OK gang, battle lines are drawn. What's the unified strategy for Brady and Pats?

My preference for the Brady hearing is for his lawyer to say, "There was no deflation of the balls by humans at the Colts game, or any other game. And, there was no legitimate measurement of the balls. Your investigation was absurdly incompetent, but that's not even relevant, because there was nothing to investigate. We insist that all penalties against the player, and the team by extension, be removed and that the League acknowledge without equivocation that it erred. In our eyes, anything less than that is an unwarranted punishment and will be contested legally."

And for Kraft to say, "The New England Patriots will not play a single game this year under this cloud, regardless of appeals and court processes. Until the Commissioner's office acknowledges that it was simply wrong and that the Patriots and all of its players and personnel did nothing to warrant this attenion, we simply won't take the field."

And for the veteran players to say, one at a time over the next few days, "Wow, my knee just isn't feeling right."

And for Brady to say, "None of the rookies and minimum salaried guys will go unpaid while this plays out; we got their backs."

That's just my anger speaking. What are your thoughts on a real, coordinated strategy?

I agree completely with your first paragraph but this:

And for Kraft to say, "The New England Patriots will not play a single game this year under this cloud, regardless of appeals and court processes. Until the Commissioner's office acknowledges that it was simply wrong and that the Patriots and all of its players and personnel did nothing to warrant this attenion, we simply won't take the field."

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will never happen. How would that ever be in Kraft's best interest? Every game like that would cost him far more than the NFL would ever lose.

Haley said:

I agree completely with your first paragraph but this:

will never happen. How would that ever be in Kraft's best interest? Every game like that would cost him far more than the NFL would ever lose.

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Yeah, I know, that's why it is just my anger speaking.

his lawyer:

There was no deflation of the balls by humans at the Colts game, or any other game. And, there was no legitimate unbiased analysis conducted. Your investigation was absurdly incompetent, made a farce because there was simply no wrongdoing to investigate. We insist that all penalties against the Tom Brady, and the team by extension, be removed and that the League acknowledge without equivocation that it has erred in this rush to judgement. In our eyes, anything less than that is an unwarranted punishment and will be contested legally. With regard to the procedures followed in this incident, we respectfully request that you announce the clear fact that the 12.5-13.5 psi rule, with no temperature specified, inadequately addresses the real-world situation. Further, that the rule will be addressed in the off season to clarify the issue of weather-related pressurization and to standardize football handing and certification procedures. Further, we request that you express regret for the massive confusion about natural effects that were immediately noted by some but largely ignored, and ESPECIALLY we demand an explanation for letting stand MANY false allegations springing from leaks attributed to NFL personnel, leaks of knowingly untrue data that led to massive disruptions for the Patriots during their Super Bowl preparation while unjustly maligning the character of Tom Brady and the Patriots organization.

Personally, I think the unified front is that the Patriots are 100% innocent, the facts show that, the Wells report makes poor conclusions, which were done to fit into a predetermined finding that couldn't be supported, and that the only way they stop pushing this all the way to the damn Supreme Court if necessary is total exoneration, overturning of all penalties, and a public apology to Tom Brady and the Patriots organization, as well as to McNally and Jastremski.
They should stop at no less, because a) they have the truth and the facts on their side, and b)the consequences to Goodell and the league will be much worse if this hits the courts.

betterthanthealternative said:

My preference for the Brady hearing is for his lawyer to say, "There was no deflation of the balls by humans at the Colts game, or any other game. And, there was no legitimate measurement of the balls. Your investigation was absurdly incompetent, but that's not even relevant, because there was nothing to investigate. We insist that all penalties against the player, and the team by extension, be removed and that the League acknowledge without equivocation that it erred. In our eyes, anything less than that is an unwarranted punishment and will be contested legally."

And for Kraft to say, "The New England Patriots will not play a single game this year under this cloud, regardless of appeals and court processes. Until the Commissioner's office acknowledges that it was simply wrong and that the Patriots and all of its players and personnel did nothing to warrant this attenion, we simply won't take the field."

And for the veteran players to say, one at a time over the next few days, "Wow, my knee just isn't feeling right."

And for Brady to say, "None of the rookies and minimum salaried guys will go unpaid while this plays out; we got their backs."

That's just my anger speaking. What are your thoughts on a real, coordinated strategy?

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I think it's time for the Pats, Brady and their lawyers to think outside the box. I have not read the NFL rules or anything like that, but I wonder if there is a way for the Pats to file some kind of antitrust lawsuit in federal court, alleging that Goodell and the NFL are impermissibly trying to fix the outcome of the upcoming 2015-2016 season by trumping up rules violations and harsh penalties, so hampering the Pats as to make them uncompetitive. They could then ask for an injunction against implementation of Brady's suspension or any of the other penalties until such time as their case is heard by a judge (or even better, if they could file it in federal court in Boston and get it to stay here, a jury). They would have to prove four things: irreparable harm unless the injunction is granted (not so hard if the Pats have to go with a back-up QB rather than their star QB, the most recent MVP of the Super Bowl); no remedy at law (money damages aren't going to do much good here); likelihood of success on the merits (let's be real - the biggest reason Roger Goodell wants to hear Brady's appeal is that he knows he probably has no chance of making the suspension stick in front of a neutral arbitrator) and harm to the public (this might be tricky - but I guess the argument is the whole region, and the entire country maybe, is potentially harmed if there is fixing of NFL games going on by the agency that is supposed to oversee it).

