Why Brady has to fight this to the bitter end.

Similarly, one course Brady could take is to have his lawyer send a letter to the league demanding an official statement of exoneration, under threat of a defamation suit if it's not forthcoming. But I don't see how it could make sense to do that until all other proceedings had been resolved.

In the recesses of my mind I think that when Brady takes this to federal court it may shake up the whole NFL and its limp dycked due process decision making process.. even though the union agreed to this method, does not make it right.

Not sure if it will happen, but it should happen and in no venue in the civilized world should the CEO be investigator and decision maker on violations.. do not see how the NFL can violate an employees rights to this extent..

Brady should fight this to the end, and the NFLPA will be by his side and they know the ramifications of this action and decision..

Still am appalled that this very minor incident, which is explained by science, has gotten so completely out of hand.. the freaking Wells report cannot conclude that Brady actually did it, but a lot of media has judgedhim..

I could rant and rave about this for hours.. but how come none of the back up QB's that have cycled through here in the past 15 years have never been contacted about this whole matter?? How come no one talks about how Brady's statistics away from Gillette(opposing team controls the balls) and his stats are Gillette(Pats control the balls) are almost exactly the same..

I am getting a f..ing headache at 6:24 in the morning..

BlitzFritz said:

Brady and his camp haven't done much to dispel the solidified public opinion that he is guilty. perhaps they are remaining silent to not antagonize Goodell until after his ruling.

by remaining silent, and nit picking the legal-eses of the case, Brady is not winning hearts and minds.

how about
"i didn't do it, i don't know what they are talking about"
"i didn't give them my phone because they had all my texts. would you give them your phone?"
"our guys tell me they didn't do anything"

the lack of straight out denials by anyone involved in the case makes this whole situation stink.

and i will add that Kraft never made the straight out denial either.FFS. he said
"i believe tom"
"the amount of money spent on this is ridiculous"
"there is no clear evidence etc"

even kraft never said -- we didn't do it

Click to expand...

You're right on the PR angle. And tom didn;t help himself with the initial press conference when he answered the did you cheat question with an "I don't think so" answer." But I understand why that was. It's because the NEP only had the false PSI info in it's possession. They only had the Mortensen 10.1psi and 10 of 11 2 psi under the limit numbers from the NFL. Even they were questioning themselves.

Of course that's what the NFL wanted out there. They let the false numbers hang out there hoping Brady and the NEP would confess to doing something. The NFL treated this like a homicide investigation where the cops lie about or exaggerate the evidence against the perp to convince them they have an open and shut case so you might as well confess already. The only thing is . . . no one confessed. By the time Tom found out the the real numbers and how much the science was really on his side he was well into the legal proceedings and I guess his team thinks the PR offensive will come after the arbitrator's decision.

patfanken said:

I have been wanting to say this the entire week, but I wasn't sure where to post it, so I started a new thread to get it out. If a mod wants to move it to a more appropriate thread, feel free. But we are kind of in our POV is is obviously biased, even if our evidence is sound.

Early in the week I happened to catch a new show on the USA network called Mr Robot. It's about a socially damaged young brilliant hacker, who is a tech geek by day, and by night hacks bad people land makes them pay. It is actually a very good show with a interesting premise and I recommend it highly. But that's not why I'm posting.

In the opening set up the kid is narrating his view on the world. It's about how the big corporations really control things.....and control us, the one percent of the one percenters. How nothing is what we perceive it to be. About how our heroes are often deceivers, Then they flash to pictures of Lance Armstrong, Bill Cosby...... and TOM BRADY.

So despite a complete lack of evidence, based on premise that 1 or 2 PSI of a football actually IS cheating,, an artfully orchestrated smear campaign, and the suspension of belief in science, fairness, and justice, Tom Brady is now firmly ensconced in pantheon of cheaters and liars. He has now become an epitome of deception and cheating, so much so, he can be used on TV as a prime example.

I don't know. Maybe the writer is a Jet fan. But the point is, if Tom even contemplates a future where the first thing anyone associates with him isn't "deflategate cheater", then he HAS be COMPLETELY cleared of this slander, if not by the league, then the courts. He CANNOT accept anything less. A 1 game concession might seem in the short run the best solution, but THAT won't take that picture off the TV show. ( BTW - nwhen the day comes that he IS finally exonerated, I will write a letter to that show demanding they cut the reference, and make a public apology to Tom.)

