NFL files its opening brief in Deflategate appeal.

I still find it laughable that they felt the 4 games they were going to suspend him for was them doing him a favor and being "lenient":

“The Commissioner explained that the four-game penalty he imposed was “fully consistent with, if not more lenient than,” that policy, which calls for a four-game suspension for a player’s first positive drug test and a six-game suspension if the player is found to have used masking agents— i.e. to have tried, as Brady was found to have done here, “to cover up the underlying violation.”

“While the Commissioner made clear that he did not rely on the steroid policy “to determine the discipline imposed on Mr. Brady,” it “reinforce[d] [his] conclusion … that the discipline imposed on Mr. Brady is not excessive or without precedent, and is in fact fair and reasonable.”

Yes, "fair and reasonable" is exactly what I would call it.

Remember when Troy Vincent criticized the NFLPA for a frivolous waste of players money?? Imagine all the good the NFL could be doing with this frivolous expense???

Perhaps all the other morally upright owners like Jerruh, Davis and Irsay could help influence Goodell to channel these costs into worthwhile ventures..

Ian said:

I still find it laughable that they felt the 4 games they were going to suspend him for was them doing him a favor and being "lenient":

“The Commissioner explained that the four-game penalty he imposed was “fully consistent with, if not more lenient than,” that policy, which calls for a four-game suspension for a player’s first positive drug test and a six-game suspension if the player is found to have used masking agents— i.e. to have tried, as Brady was found to have done here, “to cover up the underlying violation.”

“While the Commissioner made clear that he did not rely on the steroid policy “to determine the discipline imposed on Mr. Brady,” it “reinforce[d] [his] conclusion … that the discipline imposed on Mr. Brady is not excessive or without precedent, and is in fact fair and reasonable.”

Yes, "fair and reasonable" is exactly what I would call it.

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If I knew that being that dumb paid so well I would have eaten more paint chips as a child.

BelichickFan said:

Check out this quote :


I wonder if Goodell understands it's not up to him anymore what is allowed. F*ck him.

Roger Goodell not backing down with Deflategate: ‘We’re not going to allow that kind of decision to stand’

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Unless the CA2 is full of nutty Jets fans, I'm pretty confident the decision is going to stand. I'm also pretty confident the SCOTUS isn't going to waste any further judicial resources on this nonsense by granting cert.

I hope the first thing Brady does after cert. is denied is sue the bejeezus out of Goodell and the league.

DarrylS said:

Remember when Troy Vincent criticized the NFLPA for a frivolous waste of players money?? Imagine all the good the NFL could be doing with this frivolous expense???

Perhaps all the other morally upright owners like Jerruh, Davis and Irsay could help influence Goodell to channel these costs into worthwhile ventures..

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You can't put a price tag on integrity.

Man i hate this a hole. He has a personal vendetta against tommy. Wish he would go away. He's a tyrant!

‘WE’RE NOT GOING TO ALLOW THAT KIND OF DECISION TO STAND’

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How many parts of 32 defines 'we're'?

"That kind of decision" = labor laws

BelichickFan said:

The crazy part of those quotes is that if it was publicly known for years, why didn't the NFL stop it years ago ? This is the problem with lying and making stuff up, you lose track of your lies and can't get the ends to fit together. I hope Goodell dies a torturous death . . . soon.

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Why not a lingering, debilitating, painful chronic illness first? Something that renders him unable to speak or write. He can while away his "golden years" dumbly staring at 3GTG Vols. 1 thru 8

patfanken said:

Lose? It will NEVER be heard by SCOTUS. Do you really think the Supreme Court has time to listen to issues like this. Personally I'd love it to be heard by the highest court in the land. It would just further the embarrassment of a man I'd love to have embarrassed in front of the entire country......AGAIN. But JMC, its just isn't going to happen.

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SCOTUS will definitely hear this. Ginsberg, Kagan and Sotomayor would love to breathe the same air as Tom Brady, and Thomas is a huge Redskins fan who would love to see what a real quarterback looks like.

“I disagree with it just from the standpoint of we can’t articulate every violation that can happen with all the rules we have in the NFL,” Goodell said. “These are NFL rules, these are not matters of law or in the legal system. These are rules that are established by the 32 clubs and are enforced evenly and fairly. That is something part of the integrity of the game and so from our standpoint we can’t articulate any specific way that these rules are going to be violated at any particular moment. That is a judgement that the commissioner makes, and/or his staff when you have those violations. That is certainly what was negotiated in the collective bargaining agreement and articulated very clearly with the commissioners authority.”

