Can Tom sue the NFL and Wells Firm?

robertweathers said:

In litigation you want one target. Yee will go after the NFL.

Both sides will use the report as a foundation to support their respective arguments

The NFL will use Wells as supporting their assertion that Brady violated NFL rules and should be punished.

Yee will cross examine Wells, his team, referees, the Colts, Kensil, Ravens, etc. They just might have them give a deposition. Don't know.

Regardless, he will rip them apart and bring all the ugliness to the light of day.

No one wants this but that is where it MIGHT go.

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No one wants this?

I DO.

The NFL corruption needs to be exposed to the light for all to see.

PatsDeb said:

Au contraire. You want as many targets as possible so they all trip over each other blaming eachother (and then have to contribute to the whopping out-of-court confidential settlement).

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I'm not sure money is the objective here. They want the NFL to make a public retraction of the Wells Report and admit that it was a poorly executed attempt to find wrongdoing.

Plus you don't want to sue a law firm if you can avoid it.

DaedalusX said:

Given how far the league office and media has gone out of their way over the years to smear this organization, its staff and players, it's really where it must go.

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Unfortunately, I think you are right.

DaedalusX said:

There's more at stake here than Brady's or the Pats reputations. The rest of the country might love this because its not their team or franchise QB being targeted for a witch hunt, but it's an extremely dangerous precedent that will come back to bite organizations and players other than the Pats or Brady.

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I was very surprised with how strongly worded Brady/Yee's statement was. I was happy, but at the same time I was like, "'Oh sh_t. Here we go!"

The Gr8est said:

No one wants this?

I DO.

The NFL corruption needs to be exposed to the light for all to see.

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I agree but I think people would rather focus on football and going after a perfect season than Brady v. The NFL.

It would make Spygate seem like a tiny distraction compared to this.

Why stop at the NFL and Wells? Brady should own the United States by the time the lawsuits are done.

robertweathers said:

I'm not sure money is the objective here. They want the NFL to make a public retraction of the Wells Report and admit that it was a poorly executed attempt to find wrongdoing.

Plus you don't want to sue a law firm if you can avoid it.

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Unfortunately for Brady, that will never happen, unless it happens right now with a slap on the wrist. Hence my prediction that if by some miracle the "punishment" is only a slap on the wrist, his advisors will tell him not to sue. Also, suing a law firm ain't so bad (as long as you have a colorable claim of negligence). They usually have insurance and they don't want their image tarnished any more than the NFL does. They won't get the next investigation if they've been sued for the last one.
Are you an attorney? I am. Not trying to be flip - there are different ways to approach this disaster, but most attorneys (believe it or not) would tell you not to get involved in a long, drawn out, painful and public lawsuit (for both sides) if it can be avoided.

PatsDeb said:

Unfortunately for Brady, that will never happen, unless it happens right now with a slap on the wrist. Hence my prediction that if by some miracle the "punishment" is only a slap on the wrist, his advisors will tell him not to sue. Also, suing a law firm ain't so bad (as long as you have a colorable claim of negligence). They usually have insurance and they don't want their image tarnished any more than the NFL does. They won't get the next investigation if they've been sued for the last one.

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I completely agree that Yee and NFL GC would advise their clients to talk it out.

Good points on Paul, Weiss not wanting to get sued. Maybe it does make sense for Yee to include them in the suit?

PatsDeb said:

Are you an attorney? I am. Not trying to be flip - there are different ways to approach this disaster, but most attorneys (believe it or not) would tell you not to get involved in a long, drawn out, painful and public lawsuit (for both sides) if it can be avoided.

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Nope. Not an attorney. Lots of exposure to corporate law. I didn't take you as being flippant at all. I'm a hack

I completely agree that Yee and NFL GC would advise their clients to talk it out and avoid lit.

With Goody's lack of apology and the strong words of Yee, it sure doesn't look like it's going that route. Hope I'm wrong.

