FrodoBagginz
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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.I don't think they can, to be honest. Stakes are too high. Losing god-emperor commissioner powers in the court that they claim should preside over all arbitration issues is too big a loss for the NFL. Even if they know they're 95% likely to lose, they have to see the appeal process through, because losing is tantamoun to a major CBA concession without getting anything back in exchange.
Maybe they'll force Benjamin Brady to sit out 4 games.
We laugh, but this is something that Goodell would seriously consider.
He made Terrelle Pryor sit out NFL games because of an NCAA penalty he would have faced if he returned to college. He didn't break any NFL rules, but Goodell thought he should punish him anyway. Jim Tressel had to do the same thing when he got a job with the Colts.
ProFootballTalk @ProFootballTalk 2h2 hours ago
NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey Kessler is scheduled to join PFT Live tomorrow at 12:35 p.m. ET.
According to Florio, Judge Berman didn't rule on several of Brady's arguments just in case the NFL wins the appeal. Then it woud go back to Berman and he could rule on those issues and then send the NFL back in the appeals process. This could tie this up in court for years.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ans-ruling-may-contain-a-warning-for-the-nfl/
I don't think they can, to be honest. Stakes are too high. Losing god-emperor commissioner powers in the court that they claim should preside over all arbitration issues is too big a loss for the NFL. Even if they know they're 95% likely to lose, they have to see the appeal process through, because losing is tantamoun to a major CBA concession without getting anything back in exchange.
Spot on BFTW. IMHO Goodell could not politically afford to falter in his stance. He invested so much political capital that it would be risky to even be seen meeting Brady half way with a settlement offer. Consider the absurd 'Brady has to admit guilt and accept all but full punishment' requirement. It's such a stupid and counterproductive stipulation given the uncertainty and negativity circling the whole delfategate fiasco that the motivation can be for one reason only: Goodell believes even the hint of him being seen as backing down would be damaging to him. He perceives this to be about stature and/or occupation stability and/or money&power ...... and sees some level of softening of those things if he displays weakness/falters.
Credit this to Goodell and his band of crumbs. They tried to adapt to their past losses with new tactics (I assume they did not think this new tactic up overnight -- this has been in discussion since their last loss). Goodell gave appearance that his underlings "performed" the discipline tasks/decisions, then he himself arbitrates any appeal. Simple, neat, CBA allows it to be done, and it rids the league of those pesky neutral arbitrators/third parties that have been resulting in embarrassment and/or losses. They also called out the media lapdogs in a much much more coordinated and effective way. Additionally they went on the offensive on the legal side by filing a preemptive case in their court of choice (and simply asking for their new tactic to be validated).
Bottom line: I think this was Goodell's new master strategy to rid himself as much as possible of embarrassment and losses at the hands of outsiders. Wouldn't surprise me at all if these dolts started considering how to apply/test the new plans to 'deflategate' before Slimy Wells had done his sham job. Yet consider what faulty plan creation and execution means for a leader who predicates himself on all powerful? For a leader like that it is one tough pill to swallow by itself. But it also gets underlings to begin having doubts, peers to have doubts, and embolden adversaries to think you are beatable.
Or have the name be "Article" and the #46....I wasn't sold on 46, but since he actually quote the contents of Article 46 against the NFL... now I kinda am. Will probably wait until I'm more sober than I am now to pull the trigger, but this is the biggest no-brainer since I bought my last Brady jersey.
And yet it never occurred to them that Goodell alone has the authority to punish players for conduct detrimental. Once Kessler pointed that out, within a day or so of the punishment being handed down, the entire "my underlings are ruling so that I can be arbitrator" sham fell apart.
HA! Great point (can't believe I missed it in my own post). They trotted out the new battle plan then on that particular tangent said "oh ****, what were we thinking?" and changed right back to the old plan.
When you consider it from that angle it is pretty unbelievable. The commissioner of the mighty NFL doesn't have enough sense/advising to see where their own plan is unquestionably wrong and not unusable. A mistake that glaring makes me think the corporate culture in the NFL office is 'yes men' with a dose of paranoia. It would certainly help explain their seeming and almost inexplicable lack of introspection on this point and the whole fiasco.