Jeffrey Kessler Appreciation Thread

I was impressed with his oral arguments. Anyone who's tried to write any sort of argument should appreciate how difficult that is.

Kessler had to walk through a technical point where you go from A to B and on to make point G. It's difficult to do without missing something or getting sidetracked when writing. Often you read what you wrote and edit to get it right several times.

Doing what he did speaking his just damn hard. He had to cover four points, backing each one up, and giving a logical flow while being concise. And he had to react to questions on the fly and added a bit of wit.

I can see why this guy is in the top of his field.

For as much as lawyers get dumped on, this is just an example of how important it is to have a good one.

I know Kessler's good, but are the NFL lawyers just that incompetent or are they just limited by the morons they have as clients? Kessler vs. the NFL in the courtroom was like watching JJ Watt play into the 4th quarter of the 4th preseason game against future grocery baggers.

slam said:

I know Kessler's good, but are the NFL lawyers just that incompetent or are they just limited by the morons they have as clients? Kessler vs. the NFL in the courtroom was like watching JJ Watt play into the 4th quarter of the 4th preseason game against future grocery baggers.

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In fairness, by the time they got to the courtroom, they were completely screwed. They knew they had absolutely nothing except Article 46. For the fifth consecutive time, a judge disagreed with their interpretation of that rule as allowing the "arbitrator" Goodell to be omnipotent and infallible.

My question is, how incredibly arrogant, stupid, pigheaded, moronic, impossibly stubborn, egotistical, obtuse, and smug does Goodell have to be that FOR THE FIFTH time he must have told them to shut up and leave him alone while he conducted his kangaroo court in his own failed way? I simply cannot imagine his staff of dozens of Harvard recruiters would not have advised him he needed to allow Pash and evidence discovery during the appeal hearing. It is SO hard to lose an arbitration decision in court, but Goodell has five now without a single win. I truly believe he is the most arrogant man in America, and possibly the dumbest.

slam said:

I know Kessler's good, but are the NFL lawyers just that incompetent or are they just limited by the morons they have as clients? Kessler vs. the NFL in the courtroom was like watching JJ Watt play into the 4th quarter of the 4th preseason game against future grocery baggers.

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I really didn't see if that way. It may be they are in the business of having to justify Goodell's stupid. Maybe he doesn't ask them for advice before he does stupid stuff.

Either way, I think when you read their arguments you see these guys are skilled. They had a s*** case, they had to make lemonade with rotten tomatoes. Given what they had I thought they did a good job.

Not that I agree with them, but I don't see them as incompetent at all.

slam said:

I know Kessler's good, but are the NFL lawyers just that incompetent or are they just limited by the morons they have as clients? Kessler vs. the NFL in the courtroom was like watching JJ Watt play into the 4th quarter of the 4th preseason game against future grocery baggers.

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Pash is an idiot, but I don't think Nash is necessarily incompetent. I think he was just stuck defending a pretty indefensible position against a lawyer who's pretty much the best at what he does.

If it turns out that they weren't advising Goodell to settle on generous terms, though, then yeah that's really bad. But for all we know they were advising Goodell to settle, but in typical Goodell fashion he decided that his opinion was all that mattered and ignored them. Not much they can do if that happens.

That makes sense. I'm sure if the NFL's checks continue to cash they're still happy.

“Tom Brady wants to play football,” Kessler said. “He wants to focus on his team. He wants to try and win another Super Bowl. I think you’ll see a very determined competitor out there Thursday night and quite frankly I hope to be there.”

YES! Come on Krafts, honor this man for winning the war you didn't have the guts to fight.

I wonder if the next Madden installment will have Jeffrey Kessler as a 99.

Kessler will get the second largest ovation, right after Brady.

Kessler is awesome but I think the NFL giftwrapped this case for him

ChoWZa said:

Kessler is awesome but I think the NFL giftwrapped this case for him

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He gets credit for not playing down to the level of his opponents. He went out and executed the game plan and did what he should have done. He gets credit for that.

TommyD4207 said:

He gets credit for not playing down to the level of his opponents. He went out and executed the game plan and did what he should have done. He gets credit for that.

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You guys are completely selling Kessler short, getting arbitration awards overturned is extremely rare and the CBA Kessler was up against gave Goodell all the power. Kessler wasn't just brilliant in front of Berman he set the league up completely by the tack he took in the appeal in front of Goodell. The mistakes Goodell made were due to the roads Kessler led him down, and he played it out beautifully for Berman. This was a great job by Kessler and he deserves both our gratitude and respect.

I've been told that BB has offered Kessler a position on the staff. "No one does his job better," Belichick explained before getting on one knee. "I am but his student."

Ivan said:

You guys are completely selling Kessler short, getting arbitration awards overturned is extremely rare and the CBA Kessler was up against have Goodell all the power. Kessler wsn't just brilliant in front of Berman he set the league up completely by the table he took in the appeal in front of Goodell. The mistakes Goodell made were due to the roads Kessler led him down, and he played it out beautifully for Berman. This was a great job by Kessler and he deserves both our gratitude and respect.

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Don't get me wrong I hope the Patriots hire him.

I don't care when the engagement officially began or what would be admitted publicly; but the cellphone discarding was absolutely Kessler's idea. Despite the media reaction, there was nothing ever to see there. Any supposed scheme would have communication between Brady and the league employees, so it was never necessary. Kessler baited Goodell and played right into his hands in that one.

And calling Pash to the stand? Brilliant. Right up there with Butlers INT.

PatsDeb said:

Roger Goodell has a house in Maine he'd like to sell to him!

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You mean, he has a house in Maine that he will have to sell to him...or somebody...anybody...

FrodoBagginz said:

This was probably the easiest case of Kessler's career. The NFL did most of the work for Kessler.

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I gave you a "Like" for that, but not an "Agree." People like Kessler make very hard work look very easy. Trust me. It wasn't "easy."

MagicMarker said:

The best thing we can do for Kessler and the NFLPA is the next time Roger and the NFL office decides they are going to railroad some other team is to stand up and yell like we did this time.

If more fan bases do that, these things will never get this far again.

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That's a very good point.
Many of us with roots in New England and the Boston area are reasonably savvy and connected with the media, legal and political communities. I think that, together, though not organized, we managed to make our voice heard. I think we should give ourselves a quiet pat on the back, while recognizing that the "real work" was done by Tom Brady and Jeffrey Kessler.