PatsDeb said:

Unfortunately for Brady, that will never happen, unless it happens right now with a slap on the wrist. Hence my prediction that if by some miracle the "punishment" is only a slap on the wrist, his advisors will tell him not to sue. Also, suing a law firm ain't so bad (as long as you have a colorable claim of negligence). They usually have insurance and they don't want their image tarnished any more than the NFL does. They won't get the next investigation if they've been sued for the last one.
Are you an attorney? I am. Not trying to be flip - there are different ways to approach this disaster, but most attorneys (believe it or not) would tell you not to get involved in a long, drawn out, painful and public lawsuit (for both sides) if it can be avoided.

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Aren't some fights worth having though?

If not this fight now, then which fight when?

I don't see a case against Wells' firm or the NFL. I think he'll be suspended and will hopefully repeal that suspension and have a hearing in much the same way as Ray Rice did when he had Goofdell's ruling overturned.

One thing that might help his case is if the NFL starts logging ball pressure before, during, and after each game. If that happens, we all may discover that the discrepancies with the Patriots footballs was within the norm.

Here's one detail I was disappointed to see omitted from the Wells report. Every team has their own unique processes for how they break in the balls. Is it not possible that some of those techniques, like Eli Manning putting the balls in a dryer for an extended period of time, might affect the balls ability to maintain pressure. I'm no scientist but it seems reasonable to me that these differing processes could explain everything.

This might be the only way to clear Tom Brady's name. I hope someone is paying attention.

Brady can do anything legally that is allowed! The way this country legal system works is you make a huge SPLASH in the news, everyone sees it and remembers it. But, a week later its forgotten. Only the headline remains in our little brains. So when the lawsuit wins or loses or gets tossed the point has been made by the initial news report.
We are much too busy to concern ourselves with actual truth and justice.

The Gr8est said:

Aren't some fights worth having though?

If not this fight now, then which fight when?

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Yes, if there is any kind of suspension involved then I think the NFL and the Investigator are going to have a $h!+storm on their hands that they don't want. A slap on the wrist for a punishment (a fine or $5,000 to $10,000) is not worth fighting about. I'm guessing the NFL will get it wrong again, but we'll see. It's hard to encourage a fight when you don't know what you are fighting for (or about) yet.

PYPER said:

I don't see a case against Wells' firm or the NFL. I think he'll be suspended and will hopefully repeal that suspension and have a hearing in much the same way as Ray Rice did when he had Goofdell's ruling overturned.

One thing that might help his case is if the NFL starts logging ball pressure before, during, and after each game. If that happens, we all may discover that the discrepancies with the Patriots footballs was within the norm.

Here's one detail I was disappointed to see omitted from the Wells report. Every team has their own unique processes for how they break in the balls. Is it not possible that some of those techniques, like Eli Manning putting the balls in a dryer for an extended period of time, might affect the balls ability to maintain pressure. I'm no scientist but it seems reasonable to me that these differing processes could explain everything.

This might be the only way to clear Tom Brady's name. I hope someone is paying attention.

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Have to disagree. They've engaged in some pretty serious reputation-damaging crap with this report, with little to back it up (texts between two [probably] star-struck flunkies talking ABOUT Brady, not TO Brady - Are you kidding me?!?). It's actually a nightmare for the NFL too if you think about it. They have the ability to shut it down right now, but they won't.

PatsDeb said:

Have to disagree. They've engaged in some pretty serious reputation-damaging crap with this report, with little to back it up (texts between two [probably] star-struck flunkies talking ABOUT Brady, not TO Brady - Are you kidding me?!?). It's actually a nightmare for the NFL too if you think about it. They have the ability to shut it down right now, but they won't.

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They were very careful with their words. Don't see a strong change of winning that kind of lawsuit. Besides, the Wells report wasn't as damaging as the flawed soundbite-highlight-driven media's attempt to interpret it. If anything Brady should be going after the Bill Polians and Brian Dawkins of the world.

Kraft really needs to insist on a thorough study of how balls maintain air pressure, including whether the process of breaking them in has any effect.

There are so many moving parts in this, but really it all starts with two very important questions first.

