Brady appeal decision coming next week?

PatsFan2 said:

The longer it takes I like Brady's chances... I think He will be cleared of all charges. How does something so stupid got this far is beyond me.

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Stupid is as Stupid does....

PatsFan2 said:

The longer it takes I like Brady's chances... I think He will be cleared of all charges. How does something so stupid got this far is beyond me.

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The fact you said this isn't reassuring

We're all on the same page here, right? That we DON'T want Goodell to reduce the penalty, or if he does a reduction to 2 games. The WORST case scenario is Goodell vacating the suspension, Brady not going to court, and everyone around the country being able to say 'yeah Kraft just worked out a deal with Goodell, but they still cheated'.

The ONLY way the narrative changes is if Brady fights this in court and gets real analyses like AEI's and Tom's that debunk the Wells report into the mainstream news. Gets people talking about the Gardi letter and Mort report and why the NFL would let the Patriots face accusations from the media that were completely false, left the team blowing in the wind based on faulty info.

That's the only way this ends well. So come on Goodell, keep the suspension at 4, PLEASE!

raduray said:

Wouldn't he look like the bigger fool if the courts send it to a neutral arbiter and it's overturned? If he's really that calculating, his estimate of the possibility of that outcome would factor into his decision, wouldn't it?

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No. All Goodell cares about is giving the public what they want. As long as the public blames the court for Brady's suspension being lifted then Goodell is happy.

Brady2Moss said:

Why do I follow this league? I feel so much shame that i care

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I'm emotionally engaged as long as Brady and Belichick are around. After that, I don't know.

I used to think of myself as "An NFL fan," but now...it's all so disillusioning and disappointing. The game got so big that it lost sight of the values it used to embody; guys working part time jobs during the season and full time jobs in the off-season so they could play a game they loved that paid them squat.

If you study the history of professional football, there was a lot of concern about the potential for lost integrity in its earliest days when the College game was passionately viewed by many as "the real game." I always though those concerns were "quaint," but now I see that the people who expressed them were probably prophets.

In fact, if you believe in omens, you only have to go to the game that is viewed as representing the birth of the modern NFL, the 1958 Championship Game between the Giants and the Colts, iconic-ally referred to by many as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." During the OT, with the Colts inside the Giants' 10, a signal cable became unplugged, interfering with the broadcast...a national broadcast, rare in those days. Conveniently, someone ran onto the field and caused a delay in the game. The rumor has always been that it was an employee of NBC, buying time to fix the problem before the game's historic end.

If the modern era of the NFL arguably began with a media play, why should it surprise us that over half a century later, the League Commissioner's top priority would be to play to the media and fans in 31 of the League's 32 markets?

I hope the suspension gets reduced and then Brady sues and takes this to court and this gets nullified making Goodell look an even bigger idiot (which might be impossible). Then I hope that every time Goodell steps foot outside he gets punched in the face for the rest of his life.

hambone1818 said:

We're all on the same page here, right? That we DON'T want Goodell to reduce the penalty, or if he does a reduction to 2 games. The WORST case scenario is Goodell vacating the suspension, Brady not going to court, and everyone around the country being able to say 'yeah Kraft just worked out a deal with Goodell, but they still cheated'.

The ONLY way the narrative changes is if Brady fights this in court and gets real analyses like AEI's and Tom's that debunk the Wells report into the mainstream news. Gets people talking about the Gardi letter and Mort report and why the NFL would let the Patriots face accusations from the media that were completely false, left the team blowing in the wind based on faulty info.

That's the only way this ends well. So come on Goodell, keep the suspension at 4, PLEASE!

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You'll likely get your wish, so you might be proven right, but I think that Brady could have difficulty even getting a judge to hear the case. His best chance is the 0.0001% chance that Goodell exonerates him.

As for public perception, Moses, ************, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius and Krishna could all appear on the 50 yard line at Gillette and proclaim Brady's innocence and the vast majority of the American public would still believe that Kraft had bought them off.

hambone1818 said:

We're all on the same page here, right? That we DON'T want Goodell to reduce the penalty, or if he does a reduction to 2 games. The WORST case scenario is Goodell vacating the suspension, Brady not going to court, and everyone around the country being able to say 'yeah Kraft just worked out a deal with Goodell, but they still cheated'.

The ONLY way the narrative changes is if Brady fights this in court and gets real analyses like AEI's and Tom's that debunk the Wells report into the mainstream news. Gets people talking about the Gardi letter and Mort report and why the NFL would let the Patriots face accusations from the media that were completely false, left the team blowing in the wind based on faulty info.

That's the only way this ends well. So come on Goodell, keep the suspension at 4, PLEASE!

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I'm not on the same page at all. I would much rather that the suspension was vacated entirely. The picks are gone, and vindicating the organization went away as a possibility the moment Kraft bent over for Goodell.

