Mike Florio NAILS it!! Great analysis

I still think Wells put his name to a report that was mostly crafted behind the scenes in the NFL offices. The report seems way too amateur for an attorney such as Wells. The smitten bunch in the NFL offices needed Wells more than the other way around. If I'm Wells I run from that report ... he got sandbagged IMO. Kensil and crew got what they wanted ... an amateur report that reeked of grade school jealousy.
Wells wanted that added McNally interview because the school house gang messed up ... spite will do that ... the old bite the nose to spite the face ... a few noses this time and Goodells face will fall in the end.

I know I will be branded the cynic, but as much as I like what Florio wrote, since it is strong on critical thinking and balanced judgement, he had no option but to write this article as other peer legal professionals (eg Steph Stradley) were already broadcasting even stronger comments on Deflategate. As such MF spends most of his effort on the complexities of legal roles and responsibilities in the NFL, in order to re-establish himself as the leading legal mind in football journalism.

As others have pointed out he falls short of many of the key logical conclusions about the culpability of either the Patriots or Brady, but enough to suggest that current penalties would be overturned in an independent court. He still leaves the suggstion of 'something unusual', which should (but of course will not) appease his anti-patriots audience.

While I am thankful for his contribution, I am still wary of his agenda.

juny said:

Choice nuggets:

Click to expand...

I had a couple small problems with this Florio piece, but the three things you quoted there are all parts I absolutely loved.

I don't need a Mike Florio to tell me what I already know. In fact , I don't need a Mike Florio for anything...period.

He must be so proud and full of himself that he figured out what was apparent to a friggin' tick from the start.

Anyone who actually gives a damn about the legitimacy of the sport should care much more about the leagues "judicial system" than this deflation crap.

Wells had a personal incentive to find the Patriots guilty. Any investigator hired by the NFL does.. think about it.

If Wells' investigation finds them guilty, it means he found evidence, which means his investigation was successful.
If Wells' investigation finds them innocent, it means he didn't find evidence, which means his investigation *might* have been successful. It also could mean he failed to find evidence.

If you were the NFL, would you rehire someone who might have been successful or was successful? Especially when the latter lines up with the league office's interests anyway.

Joker said:

I don't need a Mike Florio to tell me what I already know. In fact , I don't need a Mike Florio for anything...period.

He must be so proud and full of himself that he figured out what was apparent to a friggin' tick from the start.

Click to expand...

Agreed. It's sad when we become thrilled over someone stating the obvious. H0nestly, my mind is so bent from the alternate realities fueling this faux scandal that it feels like a "Twilight Zone" episode. I keep expecting to wake up from it.

Interesting thought from literally the last place I would expect to find one: the comments of a PFT article:

The league butchered this. The Patriots figured out the Wells investigation was a bag job so they basically stopped cooperating. The Patriots figured they’d get some small fine for that and move on with life. Which explains Kraft’s initial response that the Patriots disagreed with the findings but would accept the punishment. But they were shocked at the actual punishment. I wasn’t. They misjudged Goodell. Now I believe you’ll see the Patriots raise the issue of breach of fiduciary obligation; to wit: the NFL leaked bogus info to ESPN and others to smear the Patriots. Goodell/NFL had a duty to correct the record and failed to do. This is evidence of bad faith towards a team. This super cedes the league’s constitution. A tough case to make but I believe Jonathan Kraft is Biblically angry at being accused of having his team, his brand so soiled. If the Patriots sue, this will be their primary cause of action.

Click to expand...

I noticed the NE response go back to the failure-to-correct point several times, but I wasn't sure what kind of legal options it opened up. This sounds a lot more likely to work than a suit against the league itself.

Buchanty said:

I know I will be branded the cynic, but as much as I like what Florio wrote, since it is strong on critical thinking and balanced judgement, he had no option but to write this article as other peer legal professionals (eg Steph Stradley) were already broadcasting even stronger comments on Deflategate. As such MF spends most of his effort on the complexities of legal roles and responsibilities in the NFL, in order to re-establish himself as the leading legal mind in football journalism.

As others have pointed out he falls short of many of the key logical conclusions about the culpability of either the Patriots or Brady, but enough to suggest that current penalties would be overturned in an independent court. He still leaves the suggstion of 'something unusual', which should (but of course will not) appease his anti-patriots audience.

While I am thankful for his contribution, I am still wary of his agenda.

Click to expand...

Good point but the more that start thinking in that direction the better and maybe something will be done about it.

IMO Florio's take of "something unusual happening" was simply him not understanding that it's common for some equipment staff to receive gifts from the players, especially one as generous as Brady. In this case it appears that McNally was actually not one of those people and Jastremski was just getting him stuff to keep him happy. (I mean really who cares about shoes? The only significant thing was a signed jersey which does not implicate Brady at all, since it was an "autograph day.")

Florio is looking at McNally getting kickbacks and thinking "hmm, he's getting paid for something but I'm not sure what", which isn't exactly right since he was just getting regular little stuff from Jastremski, but whatever. He didn't look at that portion as critically, but it's not really that important; even if he thinks "something" was going on, that doesn't necessarily mean it was something illegal or inappropriate. And it sure as hell doesn't automatically mean he was deflating balls. It's irresponsible to assume such if you're truly independent and Florio is pointing that out.

We all know that Florio will run with any negative Patriots angle to draw clicks to his site. We also know that some of the PFT guys, like Gantt, write like they have a grudge against the team.

