More settlement negotiations through the press (Newsday)

Kjmass1 said:

Why would he admit to a $1 million dollar fine, the most in history?

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It would be bullsh!t but I'm talking about a settlement, you have to give up something to settle. If not you put your fate in the hands of one man. FWIW I highly doubt the NFL would accept my proposal but it's the most I'd offer.

I'd settle for not knocking Goody's teeth out with no fine and suspension.

Brewskies said:

Brady destroying the phone and not saying anything about that until the big meeting and then implying he always does than when he doesn't gave them enough to change the subject.

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DarrylS said:

Waiting for Judges to "Judge" is a crapshoot, for both sides.. settlement is preferred for most litigants, however do not see Brady backing down unless it is a small fine and some sort of admission that he should have been more aware than he was of these equipment issues.

Monday might prove interesting..

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Brady accepting a fine for destroying a cell phone after the NFL told him he didn't need to keep it seems pretty damn generous to me.

The real problem here is Goodell and league corruption. A settlement just glosses over the real problem.

Brewskies said:

I have been saying that for a while. Brady destroying the phone and not saying anything about that until the big meeting and then implying he always does than when he doesn't gave them enough to change the subject.

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Yes, and Kessler correctly stated in open Court that Brady received bad advice on that from Yee. But, the whole thing was exaggerated and purely cosmetic and did nothing to affect the substance of the matter, since Wells had already told him he would not be penalized for not handing over the phone. Brady's destruction of the phone just gave the NFL a chance to misrepresent that action and distract from their lack of a real case against Brady. The NFL thought it would get away with it, until they got Judge Berman, who ordered that all records be unsealed.

AzorianPats said:

This isnt about Brady vs Goddell anymore, its the NFL vs the NFLPA, and its complete bull sh!t Brady is stuck in the middle of this.

If the NFL wants to make an example, why don't they make an example out of the 49ers. They had Ray Mcdonald who dealing with his thousands of domestic abuse accusations, and now Ahmad Brooks is being accused of rape. Go after those chumps.

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"the crowd chose Barabbas to be released and Jesus of Nazareth to be crucified"

An analogy that works for me.

Brit patriot said:

I'm not sure any of us should answer on behalf of Tom Brady when it comes to a settlement. He is enough of a man to make his own decisions and I think he has earned that right.

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I don't see people trying to "answer on behalf of" Brady. I do see people pointing out that accepting a Settlement that accepts "guilt" for something he has sworn under oath he didn't do is a sub-optimal outcome for him.

You're right in the sense that, in the final analysis, only Brady can make the decision as to whether to settle on acceptable grounds or take his chances with a Judge who could rule either way. The problem is that accepting guilt can not be described as "acceptable" for him, since it would imply that he had perjured himself.

Let's take the Phone issue a little further........

Tom should've (not should of)

1. Handed over his phone.
2. Allowed them full access to his phone records
3. Allowed a walk through of his house(s)
4. Allowed a search of his vehicle(s)
5. Turned over his bank records (to verify Tanguay's Ball boy payoff scheme)
6. Testified under oath while hooked up to a lie detector test.

Because that's what an innocent man would do if he had nothing to hide. Right?

It's a slippery slope.

AzorianPats said:

This isnt about Brady vs Goddell anymore, its the NFL vs the NFLPA, and its complete bull sh!t Brady is stuck in the middle of this.

If the NFL wants to make an example, why don't they make an example out of the 49ers. They had Ray Mcdonald who dealing with his thousands of domestic abuse accusations, and now Ahmad Brooks is being accused of rape. Go after those chumps.

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Yes, but the Jets haven't been getting regularly "undressed" on national TV by the 49ers for the past 15 seasons.

BelichickFan said:

If I were Brady the most I would accept would be :

2 game fine (not suspension)
No defamation suit against ESPN or NFL - or employees thereof
Agreement to respond "no comment" forever, no sit down interview denying all charges, etc.

That's the most I'd offer.

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1) "2 game fine" for what? An admission of guilt for something he has sworn under oath he did not do or for "non-cooperation" with the investigation? The former is a non-starter since it brings perjury into play. Favre was fined $50,000 for a similar offense related to the latter (non-cooperation in the matter of handing over a cell phone), so that would be my starting point if I were going down that road. I'd cap it at the maximum player fine of $250,000 allowed by the CBA.

2) No defamation suit? I couldn't advise him on that because I don't know what his lawyers are telling him about their view on its likelihood of success. Without a ruling by Berman in his favor, it might be hard to succeed with such a suit, so that wouldn't be a big give away.

3) I wouldn't even put that on the table.

25k fine for non cooperation, no defamation lawsuit, reject Wells report. Done.

I know I'm a bad, bad person for speaking for TFB here but were I in that position I would definitely offer concessions so as not to be correctly perceived as completely intransigent by the judge who strongly urges settlement.
1. I'd offer the max "equipment" fine or some reasonable extension thereof for my unwitting cellphone destruction.
2. I'd offer a promise to not sue the league for defamation but require a league statement written by my lawyers stating that there is no tangible evidence that I participated in any deflation scheme.

I know this leaves me open to further defamation by espn citing "league sources" but that's not possible to fix until the Jets rats are purged from the league offices. Good luck with that given our milquetoast owner.

After reading that drivel, it's more probable than not that Newsday's football columnist Bob Glauber is generally aware that he is a spineless jellyfish.

Tony2046 said:

Let's take the Phone issue a little further........

