Brady has hired Jeffrey Kessler as per Schefter

Patsfanin Philly said:

Where yesterday the other 31 owners were allegedly cheering Roger for bringing down those arrogant Patriots...today they have to be thinking that he opened Pandora's Box and exposed all of them to potentially a very large case of whoop ass...

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Your comment made me think about that commercial for the Game of War where all the soldiers are posturing and cheering until the giant minotaur steps out the forest and roars and the bravado instantly turns to looks of "Oh crap!"

I apologize if this has already been discussed, but most of what I've been reading has been about Brady challenging his suspension. Do The Patriots have any way of legally challenging the lost draft picks?

As much as Brady's suspension is a travesty, I was almost expecting it from the biased joke of a commissioner that goodell has become. I fully expect Brady to win an appeal and get off with little or no punishment.

But the lost draft picks were a complete surprise. The Wells crap exonerated the Patriots organization from any wrongdoing. goodell had no rational for punishing Belichick or the team

Even if/when Brady wins his case, my head will still explode if the Patriots don't get their picks back.

Unless Goondell gives them back, they're gone Mitchster.

but look on the bright side...it looks like the Senile Gump 3 has taken the big dirt nap at last...or he'd be here under ten different aliases screaming about "Gaydy!!" and "Patrioshyts!!".

MitchKumstein said:

I apologize if this has already been discussed, but most of what I've been reading has been about Brady challenging his suspension. Do The Patriots have any way of legally challenging the lost draft picks?

As much as Brady's suspension is a travesty, I was almost expecting it from the biased joke of a commissioner that goodell has become. I fully expect Brady to win an appeal and get off with little or no punishment.

But the lost draft picks were a complete surprise. The Wells crap exonerated the Patriots organization from any wrongdoing. goodell had no rational for punishing Belichick or the team

Even if/when Brady wins his case, my head will still explode if the Patriots don't get their picks back.

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I'm thinking those picks, as well as the pick from Spygate, since the league evoked it as a basis for their heavy hand this time, along with the uneven ruling in Tampergate, based on the precedent that Goodell set himself in previous rulings, are all on the table to be litigated since it all points to unfair treatment of the Pats.

The NFLPA bargained away that ability in the last contract, Gr8est

Sorry to hear about the picks Joker (but not so much about sg's demise )

Brady's suspension would be a joke, but I think that the Pats could bounce back and still win #5. But the picks could haunt the Patriots for years.

And again the punishment makes no sense. Even IF Brady was guilty, why smack the organization? Do teams lose draft picks when players get busted for using PEDs???

Joker said:

The NFLPA bargained away that ability in the last contract, Gr8est

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Well hopefully if the Pats can get Goodell removed, his replacement, or even Tags temporarily, can vacate Goodell's draconian decree.

Lavictoire said:

By the way, Wells looks like a used car salesman.

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This will be a drawn out battle for sure that will be talked about into training camp. The 4 game suspension was basically a buffer in anticipation that it'll be appealed down. I highly doubt Brady will settle for a reduction. He wants a full out vindication, so this will likely be played out in the courts eventually because there is no way an appointed arbitration is going to remove the entire 4 games.

We'll see if Goodell is worried or not. If we see that Brady's suspension drops to 1 game during the appeal process I would guess Goodell is worried. I don't think he could drop it to no games because that would all but end his reign as commissioner if there was a security for him to retain it to begin with.

moejr said:

The NFL had better realize that a man doesn't hire a lawyer of this magnitude unless he knows he's innocent. TFB is laying the smacketh down.

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Are you really saying that guilty people don't hire top lawyers?

OJ Simpson says hello.

WRT the draft picks penalty: It's my prediction that penalty will be rescinded or reduced considerably as part of a settlement negotiation. Goodell is a fool if he lets this matter go all the way to a legal judgement. He and the other owners have far more to lose than Kraft and Brady do.

KontradictioN said:

Before the punishment was handed down, I said that while Goodell is dumb, I didn't think he would be dumb enough to hand down and unnecessarily harsh punishment for this reason. I guess I underestimated his stupidity. I can't wait to watch this unfold.

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Eh, it was actually less, or right about spot on for what I suspected for Brady--before this, he appeals and gets it down to 1 or two games at the most. It was the fine and loss of draft picks against the team that literally blew me away, after the report specifically exonerated BB etc. I'm hoping that the NFL is as stupid as they seem to be to have gone after the organization like this after only implicating Brady and the ball guys. Maybe Goodell is really so stupid that he thought punishing the Pats would have a sort of trickle-down effect sort of like Sean Peyton the Saints. However the fact that BB is the one coming out of this smelling like a rose raises even more questions imo.

I just don't know--hell, maybe the commish's plan was to make Troy Vincent (and possibly Wells) the fall guy if it came to something like this.

Peachhead said:

WRT the draft picks penalty: It's my prediction that penalty will be rescinded or reduced considerably as part of a settlement negotiation. Goodell is a fool if he lets this matter go all the way to a legal judgement. He and the other owners have far more to lose than Kraft and Brady do.

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I won't say he has less but the Patriots are already at the worse point they can be as the penalties can't get worse so there is nothing to lose.

Richard Sherman had his suspension for a failed PED test overturned on a technicality on how the sample was handled. Of course, it's much "more probable than not" that his test was not contaminated, yet his suspension was overturned.

The question I have is are there enough eggs to go around for all of the faces of the haters???

If goodell hears the appeal would this all be for nothing? He can listen and still not do anything to reduce it cuz he's out to get us.

I'm guessing we need a neutral arbitrater for us to have a chance??

Can someone please clarify this for me!

mgteich said:

Are you really saying that guilty people don't hire top lawyers?

OJ Simpson says hello.

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yeah, and he was found not guilty

JPsPats said:

If goodell hears the appeal would this all be for nothing? He can listen and still not do anything to reduce it cuz he's out to get us.

I'm guessing we need a neutral arbitrater for us to have a chance??

Can someone please clarify this for me!

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Even if Roger is the arbitrator he will have to decide whether or not he wants to go through a possible litigation process with Brady's lawyers. My guess is he doesn't and would reduce Brady's suspension with the hope that they avoid a long process that exposes the ignorance of the NFL.

Tony2046 said:

Even if Roger is the arbitrator he will have to decide whether or not he wants to go through a possible litigation process with Brady's lawyers. My guess is he doesn't and would reduce Brady's suspension with the hope that they avoid a long process that exposes the ignorance of the NFL.

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No he would double down. He won't reduce anything unless people get on their knees and beg, If he is smart he will send to to a mutually agreed neutral arbitrator thus he can claim he was not involved with the investigation, the report, the punishments or the arbitration. He has very intentionally kept his fingerprints off of everything so far.

Ivan said:

I disagree, I think the league doubles down and stands by him. Either way it's great to be on offense.

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People are just not using their logic if they are thinking this is going to get Goodell fired. Consider that most of the media is barely mentioning Goodell when reporting this story. I'm even reading stuff that is almost sympathetic to Goodell (nauseating).

Look, the only way this gets the Emperor fired if it starts a bigger movement that involves other non-Brady elements. Further, Goodell stepping down is not going to change the entrenched PR justice culture of the NFL Exec jester court. Goodell's replacement is likely to dive head first into the entrenched PR justice culture once the first public outrage comes knocking.

The likely reason Goodell and the Exec office will change is because their behavior ends up causing football's popularity to go down. Just is what it is...