Wetzel: Patriots were naive to walk into Goodell's trap

A brilliant take. The most spot-on analysis of this whole fiasco I have seen.

shmessy said:

I disagree with you about Brady.

Honestly, I don't see how so many idol-worshippers still say he has a great politcial future at the national level. He just isn't the brightest bulb in the box (outside of the football field). He has been his own worst enemy, straight from that 1st presser about this 'Golly gee, I don't THINK I'm a cheater...." to destroying a phone he never had to even hand over. He would get eaten alive in a 90 minute political debate.

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I can't disagree with this but where are his advisers and handlers during all this?

"Hey, Tom lets do some practice questions before that press conference" . . . "You're upgrading your phone while you're under investigation, Tom? Don't throw out the old one. Keep it somewhere safe or give it to your attorney for safe keeping."

TriplecHamp said:

I think we're operating from two different points. I don't think Brady could have"knocked the ball" out of the park and I don't think the Patriots were ever going to win a public relations battle against the NFL and the fans of 31 other teams who don't like us very much. Sure the NFL can play politics, just like Donald Trump is leading the Republic candidates. Actually that kind of works in this situation.


The NFL is Donald Trump. He's popular with the people, and he has little to no substance. On the actual stage when it comes to laying out facts, Brady will win.

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I agree. But Brady's first presser was a slow motion car crash. Stacey james should have prepped him. He looked like a deer in the headlights. Destroying the phone, while meaningless was simply a stupid thing to do in this context also.

The good guys have to start playing the game at the low level the NFL is. They need to open their freaking eyes.

Kraft is naive.

Hard to refute.

He was taken for a sucker. He is a sucker.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

I can't disagree with this but where are his advisers and handlers during all this?

"Hey, Tom lets do some practice questions before that press conference" . . . "You're upgrading your phone while you're under investigation, Tom? Don't throw out the old one. Keep it somewhere safe or give it to your attorney for safe keeping."

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Yup. Either Stacey James or Donald Yee should have been blanketing Brady.

Regarding that first presser after the AFCCG, I can sort of understand given the shortness of time to react and the fact that Brady had a freaking SB to prep for simultaneously.

That just makes how Belichick handled everything under those weighty circumstances all the more incredible. Belichick could pilot my family's airplane any day of the week.

I'll never be able to fathom how he kept everything together, learned about physics on the fly, gave a professorial 55 minute press conference on the subject and STILL won the SB employing great strategy against a physically more dominant team........

Belichick is Superman. I don't think the nation truly understands what he did last winter.

upstater1 said:

Kraft is naive.

Hard to refute.

He was taken for a sucker. He is a sucker.

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So is Brady.

Love the guy, but everyone simply pointing at Kraft are merely letting the good looking, but naive QB off the hook.

shmessy said:

So is Brady.

Love the guy, but everyone simply pointing at Kraft are merely letting the good looking, but naive QB off the hook.

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How so?

shmessy said:

So is Brady.

Love the guy, but everyone simply pointing at Kraft are merely letting the good looking, but naive QB off the hook.

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The difference being, of course, is that the naive QB is actually doing something about it, and suing the league.

shmessy said:

Yup. Either Stacey James or Donald Yee should have been blanketing Brady.

Regarding that first presser after the AFCCG, I can sort of understand given the shortness of time to react and the fact that Brady had a freaking SB to prep for simultaneously.

That just makes how Belichick handled everything under those weighty circumstances all the more incredible. Belichick could pilot my family's airplane any day of the week.

I'll never be able to fathom how he kept everything together, learned about physics on the fly, gave a professorial 55 minute press conference on the subject and STILL won the SB employing great strategy against a physically more dominant team........

Belichick is Superman. I don't think the nation truly understands what he did last winter.

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I understand that he had other things on his mind, but the correct answer to any snarky "are you a cheat?" questions is an indignant "absolutely not" or "no and f*ck you" or something to that effect. A modicum of prep should have been enough for that.

shmessy said:

I disagree with you about Brady.

Honestly, I don't see how so many idol-worshippers still say he has a great politcial future at the national level. He just isn't the brightest bulb in the box (outside of the football field). He has been his own worst enemy, straight from that 1st presser about this 'Golly gee, I don't THINK I'm a cheater...." to destroying a phone he never had to even hand over. He would get eaten alive in a 90 minute political debate.

Kraft has also been just as naive and spineless as Wetzel portrayed.

