[Mod Edit] Robert Klemko of MMQB on Brady Appeal

The main premise of the Wells report was that the balls were tampered with. The science says that the balls were as expected and not tampered with. Once that fact is established that the balls were fine, nothing else matters. If there was no tampering then all the other stuff like the July 'Deflator' comment or the piss stop, Don't matter. The texts don't matter because nothing was tampered with.

Nunchucks said:

All the mediots are saying that Brady will just accept some shortened suspension as to not interfere with the season. I really hope that is not the case.

Click to expand...

When have they been right on anything? I know conventional wisdom says that all they want are clicks so they say anything to draw attention but I truly believe they are across the board idiots. I mean chickens and iguanas have been proven to be more accurate at picking the outcomes of games over these "experts".

JMC00 said:

Why? Brady will get an injunction to play and then whatever suspension will ultimately be thrown out over various factors. Such as the only other time the NFL punished a player for not handing over his phone in an investigation was Brett Favre who was fined $50k and then there is how Troy Vincent according to the CBA doesn't have the authority to hand out the punishment.

Click to expand...

If you think I'm suggesting he take it you would be wrong, I want him to push it to resolution in court and gut the league office, all I'm saying is that sitting for one game and letting it all go away would be am easy route to take and somewhat tempting, as opposed to having this drag on for the next year. I would be disappointed if he took out but get why he would want to put an end to this.

On the positive side however I think pushing this would make him a hero to the players , who would love to see him stand up for player rights and want the league office to perish as much as we do.


I hope he rejects any suspension and takes the league to court, and I believe he would win handily there.

Patstopia said:

The main premise of the Wells report was that the balls were tampered with. The science says that the balls were as expected and not tampered with. Once that fact is established that the balls were fine, nothing else matters. If there was no tampering then all the other stuff like the July 'Deflator' comment or the piss stop, Don't matter. The texts don't matter because nothing was tampered with.

Click to expand...

The haters and league have moved the goalpost to infinity, and are now saying the AFCCG doesn't matter. They are claiming it's the Patriots history of tampering with balls that is the issue. They have zero evidence but since when does that matter?

Patstopia said:

The main premise of the Wells report was that the balls were tampered with. The science says that the balls were as expected and not tampered with.

Click to expand...

The science says the balls were as expected and not tampered with in the AFCCG. IMNSHO the league office clearly believes (or at the very least is posturing as if it believes) that balls were tampered with in other games as well.

Patstopia said:

Once that fact is established that the balls were fine, nothing else matters. If there was no tampering then all the other stuff like the July 'Deflator' comment or the piss stop, Don't matter. The texts don't matter because nothing was tampered with.

Click to expand...

Not true if the punishment was for overall deflation activities, which I think it was.

Ivan said:

If you think I'm suggesting he take it you would be wrong, I want him to push it to resolution in court and gut the league office, all I'm saying is that sitting for one game and letting it all go away would be am easy route to take and somewhat tempting, as opposed to having this drag on for the next year. I would be disappointed if he took out but get why he would want to put an end to this.

Click to expand...

What is easier doesn't matter. I see that as anything but tempting to Brady because his sole driving point here is that he did nothing, and wants to clear his name.

Ivan said:

If you think I'm suggesting he take it you would be wrong, I want him to push it to resolution in court and gut the league office, all I'm saying is that sitting for one game and letting it all go away would be am easy route to take and somewhat tempting, as opposed to having this drag on for the next year. I would be disappointed if he took out but get why he would want to put an end to this.

On the positive side however I think pushing this would make him a hero to the players , who would love to see him stand up for player rights and want the league office to perish as much as we do.


I hope he rejects any suspension and takes the league to court, and I believe he would win handily there.

Click to expand...

You know, of course, that if Brady does what you suggest it will not " all go away".

It will keep happening and only get worse.

QuantumMechanic said:

The science says the balls were as expected and not tampered with in the AFCCG. IMNSHO the league office clearly believes (or at the very least is posturing as if it believes) that balls were tampered with in other games as well.

Click to expand...

I agree that they believe this, the problem is they have no justification for that belief, let alone to punish based on it.

As the report itself indicates, the majority of the texts that mention "deflate" occurred in the off season, yet the balls were over inflated as late as November. Additionally, not one single communication after that game was along the lines of, "didn't I say 11 psi!" they were all normal frustration and a request for the balls to be within the standard constraints.

Barring compelling evidence that the balls were low in the AFCCG, this single bit is enough to discredit the idea that deflation was an ongoing scheme. The sheer abuse of logic during this whole fiasco is mind blowing.

I think when I finally and truly realized the media WAS stupid and not trolling was reading Howe yesterday state "the more probable than not standard won't any democratic court of law". Or something close to that, where Howe was under the impression the only standard of proof was beyond a reasonable doubt.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/22/aei-report-looms-over-brady-appeal-hearing/

The biggest takeaway from the AEI report continues to be the commonsensical explanation that the footballs used by the Colts showed less of a reduction than the footballs used by the Patriots because the footballs used by the Colts were exposed to the warmer temperature of the locker room for a longer period of time, allowing for a greater degree of expansion of the air inside the bladders. The biggest question for Goodell is whether he’ll apply common sense when reviewing the case, even if it means admitting that the lawyer Goodell hired to conduct the investigation applied a multi-million-dollar layer of tarnish to the NFL shield.

