confederacy of douchebags timeline

The obvious (at least to me): The patriots/Brady were given the largest penalty in the history of the the NFL when, as we all know, there is no evidence of any actual wrongdoing. Other such infractions, such as with San Diego's towels and the ball heating incidents, were ignored even though these infractions DID occur and were documeted on video. There is also the leaking of false PSI information and these lies were left uncorrected for months
The Jets committed textbook tampering and the NFL broke with precedent to give them essentially no penalty. Jets also committed illegal taping around the time of Spygate and this was also ignored.

There is a clear motive to me. The NFL office staff is filled with people who are former Jets employees and/or fans and there seems to be years of bad blood between BB and the Jets. These types of feuds DO get personal. If you have not been read this yet, this is an excellent summary: http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/threads/legion-of-doom-timeline.1121194/ Goodell and Vincent, in particular, have documented histories of acting unscrupulously.

Other circumstantial evidence (or coincidental depending on your personal opinion):
Jets winning a game when the Patriots were called for an obscure penalty (the Chris Jones pushing penalty on the field goal). This was the only time in the history of the NFL that this penalty has been called.

Footballs inflated to 16 PSI (way above the allowed limit) during a Jets home game.


I believe this corruption is on the same level of FIFA and needs to be investigated.

PARITY

The goal of the league is to reach mediocrity for each team. All the teams should be between 10-6 and 6-10. Competitiveness. With the 6-10 team becoming a 10-6 team the following year. That is the "Integrity of the Shield." Supremacy is not the word of the day. Especially continued supremacy. Belichick, Brady, and Kraft have beaten the system. The Draft, Free Agency, The Salary Cap, the Rules Committee etc. Break one of our rules to stop you - you cheated. Now the Patriots as the marked "WWF villain" creates backwards parity. Now how many players and fans of other teams "think" they deserve one of the 6 Patriot Conference championships and one of the 4 Superbowls. We coulda - we shoulda - it's ours. Our Precious !

Giving false hope to the hopeless.

Chiuba E. Obele said:

I love this community Maybe I'm a bit too passionate...but at the end of the day, it's about hearing from other people.

Mind chipping in?

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Nothing I have to contribute isn't being said by others. Really, that's how stupid this farce is.

ausbacker said:

Nothing I have to contribute isn't being said by others. Really, that's how stupid this farce is.

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So the question becomes, how do we fix it?

supafly said:

Either they REALLY believe that Brady and company did something shady, or it's a massive conspiracy. I'd love to find some reasonable middle ground, but these are what I keep coming back to.

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If it in fact is one of those two options then the answer is crystal clear. A massive conspiracy. The extreme punishment, the weak (if not false) science, the huge publicity, the false leaks (see Mortenson), Goodell refusing to allow an independent arbitrator, the millions paid to Ted Wells etc etc.

Go down the list. Of these two options the first seems implausible. And if there is no middle ground it has to be a conspiracy to lay a beat down on the Patriots. Hell it may well have been a sting by someone in the league.

Kdo5 said:

If it in fact is one of those two options then the answer is crystal clear. A massive conspiracy. The extreme punishment, the weak (if not false) science, the huge publicity, the false leaks (see Mortenson), Goodell refusing to allow an independent arbitrator, the millions paid to Ted Wells etc etc.

Go down the list. Of these two options the first cant be righty. And if there is no middle ground it has to be a conspiracy to lay a beat down on the Patriots. Hell it may well have been a sting by someone in the league.

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I suppose they could believe that something shady happened without it necessarily being a major conspiracy, but there has been plenty of reason to believe that lots of things are getting covered up, as you mention.

Chiuba E. Obele said:

Since when does losing to a team incite others to resort to conspiracy?

If you're going to argue that success on the field is where it all begins, then you have to tell me how competing in the NFL is any more intense than competing in...I dunno...the NBA?

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Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men? Have you checked on Lamont Cranston's Twitter feed? He might be able to offer some insight.

Chiuba E. Obele said:

So the question becomes, how do we fix it?

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Buy an NFL team and vote out Goodell. Posturing and talking about things is great but until the guys who employ Goodell feel strongly enough to remove him from office, it's unfortunate but we're on a highway to nowhere.

supafly said:

I suppose they could believe that something shady happened without it necessarily being a major conspiracy, but there has been plenty of reason to believe that lots of things are getting covered up, as you mention.