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This is Goodell explicitly voicing his belief that the NFL should not be restricted to administering justice through any sort of due process. According to Goodell, because he is NFL commissioner, he is expressly and individually entitled to an unrestricted and unlimited power to seize any amount of a player's earnings or prevent that player from working for any amount of time whenever he personally judges a player acted in a way that was disadvantageous to the NFL, without that player ever having broken any specific rule, solely because he represents a cartel that includes the player's employer. Goodell does not believe that he needs to specify rules or potential punishments for violating those rules, nor does he believe that there is any external standard against which his judgments of guilt or the harshness of his punishments should be reviewed. Goodell says what Goodell judges is always what is best for the NFL and for the players, and anyone who says otherwise should screw off because the commissioner is the law.

Meanwhile, in the real world, we did away with this system of feudal "justice" back in the 13th century. Seriously, read that again and think about what it means that Goodell doesn't believe the NFL can or should articulate the rules that can be violated before those rules are violated. The rules and punishments are just whatever he decides after the fact, like some sort of pre-Magna Carta king ruling over his helpless subjects.

I'd love to see Brady have someone serve him with the papers when Goodell is handing him the Lombardi trophy.

This just makes goody look more clownish. than he already is.

Rusty Coupe said:

How many parts of 32 defines 'we're'?

"That kind of decision" = labor laws

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Does it matter when Kraft is one of them?

If the suspension is upheld take solace in the fact BendOver Bob said sorry to the fans for trusting Goodell. Remember to ignore any / all future hugs and warm converations between BendOver and Goodell because as noted he apologized for trusting the same guys whose ass he continues to kiss.

Okay. I read the report cover to cover. What a load of crap.

The NFL appeal says that the judge gave only three reasons why he vacated the 4-game suspension - lack of notice that Brady could be suspended for tampering with the equipment, withholding evidence, and not allowing Brady's lawyers to question Pash (who served NFL counsel, "independent" co-lead investigator and report editor.)

They don't deny any of these things actually occurred. The arguments are work arounds that don't directly show how the judge erred.

Remember, an appeal is not a re-hash of the facts in the lower court case, it is an appeal based on whether the judge got something wrong. This is extremely important.

One at a time:

Lack of Notice - the NFL says that all the players are notified that the Commissioner has unfettered power to do whatever he wants to them. Basically, it claims that everybody knows that the Commissioner is the boss and as such he knows what hurts the "integrity of the game," and can penalize players any way he wants. Not an argument based on any legal grounds whatsoever. Remember that the teams can be fined for tampering with equipment, but there is nothing in the CBA that applies to the players.

Withholding Evidence - this is in reference to the request by Kessell for the Paul Weiss Attorneys notes and interviews. The Commissioner (not a lawyer or a judge) determined that this was work product and the findings of conduct detrimental to the integrity of the game was subject to only limited discovery. He did, did he? That's nice. Discovery is the core of a fair and complete defense for the accused - except in the NFL. Since when did the courts cede the rules of evidence to the Commissioner of a monopoly protected under an anti-trust exemption?

Commissioner did not allow Kessler to interview Pash: the NFL argues that Pash wasn't central to the investigation and had no first hand knowledge of anything while in the same breath they admit that "Pash would co-lead the investigation." Sorry, Rodge, but you can't have it both ways. Goodell knew that Pash had a major conflict as a lawyer for the league, and as an editor of the Wells Report that was initially described as independent but was never really so.

If you read the appeal, can you tell me what Judge Berman did wrong? Neither can the NFL.

goheels22002 said:

SCOTUS will definitely hear this. Ginsberg, Kagan and Sotomayor would love to breathe the same air as Tom Brady, and Thomas is a huge Redskins fan who would love to see what a real quarterback looks like.

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How do you know this?

According to Kessler all the stuff that he didn't rule on would go back to Berman if the NFL wins the appeal.

robertweathers said:

According to Kessler all the stuff that he didn't rule on would go back to Berman if the NFL wins the appeal.

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That depends on exactly what CA2 does. CA2 has the power to decide all the things Berman left undecided -- and the NFL has asked CA2 to do precisely that.

jboston19 said:

I'd love to see Brady have someone serve him with the papers when Goodell is handing him the Lombardi trophy.

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QuantumMechanic said:

That depends on exactly what CA2 does. CA2 has the power to decide all the things Berman left undecided -- and the NFL has asked CA2 to do precisely that.

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OK so it could either go back to Berman or TB12 can file an injunction and then it could go to SCOTUS?

Goodell downplays #DeflateGate appeal

But if it has “nothing to do with any individual player,” why does the paperwork submitted by the NFL continue to paint Brady as a cheater, with the “general awareness” mentioned by Ted Wells in May now becoming, on the first page of the latest brief, an allegation of actual participation in a scheme to deflate footballs used in the AFC Championship?

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