Click to expand...

The Gr8est said:

You know, of course, that if Brady does what you suggest it will not " all go away".

It will keep happening and only get worse.

Click to expand...

Yes. And I said I don't want him accepting any punishment and would much rather see him take them to court, but taking a one game suspension would still be the easier way out. People can take that to mean I am advocating it but I'm clearly not as I would rather see him lose all four games and go to court than see him take one game as the easy way out.

QuantumMechanic said:

The science says the balls were as expected and not tampered with in the AFCCG. IMNSHO the league office clearly believes (or at the very least is posturing as if it believes) that balls were tampered with in other games as well.



Not true if the punishment was for overall deflation activities, which I think it was.

Click to expand...

I agree, and they have zero evidence that happened but used it as the default mechanism when the Wells Report came up with nothing but claimed it as something. The league had their cake and ate it too. They used the Wells Report at justification for the sanctions but tried to claim past history as a supplemental reason for the sanctions.

Oh, I didn't realize this was Klemko. He has said that he thinks Brady will get off due to lack of evidence, but that he still thinks Brady is guilty. Anything else he had to say on the matter isn't worth paying attention to.

Sciz said:

Oh, I didn't realize this was Klemko. He has said that he thinks Brady will get off due to lack of evidence, but that he still thinks Brady is guilty. Anything else he had to say on the matter isn't worth paying attention to.

Click to expand...

Yup. Which is exactly why I edited the thread title from being just MMQB, so that no one would think this was coming from Peter King or Greg Bedard.

It's important to know who the writer is.

That whole F-ing thing stinks for, top to bottom. As has been pointed out here - Favre's investigation was ABOUT a phone ! He still keeps it to himself and get a minor fine. The 25k penalty for equipment was blown up to this BS we're dealing with now.

Integrity of the game - imagine - but how do you talk science with people who don't understand algebraic formulas and variables ? If you can't multiply and divide - how can you understand the science !?!?

Whatever : I can't keep reading these threads.

QuantumMechanic said:

The science says the balls were as expected and not tampered with in the AFCCG. IMNSHO the league office clearly believes (or at the very least is posturing as if it believes) that balls were tampered with in other games as well.



Not true if the punishment was for overall deflation activities, which I think it was.

Click to expand...

They can believe whatever they want, but as long as they continue to have zero evidence that the Patriots have ever tampered with a single ball, they'll fail to meet the preponderance of evidence standard in a pretty spectacular way.

For something to be more probably than not, you need actual evidence that it actually happened.

Sciz said:

Oh, I didn't realize this was Klemko. He has said that he thinks Brady will get off due to lack of evidence, but that he still thinks Brady is guilty. Anything else he had to say on the matter isn't worth paying attention to.

Click to expand...

If nothing else, we should probably all prepare ourselves for this eventually becoming the standard position of the media (and other fans). When he is exonerated, most people will still stubbornly maintain that he's guilty anyway. The goalposts are going to get moved in a pretty huge way, to "we're still sure he did it, but I guess he must have got off on a technicality in court"

I guess Klemko's an expert on four week suspensions:

http://deadspin.com/si-writer-suspended-four-weeks-after-alleged-incident-w-1649827873

QuantumMechanic said:

The science says the balls were as expected and not tampered with in the AFCCG. IMNSHO the league office clearly believes (or at the very least is posturing as if it believes) that balls were tampered with in other games as well.

Click to expand...

The Wells report stoops to insinuating this is the case without a shred of evidence:

Without evidence of prior ball deflation activities, the May 2014 text "deflator" reference has no probative value whatsoever. None. Wells attempts to manufacture context out of thin air by saying we don't know when it started or whose idea it was, but - wink, wink - we all know what was going on - wink, wink. This is as transparent as it is appalling and how any clear thinking person with a modicum of integrity could lend credence to it is beyond me.

Also, maybe one of our fellow posters with a legal background could educate me as to how texts between Jastremski and McNally constitute evidence of what Tom Brady knew.

I find it ridiculous that the majority of the NFL's "case" against Brady is that he didn't give up his phone.

The NFL has fabricated and leaked bits and pieces throughout several months. Why would Brady give them his phone? No doubt family photos, text messages with friends, probably his home address would have been "accidentally" leaked by the incompetent and malicious NFL ****heads. None of this was ever addressed at any time by anyone in the NFL, and I wouldn't hand over anything to them that I wanted published on the front page of ESPN because they've proven multiple times they have no qualms about throwing stuff out there.

And this also overlooks the fact he's not obligated to do so. This is like a police officer arresting you for resisting arrest because you didn't let him search your house without a warrant. You don't have the right to access it, and you don't have the right to punish someone for something you have no right to.

This is where Goodell is going to get hammered. He's not a lawyer like Tags was, he has no clue what he's doing, and I'm not really interested in the appeal so much as the court action that will follow. That's when he'll be totally ****ed. Tomorrow is just the next step towards court, and I expect the NFL and Goodell to continue going full ******.