"I don't get why the League would want to make Brady look guilty if he isn't"

Rob0729 said:

I have heard this a lot in recent days. The argument is that there needs to be motivation for a conspiracy and there is none because Brady being guilty is the worst possible scenario for the league to have one of their most marquee players being a cheater. But I ask is it?

The League has gotten out pretty good for this. For the last few months, the growing feeling is the League was incompetent for having a 100 day investigation that will produce nothing and they may have intentionally smeared the Patriots too boot. Now they released a report that goes out of its way to exonerate anyone in the League of any wrong doing and ignore the leaks all together while burying Brady and no one is complaining about the League anymore.

The best way to take heat off yourself is to make someone else the bigger enemy. Goodell comes down hard on Brady and the Pats and they win a lot of good will back with the rest of the country for finally taking a hard stance and not sweep things under the rug. If Goodell gives Brady a 6-8 game suspension, he will be commended for most of the country. People will forget the Ray Rice stuff. People will forget the Adrian Peterson stuff. And now Brady is the bad guy. I think Goodell thinks this has been a good week for him.

Do I think Goodell was part of a sting? No. I think others were. Do I think Goodell is using this to rehab his image at Brady's expense? Sure.

But like most things Goodell does, it will likely come back to bite him. Brady is not going to go down quietly and between him and Giselle, he has unlimited resources to fight this if he chooses to. If he feels clearing his name is worth spending millions and millions to do so, he will do everything he can to fight it. This could end up blowing up in Goodell's face.

I think that Goodell wanted to find the Patriots guilty. Wells went digging to find guilt and not necessarily the truth. I think if the Wells report did not have the Pats' guilty, it would have been the worst case scenario for Goodell and the League. Making Brady the fall guy might not be ideal, but it is far better than coming up with nothing after all this.

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1. ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter tweeted something Saturday morning that resonated with me; it was advice on journalism and social media form Margaret Sullivan, public editor of the New York Times. Three points I highlighted were: Think more about fairness than objectivity; think about how close you can get to the truth; put yourself in the place of the people who will be affected by your work (that doesn't mean to pull your punches). I think those can apply in more areas than journalism, and in fact, they are three reasons that highlight why I think commissioner Roger Goodell has erred badly from the start with the league's handling of the Patriots and underinflated footballs, making this into a much bigger deal than it is. Over the last three days, I've digested the 243-page Wells report reading it multiple times, and with its bias and lack of fairness in certain areas, I truly can't believe what the commissioner has done to the legacy and reputation of one of the greatest quarterbacks and ambassadors in the history of the game -- all over air pressure in a football and without definitive proof he had anything to do with it.

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SVN said:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...781318/quick-hit-thoughts-around-the-patriots



funny that peter king retweeted this artile but himself wouldnt write something

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robertweathers said:

This whole investigation is about as petty it can get.

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YOUGOTMOSSED said:

Point well taken but I can't believe this is about the anti-trust suit. Brady really didn't seem to have much of a role in that beyond being the first named plaintiff in the caption.

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Rob0729 said:

The best way to take heat off yourself is to make someone else the bigger enemy. Goodell comes down hard on Brady and the Pats and they win a lot of good will back with the rest of the country for finally taking a hard stance and not sweep things under the rug. If Goodell gives Brady a 6-8 game suspension, he will be commended for most of the country. People will forget the Ray Rice stuff. People will forget the Adrian Peterson stuff. And now Brady is the bad guy. I think Goodell thinks this has been a good week for him.

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TomPatriot said:

I strongly disagree. If Brady gets suspended for two games or more for possibly knowing about letting 5-7% of the air out of a few footballs, there will be comparisons to Ray Rice's two game suspension for brutally mauling his wife, captured on video. That won't play well anywhere, especially with the NFL's fastest growing fan base - women.

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Rob0729 said:

Not true. The longer the suspension, the more people will commend Goodell.

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Jim Colclough fan said:

Believe once the rush to judgment calms down the media will read the report for what it is. At that point the tide will turn in Brady's favor. That report is horrible with conclusions that are inexplainable. Most media reporters haven't read it, however in the next few days a few enterprising reporters will begin ripping it apart.

Don't believe Brady will be punished - the risk is too great for the NFL

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Bobsyouruncle said:

The thing they're missing is that the investigation had to find a bad guy and it was either Brady OR the NFL. Shocker, they cleared the NFL. If the investigation found this whole thing was just smoke and mirrors than its just another f*** up by a commissioner mired in f*** ups. And that would be the headline, Goodell is a moron.

What's good for the NFL is to give into the mob. When the mob wants blood you give it to them. They gauge the mob and hammer down based on the level of hate. The difference is we're on the side getting hammered. I'm sure Brady is not the first person to get unjustly railroaded by the NFL. Bounty gate appears to be mostly smoke and mirrors, there are probably many more. But Pats fans were just as guilty as anyone else of joining the bounty Gate mob without looking at the evidence because we like watching the mighty fall- like everyone else.

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robertweathers said:

Brady was listed #1. He agreed to it.

Not saying it was wrong but by doing so attracted attention.

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