More settlement negotiations through the press (Newsday)

SVN said:

Probably they underestimated what the NFL was doing.

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I dont think the NFL knew what the NFL was doing

SVN said:

TBH, brady shoulve involved the PA from the start . this whole phone mess couldve been cleaned up.That was his big blunder. I know a lot of people were loving the rhetoric yee was shouting and doing interviews everywhere for PR but he didnt help much IMO. He claimed he has notes from ted wells investigation which he didnt release. Shouldve gotten NFLPA in from the start. Probably they underestimated what the NFL was doing.

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I agree that it would have been better strategy to, for example, ask the NFLPA in a written communication "I am getting a new phone and as a matter of routine privacy and practice, I get completely rid of the old phone's memory' in order to give the NFLPA a chance validate it. Ot would have been solid plausible deniability and CYA.

IMHO Brady should have kept it to himself that he "destroyed" the phone. Better than that, put it in his safe then say "no you can't have my phone" any and every time the NFL asked him. It was bad strategy to get rid of the phone and report that to the NFL. He might as well have said 'I have a video of me talking about deflating footballs to the legal level I like. But, btw, I destroyed that video'. Whether any suspicious texts existed or not, team Brady must have seen the NFL was railroading him and thought very hard about the next smart move. "destroying" the phone then reporting to Goodell/Wells makes it seem like they were not even thinking about the big picture strategy.

With that said, as mentioned before, if Goodell/Wells felt sure they consistently and unambiguously asked for the physical phone to be given to them without exception, IMHO they would be beating that specific point into the ground. To my knowledge they have not stated 'Brady had to turn over his phone and he did not' (versus what they did -- using it completely as anecdotal evidence of deflation guilt).

Fencer said:

I conjecture that he could control that by basing his defamation claims solely on loss of endorsement income and other business prospects.

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A fair point to consider, although how does Tom Brady go about proving loss of endorsement deals and business prospects?

In other words, what companies have dropped him, etc? No matter what happens, no company in their right mind is going to deny Brady the opportunity to help sling their product. To date, I don't believe anyone has even brought it up.

He's still a 4x SB winning QB, one of the most well-known athletes in the entire world, and part of arguably the biggest power couple that there is. This isn't exactly a "Michael Vick" or "Jerod from Subway" type of situation, where companies are publicly pulling out of their deals.

My concern is that aspect may be somewhat difficult to prove in court, as good as it sounds in theory. Then again, I suppose it only takes one deal.

supafly said:

A fair point to consider, although how does Tom Brady go about proving loss of endorsement deals and business prospects?

In other words, what companies have dropped him, etc? No matter what happens, no company in their right mind is going to deny Brady the opportunity to help sling their product. To date, I don't believe anyone has even brought it up.

He's still a 4x SB winning QB, one of the most well-known athletes in the entire world, and part of arguably the biggest power couple that there is. This isn't exactly a "Michael Vick" or "Jerod from Subway" type of situation, where companies are publicly pulling out of their deals.

My concern is that aspect may be somewhat difficult to prove in court, as good as it sounds in theory. Then again, I suppose it only takes one deal.

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Good point.

But I'm sure there are people who estimate endorsers' values before making offers to them. So there's some level or other of expertise around in evaluating this.

Fencer said:

Good point.

But I'm sure there are people who estimate endorsers' values before making offers to them. So there's some level or other of expertise around in evaluating this.

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I agree with you that there should be some type of concrete, objective, estimated value--although again, I wonder if that would be difficult to prove in a court of law? Just thinking aloud, that's all.

I'm sure someone here will bring up that recent article regarding the small sample size stating that Brady is now the most hated man in America, or the evil twin brother of the Iron Sheik, or whatever. My guess is that kind of data won't be much of a consideration

supafly said:

I agree with you that there should be some type of concrete, objective, estimated value--although again, I wonder if that would be difficult to prove in a court of law? Just thinking aloud, that's all.

I'm sure someone here will bring up that recent article regarding the small sample size stating that Brady is now the most hated man in America, or the evil twin brother of the Iron Sheik, or whatever. My guess is that kind of data won't be much of a consideration

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If damages are off by a factor of 2 or 3, that's not a problem. Winning a big judgment still would come closer to exonerating Brady in the public eye than anything else would. And the fear of Brady winning a big judgment is a more plausible way to get to a settlement where the NFL officially exonerates him than any other possibility that comes to mind.

supafly said:

I agree with you that there should be some type of concrete, objective, estimated value--although again, I wonder if that would be difficult to prove in a court of law? Just thinking aloud, that's all.

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I don't think he has to prove it, he just has to show that it is "more probable than not" (and wouldn't that be a perfect irony). There are two objectives to this suit: 1. just getting it accepted by a court for the purposes of revenge bad PR and the discovery of all the communications in the NFL, and 2. winning.

Most fans don't follow the details of deflategate closely. If the judge vacates the ruling most causal fans will equate it with Brady being found innocent even though the ruling is on process. JMO

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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(not should of), HAVE, not "of!" Sorry, pet peeve.

eom said:

it's also a little odd that the made no issue of the colts balls at the time when they admit they had no knowledge of the IGL -- they didn't even bother testing the other 8

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That's a smoking gun in the sting operation, IMO. None of the Colts balls were at their original PSI level and Kensil, Vincent and company believed the only way that could decrease was from someone letting out air.

I agree it's odd that the NFL didn't also accuse McNally of doctoring the Colts balls. Maybe that wouldn't fit in their scheme because people would then ask why didn't the Colts notice the deflation and why deflated footballs didn't help the Colts performance? Or maybe they really didn't care what the Colts balls measured at because they only wanted to catch the Patriots.

It would also make for a better negative story if they said all the Patriots balls were deflated and the Colts balls were at their original level. This was the lie they fed to Peter King and Gerry Austin for publication.

vyrago said:

(not should of), HAVE, not "of!" Sorry, pet peeve.

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You wrote what I wrote?