I know this is a tough thing to do (and possibly impossible as I am sure the NFL has rules and regulations that force you to go through their processes and probably force you to file things in NYC), but things are so bad right now, it's time to throw you know what against the wall and see what sticks. A sympathetic judge in federal court in Boston might make the NFL come to the table. Right now it's just a runaway train.

Don't show up for the appeal, go straight to a court of law, turn over your cell phone, and then piss on goodells grave.

Well, Brady and Kessler must have expected Goodell would hear the appeal. He set this all up so he would be in position to hear the appeal. It's going to be humiliating for them to present their case to Goodell knowing damn well he's not going to decide in their favor. They might as well admit they deflated the balls just to go through the motions as fast as possible and sue.

...bump thread...lots of good insights here

Get Brady's suspension thrown out. No evidence yet fingering him. Just Win Baby! With a pissed off Tom Brady.

We got the draft picks stolen from us. Just sign two really good free agents next off-season. Ask one of them to wear #1. Sean Smith and Mohammed Sanu anyone???

ChoWZa said:

Well, Brady and Kessler must have expected Goodell would hear the appeal. He set this all up so he would be in position to hear the appeal. It's going to be humiliating for them to present their case to Goodell knowing damn well he's not going to decide in their favor.

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From what we are seeing, they are doing everything possible to redirect the humiliation back to him.

Goodell won't change arbitrators he is staying forcing Brady to take it to a court. Then Goodell can say we gt it right but the court git it wrong. Win Win

Call Ted Wells as a witness and ask him three questions.
1) Were you instructed NOT to investigate allegations that the NFL was involved in a sting and that the Colts were involved in altering footballs ?
2) Did you discuss this case at all with anyone in the NFL office after being retained and how many contracts were there and what was the substance of those contacts??
3) Did you contact any scientific experts other than Exponent and did any of them give you an opinion that did not support the NFL's contention?

He then has several options.
1) He can and likely will assert attorney-client privilege unless it is waived by the NFL. If the NFL refuses to waive it, it certainly throws the independence of the investigation out the window.
2) If the NFL does waive it and he is allowed to testify, he can then ;
a) misremember, claim "I don't recall" or lie outright none of which look good..
b) testify honestly which could open a Pandora's box of problems IF the NFL told him to limit his scope of investigation or he ignored exculpatory evidence that showed the Patriots were innocence and Mother Nature was the guilty party...
Hopefully the attorney asking those questions knows the answers to them before he asks them (the old adage in law is," never ask a question that you don't know the answer to") and can go from there.....

I can dream can't I????

D'oh, thought this might be about the big secondary hole

I kid of course.

My plan is hope for the Pats to fight this in court and win, otherwise -- other than grinding on it on bbs -- business as usual.

If they're insisting on their bullsh1t punishments, I think it would be fantastic to preemptively forfeit every NFL game, to re-sell the TV rights to "exhibition" games against any of our opponents who would play us, and to tell the NFL to go to hell on the fact that we forfeited the NFL game. Wahhh.

That nets us pick #33, rather than #32, in the 2016 draft (and of course the top pick in each subsequent round). More to the point, if it is legal by the league contract, it deprives the NFL of making revenue from their actions. The "revenue pooling" would lose one strong team from gate. None of that money goes to the NFL.

I further think we should offer the winner of the SB the opportunity to play us another exhibition game after the season. Going into the season it might be like "pshhh." If we go 16-0 in our "exhibitions," it might be a huge TV contract by season's end.

Or, whatever the team chooses to do

It will never happen but I hope as an organization from top to bottom they take a page out of beast modes playbook. "You know why I am here, you will just twist whatever I have to say into a witch hunt, so you know why I am here. Please don't fine me" See how long the media likes being frozen out.

Any chance it doesn't get a court hearing? Just curious as some articles have suggested the possibility

ChoWZa said:

Well, Brady and Kessler must have expected Goodell would hear the appeal. He set this all up so he would be in position to hear the appeal. It's going to be humiliating for them to present their case to Goodell knowing damn well he's not going to decide in their favor. They might as well admit they deflated the balls just to go through the motions as fast as possible and sue.

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They won't admit "deflated balls" they will however go to court

juny said:

Any chance it doesn't get a court hearing? Just curious as some articles have suggested the possibility

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Its going to court

ChoWZa said:

Well, Brady and Kessler must have expected Goodell would hear the appeal. He set this all up so he would be in position to hear the appeal. It's going to be humiliating for them to present their case to Goodell knowing damn well he's not going to decide in their favor. They might as well admit they deflated the balls just to go through the motions as fast as possible and sue.

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Why is it humiliating to present their side of the case ?

Charlotte Pats Fan said:

Why is it humiliating to present their side of the case ?

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Because they're presenting it to the accuser.