I'm actually surprised his father's head hasn't exploded by this league orchestrated smear campaign. (included the "league source" who stated the other day that Tom's responses weren't convincing) You had to be expecting that one.

Click to expand...

Any choice other than to fight to the end on this is to admit to cheating. One game is an admission of cheating. An admission of cheating forever taints his legacy and that of this entire Superbowl run and all of the players who were part of it.

tom's reputation is forever tarnished thanks to this fiasco. people's minds were already made up when the story first broke. a court ruling won't change anything...
sucks for tom, like a little air pressure makes that much a difference. negates all of the hard work he's done.

watching " the brady 6 " on espn...i must of seen it at least 7-8 times.
never gets old!

i am still hoping that he ll fight to the end
After mr. bend over to 31 fans and owners, and i even dont wanna hear his name again, this Brady fight is the only thing thats keeps a hope that he is innocent.
I dont care if he ll miss a potential playoff games if goes to court. He must prove that he has nothing to do with it and he must get Godell apology.

If Brady dont win with NFLPA he must sue Vincent Troy, Wells and Goddel.. I think that this is possible.
For me as a fan there is not other option after that shcmug bend over

skinnydog said:

Any choice other than to fight to the end on this is to admit to cheating. One game is an admission of cheating. An admission of cheating forever taints his legacy and that of this entire Superbowl run and all of the players who were part of it.

Click to expand...

Great post and I agree 100%. Tom needs to fight this to the end if he is innocent. Anything less and he will be considered a cheater.

As I wrote the other day, the worst part of this whole situation is the fact that he's already guilty in the eyes of the league and Goodell, who with his own job on the line really can't admit they made a mistake. He should just look at it and admit they've never had any previous experience with measuring footballs before games and during them, nor do they know how they're affected by cold weather. Yet they instead ran with the Colts' accusations thinking they had the Patriots over a barrel in a seemingly easy case to drop the hammer on them.

Now after the investigation they paid millions for has been completely discredited, it should have obviously worked in Brady's favor. The problem is, if Goodell actually mans up and admits they over-reacted and that no wrongdoing was done, it makes him look terrible and could ultimately cost him his job. So as a result, even if Brady's innocent, that can't happen - which defies logic and reason. Would anyone ever go into a courtroom accused of a crime they didn't commit knowing that a judge can't look at the facts to rule that you're innocent because he might get fired because of it?

That's how absurd this whole thing is, and this is what we're dealing with. Innocence isn't an option, it's simply to what degree of guilt he thinks he can get away with when it comes to punishing Brady yet it's allowed to continue. How they can hinge a guy's entire legacy and career on a couple of ridiculous texts that provide zero context and 90 seconds in a bathroom when video showed no evidence of haste nor hurry when he entered or left...it's mind boggling. If he hustled that hard to dump out that massive bag with all those footballs in a tight area, deflate all of them, re-bag them, and get out of there that fast (has anyone posted a video attempting that feat?) while showing no signs of acting strangely when he left...that just doesn't seem realistic to me. So I'm in the crowd of I don't think anything illegal was done and I'm sure some of you have read my take and I've stuck to that premise throughout.

But "it is what it is" and as much as I'd love to coordinate boycotts, etc., and I've explored a few different strategies, I don't feel it's realistic because you can't hurt a billion dollar behemoth unless it's a league-wide movement. Here's the problem, the only people who would likely get hurt is the club itself, which doesn't solve anything and obviously wouldn't be the intent. When you look at the percentage of people who would partake vs the dollar amount that would we could affect, we'd really need to coordinate a bigger effort in cooperation with other clubs to pull it off and obviously the 31 other clubs aren't on Brady's side. So it's not a battle that I think would have a reasonable outcome, although that hasn't stopped me from exploring other options because we obviously have a medium to help make something happen..

For now it's just an irritating topic and we'll have to see what results they come up with and what move the NFLPA makes next. I'd like to think with a client like Brady they'd be able to beat this, but with the obstacles they face because of the CBA, I think they face an uphill battle. But I think he should see it through and make their life as miserable as possible until he's exhausted all his options.

It's funny, I watched Draft Day last night and I have to say, every time I see Goodell it just completely irritates me.

