Tom Curran on Brady court case

Tom E Curran just gave some insight on the court case on WEEI:

• The NFL claimed they were willing to give in some concessions this week, but when the two sides met, they pretty much had the same position as before.
• He is hearing that on Monday, barring a settlement, Judge Berman needs to hear something new from the NFL on why he should rule in their favor or a ruling will come quickly.
• Brady's side is cautiously optimistic they will win
• Curran doesn't believe that the NFL is taking a hardline because they think they will win, but that they feel Brady did something and there are still a lot of owners who want Goodell to fight this to the finish.
• He also said there is a feeling that Judge Berman wants to rule for Brady or that this will give Goodell a blank check to punish players for anything no matter if there is any evidence or not and whether they are directly involved in anything or not.

Prentise, if I misquoted you, feel free to correct.

Rob0729 said:

Curran doesn't believe that the NFL is taking a hardline because they think they will win, but that they feel Brady did something and there are still a lot of owners who want Goodell to fight this to the finish.

Click to expand...

This seems abundantly clear. Any settlement that doesn't involve some admission of guilt is as much of a loss as the decision being vacated... except that the NFL can't then appeal it. Their stubbornness has never been about what is right or what is proven; it's just the only option remaining.

Sounds very encouraging to me, let's hope it's actually true for a change.

Sorry, there's no way that Goodell actually feels Brady did something. Its dirty politics. Pure and simple.

PSI of the ball the Colts intercepted: 11.45, 11.35 and 11.75

... all measured with the same gauge (different from the one the officials used) and show a .4 psi variance

... and all 3 are exactly where the IDL says they should have been.

There is no way that given the incredible lack of exactitude in measuring these footballs, that Goodell actually thinks Brady was deflating footballs by a tiny .2 or .3 psi

Rob0729 said:

Tom E Curran just gave some insight on the court case on WEEI:

• The NFL claimed they were willing to give in some concessions this week, but when the two sides met, they pretty much had the same position as before.
• He is hearing that on Monday, barring a settlement, Judge Berman needs to hear something new from the NFL on why he should rule in their favor or a ruling will come quickly.
• Brady's side is cautiously optimistic they will win
• Curran doesn't believe that the NFL is taking a hardline because they think they will win, but that they feel Brady did something and there are still a lot of owners who want Goodell to fight this to the finish.
• He also said there is a feeling that Judge Berman wants to rule for Brady or that this will give Goodell a blank check to punish players for anything no matter if there is any evidence or not and whether they are directly involved in anything or not.

Prentise, if I misquoted you, feel free to correct.

Click to expand...

Please god. Make it so.

Rob0729 said:

• He is hearing that on Monday, barring a settlement, Judge Berman needs to hear something new from the NFL on why he should rule in their favor or a ruling will come quickly.

Click to expand...

I'm curious where he's getting this from. Is Berman himself already telling the parties this is how and when he's planning to rule?

As an encouraging as this update is, I'm skeptical that Curran has some inside knowledge re: what Berman's thinking. I hope he does, though, because we know the NFL doesn't have anything new to offer up.

smurfalarm said:

I'm curious where he's getting this from. Is Berman himself already telling the parties this is how and when he's planning to rule?

Click to expand...

There's been a lot of people chiming in with various levels of experience in the law and court matters who have read into Berman's comments both ways. Curran just tends to go with the ones whose intepretations of the Judge's statements and questions favors Brady. Which doesn't make him wrong.

smurfalarm said:

I'm curious where he's getting this from. Is Berman himself already telling the parties this is how and when he's planning to rule?

Click to expand...

No. But there are lawyers and legal experts that have said the most likely scenario is that he will rule on it from the bench on Monday with both parties there.

Danger Zone said:

Sorry, there's no way that Goodell actually feels Brady did something. Its dirty politics. Pure and simple.

Click to expand...

The Harvard guy, Carfagna, thinks that the owners are taking such a hard line because they think that, if the Commissioner's authority is watered down, the way will be open for truly independent arbitration, which could lead to a huge loss of control on their part.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/08/airing-it-out/

honest thought here.