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My best bet is that a lot of people wanted to beat up the Patriots legacy and reputation out of sheer envy and dislike.

On Goodell's part I see it as him finding the opportunity to turn around his reputation due to the Ray Rice stuff. To go after Brady with massive support was a blessing to him. Whether it has helped him or not I don't know. It sure seemed like it for a while. But I think he hasn't come out of it looking squeaky clean. The report wasn't a slam dunk to everybody, many (even contrarians like Felger) thought the punishment was over the top, and the leaks made the whole thing look mishandled. And there is the risk of this going to court and potentially embarrassing the league....again.

The first objective to smear the Patriots and Brady was an overwhelming success. But it could still come back to haunt the league as well. Hopefully that is the case. Bring them down with us.

I'll give it a go.

Woody Johnson is a top fund raiser for Republic Presidential candidates.

After spygate and just prior to the 2007 SB, Arlen Specter a Republican Senator contacted Goodell about him destroying the spygate tapes. Specter released a follow up statement: My strong preference is for the NFL to activate a Mitchell-type investigation, I have been careful not to call for a Congressional hearing because I believe the NFL should step forward and embrace an independent inquiry and Congress is extraordinarily busy on other matters. If the NFL continues to leave a vacuum, Congress may be tempted to fill it.

Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee,
said the matter could put the league's antitrust exemption at risk. In a telephone interview with the Times on Thursday, he said the committee at some point will call Goodell to address the antitrust exemption as well as the destruction of the tapes.

Woody Johnson has powerful friends in the Republican Party and he also has powerful pro-Jet and anti-Patriot friends embedded in the NFL head office.

Fast forward to 2014. Congress takes aim at NFL's anti-trust exemption. http://nypost.com/2014/12/04/congress-has-nfls-anti-trust-exemption-in-its-crosshairs/
Washington lawmakers are taking aim again at the NFL over its response to domestic violence allegations against players — this time debating whether the league should be stripped of its permanent anti-trust exemption.

It wouldn't surprise me that maybe one of Woody Johnson's friends in Congress made a call to Goodell that if he didn't investigate those cheating Patriots, that maybe he just might get a few of his colleagues to look into the NFL's anti-trust exemption again.

Did it happen, who knows but if it was Wells looking into this, he would say more probable then not.

Kdo5 said:

My best bet is that a lot of people wanted to beat up the Patriots legacy and reputation out of sheer envy and dislike.

On Goodell's part I see it as him finding the opportunity to turn around his reputation due to the Ray Rice stuff. To go after Brady with massive support was a blessing to him. Whether it has helped him or not I don't know. It sure seemed like it for a while. But I think he hasn't come out of it looking squeaky clean. The report wasn't a slam dunk to everybody, many (even contrarians like Felger) thought the punishment was over the top, and the leaks made the whole thing look mishandled. And there is the risk of this going to court and potentially embarrassing the league....again.

The first objective to smear the Patriots and Brady was an overwhelming success. But it could still come back to haunt the league as well. Hopefully that is the case. Bring them down with us.

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So the league turns into a competitive farce so Goodell can restore his (deservedly sh*tty) reputation? This is somewhere between Vince McMahon's pro-wrestling and David Stern's NBA. All politics and money at the expense of competitive integrity.

What is it about big corporations that they feel compelled to take something good and turn it into utter **** for a few lousy extra bucks? F*ck all these guys!

There is no planned vast conspiracy against the Patriots within the league but there are many of those in the league who, when given the right opportunity, will take advantage of the situation and attempt to get the Patriots in trouble. This was one of those opportunities.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

So the league turns into a competitive farce so Goodell can restore his (deservedly sh*tty) reputation? This is somewhere between Vince McMahon's pro-wrestling and David Stern's NBA. All politics and money at the expense of competitive integrity.

What is it about big corporations that they feel compelled to take something good and turn it into utter **** for a few lousy extra bucks? F*ck all these guys!

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That must be how Goodell sees it. Whether it was a big conspiracy from the beginning or a tiny potential incident that was used for a massive smear campaign...I'm not sure. But the part about Goodell is likely the case.

Certainly, there were those in the front office, like Kensil, who felt the Patriots had been cheating for years. That group decided they were going to catch the Patriots red handed and when the intercepted ball was below 12.5 PSI, they thought they had them. They were going to nail them for it.