An even-handed article like this from Florio helps the perception of the situation more than 10 similar articles from Curran, Reiss, or Hurley. No level-headed person can accuse Florio of being a Patriots homer (of course, some fools in the comments do just that,) so if even he's saying the NFL screwed this situation up royally, that means something.

Of course, there are parts of the article to disagree with. I didn't think his argument for Brady to turn over his phone is that compelling. As for the "something unusual was happening" claim, well, yeah: Walt Anderson was told to keep an eye on the footballs and didn't, McNally stopped to take a leak on his way to the field, and NFL officials were running the sort of sting operation Wile E. Coyote would set up to catch the Road Runner.

ChoWZa said:

Anyone who actually gives a damn about the legitimacy of the sport should care much more about the leagues "judicial system" than this deflation crap.

Click to expand...

I've been saying that for a long, long time. The league needs to stick to only league issues, not criminal matters, so-called bullying womens'/mens'/space aliens' rights, or anything else, and it needs to set up a better system for getting those league issues right without running roughshod over freedoms and rights..

Was driving tonight and was listening to 98.5 and they had Florio on the phone. I missed most of it except for a few minutes at the end, but surprisingly MF was being quite adamant that the Pats had done nothing wrong.

The host (Forgot name , something Wright or something) seemed to be trying to goad MF into saying the Pats cheated, but MF kept disputing that and said that the "not cooperating" is bogus as the Pats cooperated in every way. According to Florio, Wells is only allowed 1 interview with McNally and the Pats did not have to grant another interview. Also according to him, Brady also did not have to turn over his cell and that should not deemed as not cooperating.

Anyways, I just thought it was interesting as I normally do not like MF's articles since he seems to usually bash the Pats. But tonight he seemed very excited and was talking very fast seemingly trying to get all his points heard. In fact the host actually had to cut him off mid-sentence and seemed to have hung up on him.

I wish there was a way to hear the whole thing as it seemed very interesting from a POV of a person that seems to dislike us. I didn't look at the time stamp of this article, but I did read it and it almost seems like since he wasn't able to finish talking about it on the radio he finished it in this article.

Florio, if you can get your other media idiots to listen to reason and start questioning the NFL I will retract every bad thing I've said or thought about you in the past. Unfortunately we are one of the colder places in the country and while we all actually have first-hand experience on loss of pressure cold weather (car tires every winter, anyone?), most of the rest of the country have not experienced that and so to them it seems like BS science. You know, those same people that think that the 95% scientists warning about global climate change are full of doo-doo.

IcyPatriot said:

I still think Wells put his name to a report that was mostly crafted behind the scenes in the NFL offices. The report seems way too amateur for an attorney such as Wells. The smitten bunch in the NFL offices needed Wells more than the other way around. If I'm Wells I run from that report ... he got sandbagged IMO. Kensil and crew got what they wanted ... an amateur report that reeked of grade school jealousy.
Wells wanted that added McNally interview because the school house gang messed up ... spite will do that ... the old bite the nose to spite the face ... a few noses this time and Goodells face will fall in the end.

Click to expand...

Nope. This is what Wells does for the NFL and his fee is $5m.

Just go ask Jim Turner

wahwho said:

Interesting thought from literally the last place I would expect to find one: the comments of a PFT article:



I noticed the NE response go back to the failure-to-correct point several times, but I wasn't sure what kind of legal options it opened up. This sounds a lot more likely to work than a suit against the league itself.

Click to expand...

Wow, that would be an awesome avenue of attack.

Plain and simple.

Wells had two options

-Be a legit investigator which would have lead to the NFL looking really bad and Patriots getting no punishment

Or

-Make the Pats look guilty and completely ignore and cover up all the NFL's incompetentcy.

Patriots weren't the ones paying him millions of dollars.

Then you got Troy Vincent "handing out" the punishment to Brady even though per the CBA agreement only Goodell could give out the punishment and now you got Goodell appointing himself arbitrator.

Great article, I just finished reading it before I came here. I know in the past, I have left many negative comments about Florio's point of view, most of which get deleted. Recently, I have been leaving some positive comments on his opinion pieces on Deflategate. It feels so wrong and unnatural to do this

Joker said:

I don't need a Mike Florio to tell me what I already know. In fact , I don't need a Mike Florio for anything...period.

He must be so proud and full of himself that he figured out what was apparent to a friggin' tick from the start.

Click to expand...

But many of the "unwashed masses" do listen and read his postings. If (and it is) this is a PR battle, it helps to turn the tide as you'll others start to be more balanced and maybe take a more critical view of the witchhunt...

Be careful of Florio's in "sheeps clothing", as he will waver in the wind of public opinion.. sometimes I agree, but like most mediots he needs to throw in something controversial(Pats Hating) to keep the masses happy...

It seems that he has used his lawyer reasoning to back the Pats one day, only to post something absurd the next... malfunctioning headsets by the Patriots the next day(Karlos Dansby says) comes to mind.. that had to be "cheating" also.

Incurious. Lazy. Bias.
Job description for today's sports journalists.

Florio at least took the time to read both the Wells report and the rebuttal. Don't have to be a Pat fan to realize just how ludicrous this entire process has been. Most of the media can't be arsed to do their job though. Sad, sad testimony on the state of the media in American culture and the response of the unthinking, reactionary public.

I thought this was a great quote.

"the NFL’s system of justice currently seems to be based on the notion that, when it comes to protecting the integrity of the game, the potentially innocent will be found guilty"

This is so true and it completely flies in the face of the principles that we were raised on and the principles of our justice system. Meanwhile Goodell and his minions and the fanbases of the other 31 teams are carrying pitchforks.