If Berman rules in favor of the nfl, how close is the NFLPA from a strike? Giving goodell carte blanche power to punish people not only for things they do, but things they may or may not be aware that OTHER people may or may not be doing, means that there could be a swath of punishments in the pipeline for players. With no ability to fight these punishments via legal means(see goodell as arbitor, and "oh by the way, you know how i just rejected your appeal? I also premptively filed a court motion to deny your ability to get it overturned in federal courts, before the copy of the appeal rejection i faxed you even had time to finish printing."

Could the players strike? I feel like that fact that this hasn't been at least hinted at public has really been harmful to the players union. They should be making it VERY clear that the agreement they agreed to is no longer being followed honorably. If i'm Demurice smith, i start dropping hints that this is either going to stop happening or the players are not going to be taking the field til that part of the CBA is changed, removed, or the person abusing it is gone.

Rob0729 said:

The NFL claimed they were willing to give in some concessions this week, but when the two sides met, they pretty much had the same position as before.

Click to expand...

Seeing as this is the exact approach they use when negotiating the CBA... Make tiny, meaningless concessions that have no impact in the grand scheme of things, and it always works. Not surprised they would think that would work here too.

Mike the Brit said:

The Harvard guy, Carfagna, thinks that the owners are taking such a hard line because they think that, if the Commissioner's authority is watered down, the way will be open for truly independent arbitration, which could lead to a huge loss of control on their part.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/08/airing-it-out/

Click to expand...

I agree that that's pretty much all this is, at this point. It's a league office/NFLPA power struggle, plain and simple.

fnordcircle said:

There's been a lot of people chiming in with various levels of experience in the law and court matters who have read into Berman's comments both ways. Curran just tends to go with the ones whose intepretations of the Judge's statements and questions favors Brady. Which doesn't make him wrong.

Click to expand...

'
That's really not true at all. Curran goes off what the legal experts, namely McCann tell him. Because McCann's opinion is favorable for Brady is of no significance. If McCann and whoever else he talks to opinion was favorable for the nfl Curran would stat that.

He isn't taking the felger, massarotti and tanguay approach to this where they search out everything that favors the nfl while sniding people like Steph Stradley.

Anyone know the format of the next hearing?

woolster22 said:

Sounds very encouraging to me, let's hope it's actually true for a change.

Click to expand...

i know im feeling very optimistic about this.
dont want to get crushed by the judge though..

Danger Zone said:

Sorry, there's no way that Goodell actually feels Brady did something. Its dirty politics. Pure and simple.

PSI of the ball the Colts intercepted: 11.45, 11.35 and 11.75

... all measured with the same gauge (different from the one the officials used) and show a .4 psi variance

... and all 3 are exactly where the IDL says they should have been.

There is no way that given the incredible lack of exactitude in measuring these footballs, that Goodell actually thinks Brady was deflating footballs by a tiny .2 or .3 psi

Click to expand...

These are the same people who never heard of the ideal gas law. If their consultant says their experiment doesn't 100 percent reconcile with the numbers, they're not going to believe everyone else especially when there are 3 text messages out there that say the word deflate. Never mind that they don't recognize what the 0.2 psi difference really means, or recognize the timing or context of these text messages. They've already proven not to be the sharpest knives in the drawer.

On top of that, someone brought this up before, but it tells you something about the type of person who believes something nefarious is going on with minor evidence. Speaks to the morals and ethics of those people themselves. My personal experience (which of course means nothing) validates that. The most ethically shady people I know seem to think it's obvious that Brady did something, while the ethically "pure" people seem to question the NFL's conclusions. Speaks about what they themselves would do in those situations.

this is exactly why I think brady will win...despite all the "sky is falling" type posts, do you realise what kind of precedent this would set if Berman rules in the NFLs favor? it would go AGAINST all of Judge Doty's rulings that while the commissioner has power given to him in article 46. he still has to follow the CBA.

a ruling for the NFL would say that the CBA doesnt matter at all, the collectively bargained punishments dont matter and all that matters is what goodell thinks. if he feels one player doing steroids is an 8 game suspension and one a 3 game? thats fine because article 46!! despite what the rules say. he doesnt even have to notify you of what you are being punished of because he is a god king!

ruling for brady that Goodell violated the CBA doesnt set any sort of precedent. it basically follows in the footsteps of Judge Doty...hey goodell, you have alot of power. BUT there is still a CBA with procedures you have to follow and because of X, Y, z that you violated we are vacating the suspension. follow the rules next time sir.

