Welles should be a named defendant in the Brady defamation suit. I don't think you can disbar him because its a lawyer's job to manipulate the evidence in order to frame his employer's case in the best light, and make no mistake about it, it should be crystal clear that the "independent" investigation was NOT independent and Welles was operating under a set agenda that he needed to fit the evidence to.
If there's a defamation suit, you can be sure Wells will be a named defendant. I would assume Wells would either a) claim privilege and/or b) roll on Goodell.
I think this is becoming a perfect example of how large corporations can manipulate the court system so that in this case, they can not only punish someone without even being a crime, and try to get away with it on vague technicalities that have nothing to do with the truth of the matter.
Well I'm ranting now, so I might as well continue.
Nah, you're good, and you're right. If anything, this has the potential to be some statutory case labor law if some certain things go down. NFL is doing their best Wal-Mart impression right now. The only difference being, the NFL's employees can afford labor lawyers.
1. There WAS no crime. That's the first thing that everyone should hammer on. The NFL has done a great job at deflecting that key and most important aspect of the case. THERE WAS NO CRIME!!!!! We are allowing the haters spew their venom without questioning the very thing they want to hide.
I totally agree. The line I use is, "Brady was suspended for literally nothing that the league can prove by any reasonable standard."
2. There was NEVER an independent investigator. EVER. I think by now, even the skeptical will admit that the Welles Report was a shoddy piece of work. BTW- we all knew that Well was working for the NFL before Yee's revelation that he hid behind "privilege" when cornered. Why are we surprised.
We shouldn't be, and this is, my guess, Exhibit A when it comes to the injunction and eventual court case.
3. NONE of the negative reports make any sense, they simply parrot the NFL narrative which tries to make Brady look bad with words that are specifically designed to incite. They go out of their way to make it sound like they just uncovered this "shocking news" when they have known about it for months.
The NFL has two media outlets at their disposal, NFLN and ESPN, and they are mouthpieces for the league. The NFL obviously literally owns NFLN, and ESPN only has stories that are either leaked or sourced directly from the NFL, to the point where they don't even correct blatantly false stories. Moreover, they've fired three on-air employees now who have been openly critical of Goodell. In that way, ESPN is an even bigger shill for the NFL than NFLN has been.
4. The entire "lack of cooperation" narrative is nothing but a red herring to begin with. There isn't a person in the country that would allow all their personal conversations to be in the public domain. Especially when you know you are going to release them to an organization well known for their lack of security regarding leaks.. So easy to take an email out of context when you control the narrative.
The NFL has been hanging their hat on this point ever since they realized they had
absolutely nothing else to punish Brady for.
5. I'm really angry as I write this but in one way I'm glad it happened. I was always worried that once the court lifted his suspension, Brady would let the defamation suit go. Now I don't believe he can. Goodell has stupidly painted him in a corner.
I'm still not sold on the defamation suit, although I'm starting to see enough there for an actual case to be made. Step 1 would have to be winning the appeal in court. Without that, there's no defamation suit.
The fact that the NFL responded the way they did, not just upholding the appeal, but by trashing Brady in the process really couldn't have worked out better - and speaks to Goodell's arrogance and his sense of being completely drunk with power since he got Kraft to roll over.
As with everything else in this debacle, the first words don't always hold truth.
I agree this is a curious thing, but we don't know if he only claimed privilege with respect to questions about his other relationships with the league.
Funny thing is, it doesn't matter. If he claimed privilege at all, it means he works for the league in a legal capacity, and not just as an "independent arbitrator".
