Poll: Predictions for outcome of Brady's appeal to Goodell

1. Commissioner Blockhead will make an off the record offer to drop the suspension to 1 or 2 games provided Brady agrees not to pursue the matter in the courts.

2. Brady will decline.

3. Commissioner Blockhead will sustain the 4 game suspension, stating his faith in the Wells report and its independence.

4. All hell will break loose.

Caveat: it's pretty tough to predict what stupid people will do so pretty much anything could happen here.

Goodell: Thanks for coming Tom
Brady: So, should we get this going!
Goodell: Tom, I am in no hurry
Brady: Well, I need to get this resolved ASAP
Goodell: OK Tom, lets start. We have plenty of time before your suspension is upheld.
Brady: I haven't presented anything yet!
Goodell: Tom, I decided the punishment the first time. I did what I wanted then, and I will do as I want now.
Brady: But I didn't do this
Goodell: Ok Tom, If that's it then, thanks for coming. I'll make my ruling official in 8 to 10 weeks
Brady: But I want this cleared up BEFORE training camp!
Goodell:
Brady: Mr. Goodell??
Goodell:
Brady: Hello???
Goodell:
Brady: This is insane!
Goodell: It is good to be the king! I'll uphold the punishment in 10 to 12 weeks
Brady: I'll go to court!
Goodell: You might, but you won't be playing when the Pats play the Jets!!!
Brady: ??
Brady: We will see about that!
Goodell: Thanks for coming Tom! I'll let you know in 14 to 16 weeks about your suspension.

The Gr8est said:

Can Brady get a provisional court injunction delaying the imposition of the penalty based on a potential court case that is being delayed because Goodell is taking so long to give a ruling?

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Yes.

Goodell is going to be a straight dumbass and keep it at 4 games. I do not foresee him budging at all

Brady doesn't give up the cell phone, Goodell doesn't acknowledge the awful science and it goes to court, where the NFL loses again.

Brady should offer to give up his cell phone to a neutral third party who is only tasked to look for deflate gate material and has a binding non disclosure about everything else but only if in return, the NFL, Wells, and Exponent should disclose all communication between them, as well as internally to the same neutral third party to uncover if independence and unbiased investigation was maintained.

Otherwise if I was Brady the only evidence I would submit is a statement saying 'multiple third parties believe no deflation occured, and I was not aware of any deflation'. That's all -- it would be tough for Goddell to overturn a suspension if Brady presents no evidence other than his word -- since if thats all that was required the suspension should've already been overturned -- no need to wait for an appeal with all this additional data has come out.
If i was Brady, I'd want my suspension upheld and to have this taken to court where it can be shown in a public forum that this was a undeserved hit job against him as well as gross incompetence.

I really hope Goodell doesn't back down. This thing needs to go to court.

sieglo said:

I really hope Goodell doesn't back down. This thing needs to go to court.

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That is the ONLY way the Pats can keep the haters in the NFL* league offices from running their perpetual Groundhog Day offensive against the Pats.

Ross12 said:

I voted for 1 game for lack of cooperation, as a pleading last effort by Goodell to entice Brady to keep it out of court while still being able to say "I served justice." Brady will go to court anyway, though.

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The suspension is more of a show of force and political leverage for himself (to distract from the horrendous affairs of the 2014 season -- Ray Rice/Peterson). The owners/NFL* already have their victory in the sense that the Patriots have lost 2 picks and have been accused of continuing to cheat their way to victories. Going after Brady is just a distraction and the damage has been done.

Reducing to zero games with some BS reason won't upset fans of the other 31 teams, might disappoint the few who have to play him that otherwise wouldn't (first 4 games and maybe AFCE teams hoping for losses as a result of Brady not being the QB). Many people will feel the same about Brady regardless of what gets said or even if exonerated.

Brady's interest lies in playing and his reputation. the only wild card here is if Brady pursues the matter even if the suspension is reduced to zero. Seems unlikely, but possible as Goodell is like "that person" (we all have one or more in our life) who wouldn't apologize because they can never be proven wrong (in their own mind).

Torn over this. I think Goodell will stick to his 4 games to give the appearance of being the firm enforcer. I also think it is possible he throws out the deflation charges and suspends for "lack of cooperation" which I think will be much harder to fight in court than the evidence of football deflation. "lack of cooperation" is a vague charge and will be harder to overturn.

He's gotta win this in court

FirstAndGoal said:

I think Goodell doesn't budge. This is going to the mats.