Goodell wont back down because if he does settle for a fine (which is called for in the rulebook) he will basically be saying "hey I wasted 10million$ in fees on a witch-hunt for a minor equipment violation and found nothing" and there are 31 other jealous owners who would like to stick it to the patriots for a competitive advantage

BradyFTW! said:

As an encouraging as this update is, I'm skeptical that Curran has some inside knowledge re: what Berman's thinking. I hope he does, though, because we know the NFL doesn't have anything new to offer up.

Click to expand...

Some of these mediot bozos may get INSIDE info from the NFL (half-azzed lies that half-azzed transcribers will reiterate), but they are NOT getting inside info from a federal court judge.

This is clearly just his conjecture (with a few tidbits of how things went from their perspective (pts 1&3) from the Brady legal team & that team's guess about Monday (pt 2) ).

But at end of day, just another opinion-just like azzes-we all have one.

chasa said:

honest thought here.

If Berman rules in favor of the nfl, how close is the NFLPA from a strike? Giving goodell carte blanche power to punish people not only for things they do, but things they may or may not be aware that OTHER people may or may not be doing, means that there could be a swath of punishments in the pipeline for players. With no ability to fight these punishments via legal means(see goodell as arbitor, and "oh by the way, you know how i just rejected your appeal? I also premptively filed a court motion to deny your ability to get it overturned in federal courts, before the copy of the appeal rejection i faxed you even had time to finish printing."

Could the players strike? I feel like that fact that this hasn't been at least hinted at public has really been harmful to the players union. They should be making it VERY clear that the agreement they agreed to is no longer being followed honorably. If i'm Demurice smith, i start dropping hints that this is either going to stop happening or the players are not going to be taking the field til that part of the CBA is changed, removed, or the person abusing it is gone.

Click to expand...

Some comments on your comments:

1/ Section 46 is a red herring (to some degree). It's not the clause, but the man who is abusing it that's the problem. More focus needs to be centered on that. End the Goodell reign of terror.

2. As for your strike scenario, NEVER gonna happen. You'd never get a majority of these knuckleheads to give up all that money just to support Brady, the Patriots, OR even an important yet intangible principle.

3. What I believe SHOULD be done by the NFLPA is a PR campaign to their membership making them aware of the consequences of Brady's appeal. Make them understand that a loss by Brady means that Goodell would have NO oversight PERIOD for Goodell or his minions to single out any player, coach or organization for punishment and never have to justify it to anyone else's authority except GOD (and even he better come with a good lawyer)

4. You'd never get a strike going now, but you can set the seeds for one in the future if you create the sense of urgency over time.

5. As for Curran's comments they all make sense to me EXCEPT the one about the owners still believe Brady did "something". That doesn't make sense. These guys may all be alpha male, egotistical jackasses, but the aren't stupid. Even the haters are realizing that the NFL has nothing on Brady.

No, if a bunch of owners are part of pushing the NFL's hardball position it's because they are simply looking for a competitive edge against the Pats and that's all.

6. I don't know if Curran understands it, but every time he writes that owners believe Brady did "something" line; he is aiding and abetting the NFL's smear campaign, which is to reinforce that VERY point. That is, even though we don't have any evidence of proof, we KNOW that Brady did SOMETHING.

The NFL knows it is going to lose on Monday, but when Brady walks out of the courtroom all smiles, the NFL wants the public to look upon him the same way they's look at Al Capone after he beats a murder rap. Yeah, he beat the rap, but we ALL know he's guilty as hell.