Ian said:

Innocence isn't an option, it's simply to what degree of guilt he thinks he can get away with when it comes to punishing Brady yet it's allowed to continue.

Click to expand...

And they've moved the goal posts multiple times to achieve that bare minimum. When the report was completely demolished by academics with a hell of a lot more credibility than those who made up the report, the text messages became the evidence. Now that the texts have been shown to be clearly out of context and completely unreliable for court we are basically stuck with the whole 'refusing to comply' stuff. The media will continue to use all of that no matter without worry about credibility. We're going to hear 'I think he did it' as the reason people think he did it. Nothing more. They think he did it. All that matters.

@Ian, We should have all boycotted the NFL after the whole Ray Rice incident. The way they handled it proved how morally corrupt they are. I wanted to boycott the NFL but like you said if it's just one person it doesn't really do anything. I will stop watching the NFL after Brady and Belichick retires though.

Sticky Caulk said:

And they've moved the goal posts multiple times to achieve that bare minimum. When the report was completely demolished by academics with a hell of a lot more credibility than those who made up the report, the text messages became the evidence. Now that the texts have been shown to be clearly out of context and completely unreliable for court we are basically stuck with the whole 'refusing to comply' stuff. The media will continue to use all of that no matter without worry about credibility. We're going to hear 'I think he did it' as the reason people think he did it. Nothing more. They think he did it. All that matters.

Click to expand...

I remember the report that came out about him being in the bathroom and making fun of the league's "person of interest" when they found out that person was in there for 90 seconds. Now that's what's convicting him...unreal.

Wheelman said:

@Ian, We should have all boycotted the NFL after the whole Ray Rice incident. The way they handled it proved how morally corrupt they are. I wanted to boycott the NFL but like you said if it's just one person it doesn't really do anything. I will stop watching the NFL after Brady and Belichick retires though.

Click to expand...

It's not even about "one person" - it's that the percentage of our fan base that would participate isn't enough to hurt the league without also hurting the club, and the amount of damage that would be inflicted wouldn't be enough. Not to mention it would drop off immediately once Brady came back and people got over it. It's irritating but I think it's going to ultimately come down to the final ruling before being able to potentially put something together.

I know Brady's camp doesn't want to publicly show their hand, especially before an official ruling on the appeal has been made, but I wish they would throw us fans a bone. Even just a post on Brady facebook saying how he immensely appreciates all the support he's receiving and he promises to do whatever he possibly can to prove his innocence. Brady had a friend post something candid weekly on his facebook all season, why not now?

Ian said:

But "it is what it is" and as much as I'd love to coordinate boycotts, etc., and I've explored a few different strategies, I don't feel it's realistic because you can't hurt a billion dollar behemoth unless it's a league-wide movement. Here's the problem, the only people who would likely get hurt is the club itself, which doesn't solve anything and obviously wouldn't be the intent. When you look at the percentage of people who would partake vs the dollar amount that would we could affect, we'd really need to coordinate a bigger effort in cooperation with other clubs to pull it off and obviously the 31 other clubs aren't on Brady's side. So it's not a battle that I think would have a reasonable outcome, although that hasn't stopped me from exploring other options because we obviously have a medium to help make something happen..

Click to expand...

Even though it has been aired loud and clear in various threads, I think this site COULD make a strong, unified statement to Bob Kraft that we wouldn't be nearly as upset about this fiasco had he come down on our side, even just symbolically. All he had to do was appear indignant, word his surrender speech differently, perhaps come out a little stronger in support of Brady. He really handled this poorly and crapped on his own fan base.

VectorPrime said:

I know Brady's camp doesn't want to publicly show their hand, especially before an official ruling on the appeal has been made, but I wish they would throw us fans a bone. Even just a post on Brady facebook saying how he immensely appreciates all the support he's receiving and he promises to do whatever he possibly can to prove his innocence. Brady had a friend post something candid weekly on his facebook all season, why not now?

Click to expand...

I know, I feel the same way.

However, I think that might not be the smartest thing to do if they are planning to challenge this in court. Think about the old adage "watch what I do, not what I say". Brady is saying NOTHING. Jastremski and MacNally were obviously interviewed by Patriot lawyers because they talk about it in the Wells Report Context. But, publically, they've said NOTHING. The Patriots are saying NOTHING.

That's just what a lawyer would want them to do.

