to rule for several reasons, one is there'd be an appeal and he could get reversed.

raduray@raduray@McCannSportsLaw
Why is Berman so reluctant to rule? Is this common in fed court? Personally, I want a precedent set.​

 

[slackerjack]

Wasn't he the Jets kicker when the Jets equipment manager tampered with balls?

Is this Kessler's equivalent of bringing in Airman O'Malley and Airman Rodriguez??

I'm thinking more like bringing in Frank "Frankie Five Angels" Pentangeli's older brother Vincenzo from Sicily.

 

[aluminum seats]

In which event, the case is hanging over Brady's head the whole damn season.

A settlement where Brady accepts any suspension means this will be hanging over him his whole damn life.

 

[Tony2046]

I dont think his case is strong. For us it is, but as for legal system is more complicated than we think. I cross my fingers for Tom.

As for defamation. Would u be ready as famous person to go for defamation knowing that ur personal life is going in public. Dont think so.
And for defamation u must have direct evidence that person is trying to hurt u. In this case is very complicated. U have Mortensen source, but that is it. Unless someone is gonna testify that Goddel ordered him to mislead Mort, or that they find goddel email, than u have case. Otherwise is just dirty laundry for Tom

If his stinky owner have guts and goes against 31 teams and fans over 0.3PSI, i d be very happy. Now they ve lost 2016 picks and pats will be cheaters for 30 years. And he throws Brady to lions pit.

I don't know. Just from the small sample of released NFL transcripts we've seen I would imagine that the discovery process during a defamation case would be incredibly damning for the NFL. I doubt they would risk exposing themselves too much.

 

[obgod3]

I just dont get Mara being requested for this, it doesnt make sense....not thrilled about it.

 

[crafty213]

What kind of settlement are you hoping for?

Best case...a fine no games. Worse case...1 game suspension.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I just dont get Mara being requested for this, it doesnt make sense....not thrilled about it.

Well he is the chairman of the named plaintiff in the case...