Tom should've (not should of)

1. Handed over his phone.
2. Allowed them full access to his phone records
3. Allowed a walk through of his house(s)
4. Allowed a search of his vehicle(s)
5. Turned over his bank records (to verify Tanguay's Ball boy payoff scheme)
6. Testified under oath while hooked up to a lie detector test.

Because that's what an innocent man would do if he had nothing to hide. Right?

It's a slippery slope.

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1) I think Kessler put it correctly. Brady should have handled the phone situation better. Even though Wells had told Brady he would not be penalized for not handing over the phone, destroying the phone was a mistake, based, as Kessler observed, on bad advice from Yee. The smart thing to do would have been to give the phone physically to Kessler as his Lawyer rather than destroy it. Yee should have suggested something along those lines. As far as I can see, this is the only mistake that Brady's team made throughout the entire matter. While the mistake was related to "appearances" and not to substance, nonetheless it was, as Kessler observed, a mistake.

2) He did allow them full access to his phone records and to the records of the texts he sent as well.

3--6 were never sought, as they would be reasonably be argued as violations of Brady's Constitutional rights in this case and, as such, would have been fought vigorously by Brady's attorneys. But even the NFL in all its absurd arrogance wasn't dumb enough to demand them.

PatsWickedPissah said:

I know I'm a bad, bad person for speaking for TFB here but were I in that position I would definitely offer concessions so as not to be correctly perceived as completely intransigent by the judge who strongly urges settlement.
1. I'd offer the max "equipment" fine or some reasonable extension thereof for my unwitting cellphone destruction.
2. I'd offer a promise to not sue the league for defamation but require a league statement written by my lawyers stating that there is no tangible evidence that I participated in any deflation scheme.

I know this leaves me open to further defamation by espn citing "league sources" but that's not possible to fix until the Jets rats are purged from the league offices. Good luck with that given our milquetoast owner.

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I wouldn't be surprised if 1. and 2. aren't very close to what Kessler offered, but 1. was probably phrased in terms of the Favre precedent ($50,000) and, perhaps, a willingness to pay the maximum player fine of $250,000. The rest of what you have written makes a lot of sense, IMO.

PatsFanSince74 said:

1) I think Kessler put it correctly. Brady should have handled the phone situation better. Even though Wells had told Brady he would not be penalized for not handing over the phone, destroying the phone was a mistake, based, as Kessler observed, on bad advice from Yee. The smart thing to do would have been to give the phone physically to Kessler as his Lawyer rather than destroy it. Yee should have suggested something along those lines. As far as I can see, this is the only mistake that Brady's team made throughout the entire matter. While the mistake was related to "appearances" and not to substance, nonetheless it was, as Kessler observed, a mistake.

2) He did allow them full access to his phone records and to the records of the texts he sent as well.

3--6 were never sought, as they would be reasonably be argued as violations of Brady's Constitutional rights in this case and, as such, would have been fought vigorously by Brady's attorneys. But even the NFL in all its absurd arrogance wasn't dumb enough to demand them.

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I was trying to shed a little light on the "just hand over your phone" stance. I agree that it should have been handled differently.

A question for the legal eagles who post here.Lets say Berman sends
this back to arbitration,can Brady file and injuction with this judge?

0 games or 4 games. Either way I'm sticking by Brady. **** article 46 and **** Goodell and his minions.

We took our turn in good faith and it got us jack ****, which was a mistake.

Again...zero....nothing.....ziltch......absolutely nothing.....

Fencer said:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/colum...ce-at-settlement-in-tom-brady-case-1.10787769

Too annoying; didn't read (including between the lines, which is where I get most of this from):

• The NFL is getting the message that it needs to settle.
• Its current negotiating position is a suspension of 2 games.
• In verbiage, it will accept anything that can be spun to say Brady did something wrong, no matter how un-specific.
• It wants the NFLPA to agree that Article 46 says Goodell is god.

That's all according to one anonymous source, who may be somewhat out ahead of his masters. But I take it as a plausible-enough assessment of the NFL's stance, where by "plausible-enough" I mean it's so far away from anything Brady would ever agree to that the fine details of any offer in that range don't matter anyway.

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Thanks for catching this. We have no way of knowing Glauber's source(s), but it's unlikely he's spinning it out of thin air (such as Mort or Volin might do). (Gary Myers of The Daily News has been floating trial balloons for the League throughout this mess, so I'm going to read his column tomorrow with interest.)

But I don't think either Brady or the NFLPA can accept the guts of what Glauber has written (see below). Nowhere is it said that a player has responsibility for equipment, so Brady can't accept responsibility for that. Also, I don't see Brady accepting any Suspension. However, what this suggests to me is that the NFL is probably desperate to settle. Brady has more flexibility since he is in charge of his own destiny, but Goodell has to take into consideration what 31 owners want and a lot of them are probably intransigent.

Also, I think (based on no information or knowledge) that Judge Berman's Clerk is probably writing his ruling this weekend and that Berman will be ready to rule from the bench on Monday, maybe after giving both sides a couple of hours to reach a Settlement.

"The NFL wants an acknowledgment of wrongdoing from Brady, but there could be a way to agree on a statement in which the quarterback acknowledges in a broader sense that mistakes were made and that he is the one who ultimately bears responsibility for the preparation of footballs used in the game. Brady is unwilling to say he or Patriots equipment staffers John Jastremski and Jim McNally actually tampered with the footballs. But a careful wording of his acceptance of some accountability could be enough for him to not admit guilt yet still accept a sanction that upholds the NFL's authority to impose such a penalty."