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We all ( almost unanimously) thought nothing would come of it. Instead Goodell decided to make an example using trumped up phony data. He won't budge but will be persuaded when a Federal court finds differently...and slams him for a shoddy investigation

voluntarysaftey said:

Brady should offer to give up his cell phone to a neutral third party who is only tasked to look for deflate gate material and has a binding non disclosure about everything else but only if in return, the NFL, Wells, and Exponent should disclose all communication between them, as well as internally to the same neutral third party to uncover if independence and unbiased investigation was maintained.

Otherwise if I was Brady the only evidence I would submit is a statement saying 'multiple third parties believe no deflation occured, and I was not aware of any deflation'. That's all -- it would be tough for Goddell to overturn a suspension if Brady presents no evidence other than his word -- since if thats all that was required the suspension should've already been overturned -- no need to wait for an appeal with all this additional data has come out.
If i was Brady, I'd want my suspension upheld and to have this taken to court where it can be shown in a public forum that this was a undeserved hit job against him as well as gross incompetence.

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Absolutely not on the cell phone. He's not required to hand it over by the CBA. The only way he should be willing to hand it over would be as part of an open discovery process in Federal Court where Kensil, the Colts officials and others in the League office also have to hand over their phones and records.

I'll leave the specific arguments and submissions to Jeffrey Kessler, who's a lot better at this than either you or me.

If I were Brady, I'd accept a statement from the Commissioner removing his suspension and exonerating him of any culpability in the matter. Otherwise, I'd go to court. It might be the agenda of the NFLPA to show that this was a hit job or gross incompetence, but Brady's only agenda is to have his name cleared.

Zeus said:

1. Commissioner Blockhead will make an off the record offer to drop the suspension to 1 or 2 games provided Brady agrees not to pursue the matter in the courts.

2. Brady will decline.

3. Commissioner Blockhead will sustain the 4 game suspension, stating his faith in the Wells report and its independence.

4. All hell will break loose.

Caveat: it's pretty tough to predict what stupid people will do so pretty much anything could happen here.

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Disagree on #1. He won't make an offer "off the record." There is no "off the record" in this regard. What he might do is signal through the media that he would be willing to reduce it to two games, which he arguably already has done in the New York press where the "two game" option has been mentioned many times.

Agree on 2, 3 and 4.

FreeTedWilliams said:

The problem here for Goodell is that either way, he is going to look like a smuck, it only depends how long he wishes to drag this on.

If he drops it down to one game, it will mean that they will open the NFL with this stupid Framegate as the major talking point of the opening night, not good for the NFL.

If he keeps it in place, Brady will surely sue, and this drags on forever and once again, he gets whipped in court.

If he drops the suspension all together, then he again looks like a smuck for choosing and paying Wells 5 million.

If I'm Kraft, I want Brady to take this to court and get exonerated, then I can go back and attack the punishment from the league. Man everytime, I think about how Kraft laid down for this, it just pisses me off more and more.

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Excellent points. My thoughts exactly.

FreeTedWilliams said:

My bet is that everytime, we think something positive is going to come out of this, it turns out to be exactly the opposite. I hope I'm wrong, but I think the suspension is going to get dropped to two games and Kraft is going to convince Brady to eat it and the Pats will forever be tarnished as cheaters.

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Thats what Dooch & Spazzoroti have been saying. "He did it and I can't prove it" and "Everytime we think the Pats have momentum, the NFL snatches it back.".

freeman's talking about the nfl havent something in their back pocket that we dont know about...
what could that possibly be??

Gronkowski123 said:

freeman's talking about the nfl havent something in their back pocket that we dont know about...
what could that possibly be??

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No, it can't. You can not "hold something back" and then bring it out during an appeal. An appeal is exactly that, it is a review of the case that has already been determined. The defense can offer new evidence, but the prosecution can not. Of course, that is in the legal world, in Goodell's NFL, who knows.

The bottomline here is that science explains the loss of PSI, everything else is just the NFL covering its arse.

I am not sure how many games he will cut it to, but Goodell will work with his attorneys to reduce his suspension and word the appeal decision to make it harder for Brady to go to Federal court. I think that is main agenda with this appeal is to make it as hard as possible for Brady to go to court. Court is inevitable, but he isn't going to make it easy for Brady.

I think he can't help himself and upholds it to maintain his self image of being Clint Eastwood. When it goes to court he'll implode into Colonel Nathan Jessup.

Brady and his team will embarrass the commish, who will stick to his guns citing the integrity of the game.

Proven wrong but upholds penalty anyways, Court will overrule Goodell.