What are they doing? What do they really think? Well, Belichick says nothing, but Linda Holliday (BB's GF) has Tom Brady as her Twitter GIF. The Patriots have not only not taken down the Wells Report Context, they've continued to update it.

The league must be watching, too. They must know this won't go away after the decision. They must know they are going to be called to answer for why they leaked and failed to correct false information. They must know they are going to have to answer why Vincent and Kensil were at the AFC championship trying to catch the Patriots red handed. They must know any internal emails plus those between them and Wells' firm are going to be subject to discovery. And, they must know if a case if filed in Federal Court in Massachusetts there will be public pressure to not just reject it out of hand. And, the NFL must know that even if they win, the public loves to take down Goliath. Once the Patriots are dealt with, Goodell and the corrupt NFL offices are the new Goliath.

Nobody's talking....but a lot of things are happening. I don't expect this to go away anytime soon.

I'd love to get an opinion from the lawyers here. Obviously, defamation suits are hard to win.

Doesn't this particular case, with the NFLPA involved from the beginning, lend itself to a much more winnable and damaging [to the NFL] unfair labor practices, or some such suit, with Brady just being the principal example of what the league cannot do to a player?

This could include Kensil and Blandino and anyone, including meathead, who has fixed evidence, made false charges, ruled differently in similar cases etc.

Thoughts?

MagicMarker said:

I know, I feel the same way.

However, I think that might not be the smartest thing to do if they are planning to challenge this in court. Think about the old adage "watch what I do, not what I say". Brady is saying NOTHING. Jastremski and MacNally were obviously interviewed by Patriot lawyers because they talk about it in the Wells Report Context. But, publically, they've said NOTHING. The Patriots are saying NOTHING.

That's just what a lawyer would want them to do.

What are they doing? What do they really think? Well, Belichick says nothing, but Linda Holliday (BB's GF) has Tom Brady as her Twitter GIF. The Patriots have not only not taken down the Wells Report Context, they've continued to update it.

The league must be watching, too. They must know this won't go away after the decision. They must know they are going to be called to answer for why they leaked and failed to correct false information. They must know they are going to have to answer why Vincent and Kensil were at the AFC championship trying to catch the Patriots red handed. They must know any internal emails plus those between them and Wells' firm are going to be subject to discovery. And, they must know if a case if filed in Federal Court in Massachusetts there will be public pressure to not just reject it out of hand. And, the NFL must know that even if they win, the public loves to take down Goliath. Once the Patriots are dealt with, Goodell and the corrupt NFL offices are the new Goliath.

Nobody's talking....but a lot of things are happening. I don't expect this to go away anytime soon.

Click to expand...

Good points all over

The NFL* must know that this is truly a no win situation.

I'll surmise that the underlings of Goodell back in January didnt think really at all that this was going to get to this point

Science and numerous articles in past months have completely destroyed the actions of them and yet no one cares except for the accused

I truly hope Brady brings this to court. I dont see it ending well for really anyone.

The NFL will attempt to keep their integrity and protect the shield

Brady and the Pats will keep using actual facts and science to clear themselves

In the end, I dont see Goodell being punished at all. I only see Brady's legacy being thrown in the trash and his HOF ballet being killed.

All of this, all of it because Billionaire's didnt get their way for the past 14 years.

patfanken said:

About how our heroes are often deceivers, Then they flash to pictures of Lance Armstrong, Bill Cosby...... and TOM BRADY.

Click to expand...

Nice!! Wouldn't that be a perfect clip to show the courts once Brady gets there?

They should have shown it to Goodell earlier this week and said, "see what you've done you fuggn D-bag?!"

VectorPrime said:

I know Brady's camp doesn't want to publicly show their hand, especially before an official ruling on the appeal has been made, but I wish they would throw us fans a bone. Even just a post on Brady facebook saying how he immensely appreciates all the support he's receiving and he promises to do whatever he possibly can to prove his innocence. Brady had a friend post something candid weekly on his facebook all season, why not now?

Click to expand...

I'm glad we haven't heard a peep and would be pissed off if something leaked out. Americans need to re-learn how to be patient. Also, we shouldn't wake up every morning wondering if there's any new news on the Brady situation. Once or twice/week? Sure, but this isn't a pending nuclear war.

Oh, and I'd like to see the NFLPA and Brady take this to the limit.