How Tom Brady can win in the court of public opinion

#12 said:

Why are we all so concerned about public opinion anyways?

Trust, Tom has a group of people who are paid to have this "public opinion" down to a literal science. They have a strong case behind them. There will be a push back. If there will still be idiots in the aftermath who scream JEALOUSgate .. who really cares? None of that kept people from giving him his due after he won the Superbowl this year. And it won't stop them from doing the same this season when he returns.

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He surely cares. For example, his planned career after football is to teach people how to be successful athletes like him. And he does NOT mean by cheating ...

QuantumMechanic said:

Also remember that statements of opinion are not libelous.

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Well, one test is that there be some kind of logical basis for the opinion, correct? (I'm deliberately using a colloquial term, as I don't know the legal one.)

Unfortunately, I presume the Wells report has that well-covered, at least up to the legal standard.

Now I'm just a small town pizza lawyer, but I do declare....

The only thing that may help this pathetic situation is that most of the lemmings who will be screaming "cheater" have teams with even dirtier hands than the pats. This type of over the top "killing" of a team (or player) will backfire because nobody is going to want to be reminded or have brought out in the open that their team cheats or has cheated as well.

Just think about it. Between this site, my own research and the wonderful yourteamcheats.com I know about all these cheats that other teams have done and some helped them win a SB. So, what I hope is that people are going to want cheat talk to go away all around because technically nobody should talk or be accusing any team of anything when your team cheated too.

I think it helps if all the dirty laundry is aired.

Appeal, win, win another Super Bowl. A lot more people want to be like him than Goodell. Goodell is the worst of corporate weaseldom personified and Brady doing his job will leave Goodell flailing away.

Kraft is going to shiv him too, just wait.

Jim Colclough fan said:

Totally understand your point - well written.

Immediately prior to the Superbowl this Deflategate narrative began to change & the media began looking at the whole picture instead of the leaked snippets they were fed. At that point we saw the harshest critics begin to soften and the public became dis-interested. Logic started prevailing

Believe the same cycle will take place now. The Wells Report will get torn apart by many intelligent people and their statements will be made public. We can probably agree; this investigation has been a joke and there isn't anything they can substantiate re' Tom Brady. Believe over the next few weeks the narrative will change again, the critics will soften and the public will lose interest.

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I was going to say that, good post. The only thing you can do is stay positive and focused on what you're doing until it's time to appeal or whatever. These things have a life cycle and the report is so ridiculous it's a natural for late night comedy material. Letterman did at least three jokes about how stupid the report ia and about goodell and he's a die hard Peyton fan.

Reiss has apparently escaped from the bunker ESPN has kept him in so they could publish tons of antipatriots material in "his" column.

"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.

2. Why do I think this has been made to be a bigger deal than it is? I go back to the Vikings-Panthers game from November, with teams illegally heating footballs on the sideline and simply getting a warning from the NFL, and wonder how we got to this point with the Patriots and underinflated footballs."


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

RayClay said:

Reiss has apparently escaped from the bunker ESPN has kept him in so they could publish tons of antipatriots material in "his" column.

"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.

2. Why do I think this has been made to be a bigger deal than it is? I go back to the Vikings-Panthers game from November, with teams illegally heating footballs on the sideline and simply getting a warning from the NFL, and wonder how we got to this point with the Patriots and underinflated footballs."


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

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I agree that the league/Goodell has gone way overboard on this. This is a minor infraction not worthy of anything more than a fine. Does Goodell have the guts to levy a fine and a fine only? That's the question.

tom444 said:

I agree that the league/Goodell has gone way overboard on this. This is a minor infraction not worthy of anything more than a fine. Does Goodell have the guts to levy a fine and a fine only? That's the question.

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There's no infraction.

He can't against the other camp.

I guess I just think we all need to stop wanting validation. To some extent we always seek it from other teams fan bases, Who cares what they think? Stop feeling like we need validation.

We don't.

We are all chasing it.

Stop.

Let all the other **** play out. It is a lose lose. We beat everybody pretty consistently. Ever hear an NFC fan on Sirius NFL network, they could care less. All the hate comes from markets that we embarrass.

Enjoy the year, we did win the Superbowl after all, and have 3 others in the case.

Halifax_Pats_Fan said:

He can't against the other camp.

I guess I just think we all need to stop wanting validation. To some extent we always seek it from other teams fan bases, Who cares what they think? Stop feeling like we need validation.

We don't.

We are all chasing it.

Stop.

Let all the other **** play out. It is a lose lose. We beat everybody pretty consistently. Ever hear an NFC fan on Sirius NFL network, they could care less. All the hate comes from markets that we embarrass.

Enjoy the year, we did win the Superbowl after all, and have 3 others in the case.

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Enjoy the future. This isn't the end. It's a blip on the screen. The Patriots will back to playing dominant football in no time.

I don't think Tom can win over the football guys - who he beat. That's not happening - and he won't win their fans over either. But he can restore his image with all the non-football guys/girls of the world. If he takes them to court and wins even a settlement that for the non biased would be enough to sway them to his side. The average joe isn't actually a football fan - they barely follow this stuff.

I know that if was Tom and I didn't do anything - I would be hella pissed about serving any suspension for something I didn't do. This isn't like a late hit or fudging the payroll or something that we can say well that really happened. There isn't any actual proof - so taking a penalty on something like that - I doubt he lets that happen.