The only one who has knocked the ball out of the park all the way through has been Belichick. Belichick has been cool hand luke and has directly addressed the situation in a masterful way.

The other two have fumbled repeatedly.

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I sort of Agree especially about Kraft, to be fair the Patriots were framed, moreover at the point of time when Brady was questioned, Brady was dealing with the lies from the league. gardi's letter, the Mortensen leak about 2psi low and the others Brady was off balance dealing with these lies.

And that is why Kraft should have appealed, even it would have been fruitless. Now he may be prevented from suing because he waived his appeal.........

The Patriots and Brady both need to wake the **** up and realize they're in a war here because the NFL has set the narrative every step of the way

I'm really tired of reading Yee responses to the ******** NFL spin on everything.

The NFL isn't ****ing around.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

I understand that he had other things on his mind, but the correct answer to any snarky "are you a cheat?" questions is an indignant "absolutely not" or "no and f*ck you" or something to that effect. A modicum of prep should have been enough for that.

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Yup.

He was given an underhand softball 40 mph pitch to knock out of the park and he melted in salt water at the podium.

When that happened I buried my head in my hands. Seriously how could he NOT crush that one?

When I wrote about it at the time, people here were indignant that I would write such a thing as if I were saying he was guilty. Not at all. Just that he melted when he should have crushed that easy question.

If he couldn't handle that easy pitch, he has no business running for public office someday. He just can't think on his feet in that kind of situation very well.

Patsfanin Philly said:

And that is why Kraft should have appealed, even it would have been fruitless. Now he may be prevented from suing because he waived his appeal.........

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He waived nothing legal-wise.

shmessy said:

He waived nothing legal-wise.

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By not appealing, a court could find that he waived appeal rights and that he didn't pursue all avenues available to him. It could (operative word could) come back to bite him if a court chooses not to hear the case deciding that he waived rights when he accepted the penalty without appealing...

shmessy said:

I agree. But Brady's first presser was a slow motion car crash. Stacey james should have prepped him. He looked like a deer in the headlights. Destroying the phone, while meaningless was simply a stupid thing to do in this context also.

The good guys have to start playing the game at the low level the NFL is. They need to open their freaking eyes.

Click to expand...

I think at that point Brady and the rest of the Patriots were under the impression that balls were found at an unexplainable 10.1 psi (thanks to misinformation from the league itself). I am sure that he was trying to figure out what happened and did not have the benefit that we do of knowing that there is no evidence of any deflation.

The Brandon Five said:

I think at that point Brady and the rest of the Patriots were under the impression that balls were found at an unexplainable 10.1 psi (thanks to misinformation from the league itself). I am sure that he was trying to figure out what happened and did not have the benefit that we do of knowing that there is no evidence of any deflation.

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It certainly didn't knock Professor Belichick off his mark. Someone should have been handling Brady.

shmessy said:

I disagree with you about Brady.

Honestly, I don't see how so many idol-worshippers still say he has a great politcial future at the national level. He just isn't the brightest bulb in the box (outside of the football field). He has been his own worst enemy, straight from that 1st presser about this 'Golly gee, I don't THINK I'm a cheater...." to destroying a phone he never had to even hand over. He would get eaten alive in a 90 minute political debate.

Kraft has also been just as naive and spineless as Wetzel portrayed.

The only one who has knocked the ball out of the park all the way through has been Belichick. Belichick has been cool hand luke and has directly addressed the situation in a masterful way.

The other two have fumbled repeatedly.

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I can't really argue with anything you say which is why I am starting to really worry about where this all ends up. How much more can they possibly be miscalculating?

BSR said:

I can't really argue with anything you say which is why I am starting to really worry about where this all ends up. How much more can they possibly be miscalculating?

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I'm hoping that they get a "fixer" to set the ship right.

shmessy said:

Yup. Either Stacey James or Donald Yee should have been blanketing Brady.

Regarding that first presser after the AFCCG, I can sort of understand given the shortness of time to react and the fact that Brady had a freaking SB to prep for simultaneously.

That just makes how Belichick handled everything under those weighty circumstances all the more incredible. Belichick could pilot my family's airplane any day of the week.

I'll never be able to fathom how he kept everything together, learned about physics on the fly, gave a professorial 55 minute press conference on the subject and STILL won the SB employing great strategy against a physically more dominant team........

Belichick is Superman. I don't think the nation truly understands what he did last winter.

Click to expand...

Does Belichick even sleep?