Commissioners Exempt list

Question....does Goodell decide who goes on this list? Or is it the team? If Brady takes this to court and if Goodell really wanted to screw with the Pats... what would stop him from putting Brady on this list and having him out of action for potentially a very long time?

"The Exempt List is a special player status available to clubs only in unusual circumstances. The List includes those players who have been declared by the Commissioner to be temporarily exempt from counting within the Active List limit. Only the Commissioner has the authority to place a player on the Exempt List; clubs have no such authority, and no exemption, regardless of circumstances, is automatic. The Commissioner also has the authority to determine in advance whether a player's time on the Exempt List will be finite or will continue until the Commissioner deems the exemption should be lifted and the player returned to the Active List."

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Source

sb1 said:

Question....does Goodell decide who goes on this list? Or is it the team? If Brady takes this to court and if Goodell really wanted to screw with the Pats... what would stop him from putting Brady on this list and having him out of action for potentially a very long time?

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He'd be gambling with the owners' money. That's what.

At this point, none of this really is being driven by the number of games Tom Brady does or does not play in the future.

upstater1 said:

He'd be gambling with the owners' money. That's what.

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Meaning Brady still gets paid right?

The first step in the court process is an injunction against the punishment at hand until the case is resolved.

hwc said:

At this point, none of this really is being driven by the number of games Tom Brady does or does not play in the future.

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Exactly. The Exempt List would be a worse punishment than the four game suspension. A player cannot participate in any team activities while on that list. And Brady's already been punished for what they saw as his wrong doing. They can't punish him again.

If he put Brady on the Exempt list, I think Goodell is playing Russian Roulette with his career. That would be enough to get Kraft to get other owners to turn on him. That would make it really hard for anyone to argue Goodell is just trying to be fair.

Players can only be placed on the Commissioner's Exempt list with their consent.

Ah, that makes sense that the player would have to consent first. Thanks.

Goodell can only determine whether or not someone is eligible for the commissioner's exempt list. I think the team has to decide to put him there, and even then the player himself has to consent.

What dales quoted is indicating that the commissioner alone can declare a player as not counting against the roster limit, by declaring them eligible for the CE list. Basically, that a team can't stash someone on the CE list, since they're explicitly not eligible for it until/unless the commissioner says otherwise.