More settlement negotiations through the press (Newsday)

raduray said:

Here's another Wells quote from the transcript:

Note that he is requesting a search of the phone. My take is that this initial request is to make the phone available to be searched. A request for the phone.

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Fixit said:

I have no dog in this fight, but none of the quotes that you've posted indicate that Wells asked to physically take possession of the phone. They all specifically refer to Wells making a request for records that would be provided by Yee.

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We wanted two buckets of information. We wanted him to take the phone, look at the text messages, e-mails, run the search terms that we set forth and give us any communications with anybody about deflation or inflation. So if Mr. Brady had talked to an assistant coach or talked to the second-team quarterback about these issues, we would get that material. We then asked him for all communications regardless of subject matter, I think, between Mr. Jastremski and McNally, regardless of -- and Schoenfeld, regardless of the search terms. So we wanted two buckets of information.

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SVN said:

I know everyone is excited about defamation but from what I read of all these lawyers , its probably not happening. A lot of stuff comes out publicly including of his personal life whether related to the suit or not and brady may not want that.

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Fixit said:

I have no dog in this fight, but none of the quotes that you've posted indicate that Wells asked to physically take possession of the phone. They all specifically refer to Wells making a request for records that would be provided by Yee.

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Fencer said:

It seems likely that Wells asked for the phone, then backed down to the other request.

Wells has never to my knowledge denied asking for the phone. He's just emphasized that he would have been fine with the granting of the lesser request.

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RayClay said:

"And I want to be crystal clear: I told Mr. Brady and his agents, I was willing not to take possession of the phone. I said, ‘I don’t want to see any private information.’ I said, ‘You keep the phone. You, the agent, Mr. Yee, you keep the phone, you give me the documents that are responsive to this investigation, and I will take your word that you have given me what’s responsive. And they still refused.”

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/05/ted-wells-i-would-have-taken-printouts-of-tom-bradys-texts-emails/

"Specifically, it can be found at footnote 11 on page 12: “After the hearing and after the submission of post-hearing briefs, Mr. Brady’s certified agents offered to provide a spreadsheet that would identify all of the individuals with whom Mr. Brady had exchanged text messages during [the relevant time] period; the agents suggested that the League could contact those individuals and request production of any relevant text messages that they retained. Aside from the fact that, under Article 46, Section 2(f) of the CBA, such information could and should have been provided long before the hearing, the approach suggested in the agents’ letter — which would require tracking down numerous individuals and seeking consent from each to retrieve from their cellphones detailed information about their text message communications during the relevant period — is simply not practical.”

In English, here’s what the footnote means: Although the text messages couldn’t be retrieved directly from Brady’s phone, his agents provided all of the phone numbers with which Brady exchanged text messages. His agents also said that the league could attempt to get the actual text messages from the phones of the people with whom Brady communicated, but the league refused to attempt to try, claiming that it would be too hard to track down the various people and to persuade them to cooperate."

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...red-to-help-nfl-gather-missing-text-messages/

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RayClay said:

"And I want to be crystal clear: I told Mr. Brady and his agents, I was willing not to take possession of the phone. I said, ‘I don’t want to see any private information.’ I said, ‘You keep the phone. You, the agent, Mr. Yee, you keep the phone, you give me the documents that are responsive to this investigation, and I will take your word that you have given me what’s responsive. And they still refused.”

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/05/ted-wells-i-would-have-taken-printouts-of-tom-bradys-texts-emails/

"Specifically, it can be found at footnote 11 on page 12: “After the hearing and after the submission of post-hearing briefs, Mr. Brady’s certified agents offered to provide a spreadsheet that would identify all of the individuals with whom Mr. Brady had exchanged text messages during [the relevant time] period; the agents suggested that the League could contact those individuals and request production of any relevant text messages that they retained. Aside from the fact that, under Article 46, Section 2(f) of the CBA, such information could and should have been provided long before the hearing, the approach suggested in the agents’ letter — which would require tracking down numerous individuals and seeking consent from each to retrieve from their cellphones detailed information about their text message communications during the relevant period — is simply not practical.”

In English, here’s what the footnote means: Although the text messages couldn’t be retrieved directly from Brady’s phone, his agents provided all of the phone numbers with which Brady exchanged text messages. His agents also said that the league could attempt to get the actual text messages from the phones of the people with whom Brady communicated, but the league refused to attempt to try, claiming that it would be too hard to track down the various people and to persuade them to cooperate."

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...red-to-help-nfl-gather-missing-text-messages/

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raduray said:

That's fair. I had read it as a request for Wells to search the phone, but I take your point. On further review of the Wells testimony I found this regarding the initial request:

So, no request for the phone itself, only for specific information relevant to the investigation.

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QuantumMechanic said:

I'd expect just the opposite - that the owners' agreement prohibits suits for everything other than what the law prevents from being prohibited.

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Froob said:

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

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SVN said:

One other thing the judge bought up last week. Both patriots and colts footballs were deflated. The colts was attributed to Ideal Gas Law but the patriots was less than that threshold according to NFL/exponent. So Mcnally the science genuis went to the bathroom to remove 2/10ths of air from the footballs ?? WTF are we doing here ????? I get mad even typing this ****. This the NFL.

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NJPatsfan26 said:

it seems that Goodell is only running on 2/10ths of his Brain for the past 7 months. Seems to be the only rational explanation.

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The Brandon Five said:

Only for the last 7 months?

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RayClay said:

He asked brady to decide to turn over only the texts he thought were germane to the investigation. Since Brady maintained he had done nothing, it was a ridiculous request.

Brady ended up turning over much more material than he was asked for, he just did it in a fashion whereby the league would need to ask permission from the other parties to the text.

Since that would have required picking up a phone, the league declined. Seems that the other parties to the texts didn't owe the league an invasion of their privacy.

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AndyJohnson said:

Which he also had no right to, or basis to request

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SVN said:

One other thing the judge bought up last week. Both patriots and colts footballs were deflated. The colts was attributed to Ideal Gas Law but the patriots was less than that threshold according to NFL/exponent. So Mcnally the science genuis went to the bathroom to remove 2/10ths of air from the footballs ?? WTF are we doing here ????? I get mad even typing this ****. This the NFL.

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skinnydog said:

The total number of truly possibly relevant texts Brady could have turned over were the 2-3 jastremski texts from February they could not be recovered and that's it.

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The Brandon Five said:

They already had Jag's phone and thus any texts, so...

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TheBostonStraggler said:

If there was clear contract language/legality that compelled Brady to turn over his phone, it would have been shocking for Goodell not to change the narrative even further than he did.
"Due to Tom Brady not turning over his phone as laid out in Rule X, he is handed down punishment Z as a direct result of being guilty of this violation". Neat, simple, super tough for Brady to defend/fight, and Brady is indisputably guilty of the violation. Goodell can use and abuse this new wrinkle to successfully push the word 'guilty' and by default push the 'he is guilty of deflation' meme. It also hands the media their winning second headline splash of 'Just Like We Said, Brady Is Guilty!".

It seems to me that Goodell used the "destroyed" phone most specifically for 'he's guilty of deflation!!'. Why not also take the 'non cooperation violation' win unless he knows his argument of 'we wanted the phone so he had no choice to turn over the phone' is not compelling? Put it this way, if slimy Wells/NFL had right from the beginning all the way to now emphatically and unwavering said 'turn over your phone, you have to turn over your phone', right now they would be continuously beating Brady over the head with "non cooperation". Instead non cooperation has been a little more than a couple of spoken words of to completely push the shaky 'it is all about him being guilty of deflation'.

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