Luckily, for all of this colossal screw up, Goodell has a way out. He can throw Wells and Exponent under the bus and say the proof isn't there. That would stop in it's tracks any NFLPA lawsuit and he could claim to be a fair judge. But, will he?

It's interesting how far this has come. At the time of the penalties, there were a few who said the evidence is pretty week, but others (like Lester Munson) said Brady would probably not get anything at appeal because Wells case was very tight and well reasoned. Now, very few accept Exponent's science any more. Now, it's failure to turn over the phone and the text messages that say nothing about deflating a football after it's back from the refs and 90 seconds in a bathroom. Pretty flimsy evidence,

I think Goodell will take the out and reverse the penalties if only to avoid an embarrassing loss in court. But, he's not shown the best judgment so far.

I think it's much simpler than what we're talking about here so far. The league office always plays to the crowd and never looks at things objectively. Look at Ray Rice. When Goodell looked at the situation objectively, he gave a 2 game suspension, probably too little, but that is what he decided. As soon as the public gets wind of the video, suddenly it's a one year suspension. The Patriots are doomed because the crowd always wants huge penalties against us out of envy, spite, jealousy, etc. Goodell is just choosing the outcome that makes the most people happy, which is why he is unfit to be commissioner of the NFL. All his decisions are based on his job security not objectivity and reason, and certainly not fairness.

Injustices are not injustices if the majority benefit. This is why slavery happened, why women couldn't vote, why gays couldn't get married until 2015. No team in the league wants Ted Wells investigating their next infraction because they know he's the guy you hire to get an indictment, but right now, sure everyone is willing to sit on the sidelines and laugh at the Patriots' expense.

To be honest it is not a conspiracy against the Pats. This is the NFL trying to save face. They had officials in a room, who saw that the Pats balls were lower than 12.5 and immediately started an investigation. Leaked to Kravitz. And told the Pats equipment manager that they are in big f&@king trouble. Than they soon realized that Balls deflate in cold weather naturally, and went uh oh. Especially after the press took it, and made a mountain of a scandal out of am equipment infraction. The NFL did not realize that the Patriots drive the media needle more than any other team in American sport. After the year the NFL had with Rice and Peterson Hardy, concussions. Etc. they could not have another very public humiliation of being wrong again. So the NFL decided better the Pats than them. Than the investigation which was bias and slanted. Faulty science, and over punishment to give the public what they wanted. NFL looks like they are tough and back in charge. And the Pars get sacrificed. The NFL does not hate the Pats, they hate to be shown the fools that they are,

Peter Pat said:

To be honest it is not a conspiracy against the Pats. This is the NFL trying to save face. They had officials in a room, who saw that the Pats balls were lower than 12.5 and immediately started an investigation. Leaked to Kravitz. And told the Pats equipment manager that they are in big f&@king trouble. Than they soon realized that Balls deflate in cold weather naturally, and went uh oh. Especially after the press took it, and made a mountain of a scandal out of am equipment infraction. The NFL did not realize that the Patriots drive the media needle more than any other team in American sport. After the year the NFL had with Rice and Peterson Hardy, concussions. Etc. they could not have another very public humiliation of being wrong again. So the NFL decided better the Pats than them. Than the investigation which was bias and slanted. Faulty science, and over punishment to give the public what they wanted. NFL looks like they are tough and back in charge. And the Pars get sacrificed. The NFL does not hate the Pats, they hate to be shown the fools that they are,

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I don't think that's entirely true -- at least a couple significant players certainly hate the pats.
Whether goodell is one of them i wouldn't have any idea

Mike Curran was the first one that I heard it from though I always suspected there was a bias in the front office. For whatever reason (Mike didn't mention why) Mike Kensil has had it out for BB. The intercepted ball was below 12.5 and Kensil thought his moment finally arrived. The dumbass didn't know about the IGL and here we are today. Are there more than just Kensil out to get the Pats or BB, maybe but that's speculation. Kensil isn't speculation, apparently he's been vocal about it and its no big secret. The only way out is to expose the rat or rats in court so I'm hoping Goodell doesn't reduce the suspension.

The illuminjeti

The people in the league office wanted to get BB. The initial reaction once the news broke showed how much hate BB has around the media. But they didnt expect brady to be the main guy.