All that's in play now is Brady's suspension, and I'll take a guaranteed zero over court (where literally anything can happen) any day. At that point Brady's implicitly exonerated anyway, at at least to the point that I can pretty much point to the scoreboard at anyone who *****es and moans about him 'cheating'.

I would prefer court over settling at 1-2 games, though. Brady should not accept any kind of punishment from Roger based on this pile of BS.

PatsFanSince74 said:

As for public perception, Moses, ************, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius and Krishna could all appear on the 50 yard line at Gillette and proclaim Brady's innocence and the vast majority of the American public would still believe that Kraft had bought them off.

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Oh sure, but at least with a court case that gets all the real facts into the media for a cycle, the American public would have to ignore facts to call Brady a cheater (which they will, I agree with you there). If Goodell vacates the suspension they can just say 'he cheated but Kraft had his BFF on his side again to help out the Pats".

I would rather the real facts--AEI, Tom Kordis's recent analysis (in the Deflategate section, I'd highly recommend you all read it if you haven't already, it's fantastic), the Gardi letter, Mort report, etc--see the light of day in court than be forgotten.

hambone1818 said:

Oh sure, but at least with a court case that gets all the real facts into the media for a cycle, the American public would have to ignore facts to call Brady a cheater (which they will, I agree with you there). If Goodell vacates the suspension they can just say 'he cheated but Kraft had his BFF on his side again to help out the Pats".

I would rather the real facts--AEI, Tom Kordis's recent analysis (in the Deflategate section, I'd highly recommend you all read it if you haven't already, it's fantastic), the Gardi letter, Mort report, etc--see the light of day in court than be forgotten.

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That's (the bolded portion) why I'm after a vacating of the suspension more than any real vindication. Among the idiots who are determined to believe that Brady cheated, pretty much nothing will stop them. The only way the tide really turns, IMO, is if in court some record comes out showing a direct, explicit statement from someone in the office acknowledging that they deliberately framed the Patriots for something that they didn't do.

And I'm not even positive that that would do it. They had that in the Ray Rice case re: having seen the video, and there are still people who believe Goodell on that one.

It's only early July. Goodell is gonna come up with something to fill the void until training camp. Watch out for a new twist in the narrative.

hambone1818 said:

Oh sure, but at least with a court case that gets all the real facts into the media for a cycle, the American public would have to ignore facts to call Brady a cheater (which they will, I agree with you there). If Goodell vacates the suspension they can just say 'he cheated but Kraft had his BFF on his side again to help out the Pats".

I would rather the real facts--AEI, Tom Kordis's recent analysis (in the Deflategate section, I'd highly recommend you all read it if you haven't already, it's fantastic), the Gardi letter, Mort report, etc--see the light of day in court than be forgotten.

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But, a court would have to take the case for that to happen. It's not clear that a judge won't dismiss it on the grounds that the League followed the (ridiculous) Appeals process to which the NFLPA agreed. I hope I'm wrong about that....but I'm not so sure. At some point, some judge somewhere is going to tell the NFL and the NFLPA to get their house in order and stop coming to the courts.

My guess ... 1 game due to failure to cooperate ...
Which cannot be proven either ... but it will be Goodell's way out in his mind.

As far as perception goes... I think Brady's actions after Goodell's decision will write a lot of the narrative on that. If he fights a suspension hard then I think many people will buy into his innocence. If he pulls a Kraft and accepts a 4 game suspension then it might as well be an admission that he did exactly what he's accused of doing.

What about a defamation suit? Then whether the appeals process was followed under the CBA should become moot as that's an entirely different kind of case.....

What about a defamation suit? Then whether the appeals process was followed under the CBA should become moot as that's an entirely different kind of case.....

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Yes, that's true, but his task in a defamation suit is arguably much harder than it is simply fighting the appeal.

IcyPatriot said:

My guess ... 1 game due to failure to cooperate ...
Which cannot be proven either ... but it will be Goodell's way out in his mind.

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Except that it's not, since discipline must be consistent, and the NFL has already established that failure to cooperate is not a suspension-level offense.

There is no way the suspension will be reduced, not even by one game. Anyone who thinks otherwise has not been paying attention.

IcyPatriot said:

My guess ... 1 game due to failure to cooperate ...
Which cannot be proven either ... but it will be Goodell's way out in his mind.

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The problem with that is that the precedent for not turning over a phone is a $50,000 fine for Favre. I think the max fine for an individual player is $250k, so maybe he goes there, but a game check for Brady is a lot more than $250.

At least this is coming down in July and not August like I thought it would. Give Brady and his camp a lot more time to go over their options.

The suspension will be reduced to one game, based on some new information revealed at the arbitration hearing....

Brady's Barristers have minions positioned in Minnesota awaiting the decision so they can file suit on Judge Doty's Docket, where Brady will prevail and Roger will look like a complete butthole..