1. Is Brady actually innocent?
This is really the question that no one actually seems to know right now outside of Brady. If he is, and I would be surprised if he wasnt, leads to the second part

2. does he want to make his life fully opened to the league?
This is the worst part about the Wells report, Brady now has to prove innocence even though he hasnt been proven guilty. If clearing his name is that important, he will have to open up viewing of his communication devices, emails, possibly family members, teammates and the list goes on. What happens if they open up his text messages, and Peyton and Tom have had multiple texts on the subject? Does Brady protect his friends from that sort of abuse? Given what we know about the guy, I think so. What about other texts that have nothing to do with deflated balls, but things that would paint him and others in a negative light? You think Brady wants to bring the NFL fraternity to a grinding halt waiting to see if a flippant comment made to a friend makes ESPN? What a mess that would be for the league. It would be like the Sony email hacks, except the LEAGUE WOULD HAVE DONE IT TO ITSELF.

If we were to assume it would get this far, that Brady went through with the lawsuit, the person with the most to lose, and by far, is Kraft. If he does not publically support the guy who has made him over a billion dollars, count that relationship, both professionally and socially, over. How do you think Belichick would deal with an owner who pushes his franchise player out the door? Is there enough grace there, or does that relationship sour? What about the rest of the staff and players, knowing that the most beloved player in league history, isnt worth being backed by his own owner.

Lets assume Kraft throws his support behind Brady fully, that is basically the end of his relationship with Goodell. That may seem like nothing to us who despise the job he has done, but the owner club is a small one, and an owner going rogue against the league would be heavily unpopular. I cant think of what the falllout would be for a team when an owner is in direct opposition with its league.


Again, there are a lot of moving parts. I will be fascinated to see Bradys response tomorrow first and foremost, but in the long run, Kraft has the most to lose no matter what he does.

robertweathers said:

In litigation you want one target. Yee will go after the NFL.

Both sides will use the report as a foundation to support their respective arguments

The NFL will use Wells as supporting their assertion that Brady violated NFL rules and should be punished.

Yee will cross examine Wells, his team, referees, the Colts, Kensil, Ravens, etc. They just might have them give a deposition. Don't know.

Regardless, he will rip them apart and bring all the ugliness to the light of day.

No one wants this but that is where it MIGHT go.

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Not only do I want this, I would probably enjoy it more than the games themselves.

Then again, I hate Goodell to an admittedly unhealthy degree. If I found him tied to some train tracks, not only would I not help him, I'd go find a lawn chair and enjoy the show.

I would love to Brady Sue the NFL, and depose them all with his attack lawyers. Imagine the content of emails they will find and text messages when they subpoena all those records. Imagine how many skeletons will be unearthed. TB12 needs to protect his legacy and anything short of a full blown apology from the NFL, as well as a statement rebuking the Wells report, and Brady is going to sue. The fact that his agent is saying many items were intentionally not included in the report, and that those items provide valuable context, tells me they may just be able to prove intent on a defamation claim.

He should take legal action...deposing Goodell, Kensil, Grigson, Anderson and Wells himself would be the obvious starting point

JR4 said:

Here is this publicly released erroneous report, which does not even include Tom' testimony, which has
significantly hurt his reputation cast doubt on his character without him even having
his day in court. Shouldn't Tom have his day in a real court to restore his good name.
Maybe such a law suit would make the NFL think twice about unfairly destroying a players reputation.

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Can he sue? Sure? Can he win? Likely not. And if he does file suit, everything, text messages, emails, phone conversations, verbal exchanges all are out there as a condition of filing the suit.

"does he want to make his life fully opened to the league?"

If Tom sues can he be forced to hand over his private emails that have nothing
to do with the case? That doesn't sound right unless you're a public official.

If it is true, then it would seem Goody and every NFL official and Wells and any of his associates will need
to hand over their private emails.

JR4 said:

"does he want to make his life fully opened to the league?"

If Tom sues can he be forced to hand over his private emails that have nothing
to do with the case? That doesn't sound right unless you're a public official.

If it is true, then it would seem Goody and every NFL official and Wells and any of his associates will need
to hand over their private emails.

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If it's relevant to the case, any one of them could be forced to hand over these items, including Brady.