My 2 cents:
1. I was out of town working for a change and didn't hear the news until I got back to my hotel room and hooked up the wifi. I only read the last 3 pages of the 13 page thread, so my apologies in advance for any redundancies.
2. In a strict football sense, it was probably for the best. One of the worst things you can have in a football season is uncertainty. Now the situation is clear. The Pats know what the situation is and can plan accordingly for it.
3. I hate it. I hate it. I HATE IT! Goodell's apparent victory is appalling, galling, and just plain WRONG! I can only hope that Brady will eventually file that defamation suit, and SCOTUS takes the NFLPA's case. Because it IS an important issue that needs to be sorted out. Unfortunately I doubt now that either of those things will happen. In the end, I can only hope that some intrepid investigative reporter will "write the book on this miscarriage of justice, and history will rewrite the wrong that was was perpetrated today.
4. And although I am massively pissed and permanently pissed off at the NFL forever; I hope we can keep this massive injustice in some perspective given its impact in comparison with what's going on in the rest of the world. THIS miscarriage of justice is small potatoes compared the the injustices we are seeing every day.
5. BTW- we should also know that these injustices have been going on LONG before these current years, it's just that the internet, social media, regular media make everything so immediate and global. When I was growing up in the 50's Boston regularly had over 100 homicides in a year. That rate is down to around 40 on average. Yet we are led to believe that more people are being killed than ever, because if no one is getting killed here, they will tell you about someone who was murdered somewhere else.
6. Pardon me for getting OT.
7. An interesting speculation now that we know the suspension will happen. Brady will be able to practice with the team during preseason, however after the final roster has been announced, he can no longer be with the team or even go to the stadium for the next 4 weeks (IIRC). So my question will be, what will Brady do to keep himself ready and prepared for when he does come back. I really don't think we can expect a 100% Brady in week 5 after not being with the team for the last 4 weeks. I can only hope that Brady will be 85-90% when he comes back.
8. This is a really good team that is going to play a lot of very tough games this season. So this team is going to have to be particularly mentally tough because they are going to me in a LOT of close games.
9. In the end we are losing our QB and best player for a quarter of the season....but it's JUST a quarter of the season. Denver won a superbowl without ITS HOF QB....and it was an improvement.
. The Texans made the playoffs and never had a QB as good as JG for the entire season. And there are many other examples.
The team WILL survive these 4 games, and in the end they COULD be better off for the experience as several people have mentioned. However none of this changes the fact that this is just so very, VERY wrong in so many ways.
10. BTW- as a fan base we were constantly outstanding in standing up to the misrepresentations and out right lies that the NFL, the haters, and the ignorant have tried to spread. It would have been easy to just "let it go" after it going on so long. The fact that we didn't is a credit to our species. However we cannot stop now. If we hear or read stupidity and lies, we need to continue to put them down with the same ferocity as in the past.
11. BTW-2. I happen to be in Wilkes-Barre, PA the weekend, and was wearing my Pats Championship cap in a local casual restaurant this evening. In the booth next to ours was a group of people in the 40's I guess, 2 of which had Steeler paraphernalia on. One thing led to another an a great discussion went on. The general tenor of the Steeler fans were that they were THRILLED with the suspension, BUT to a man, they acknowledged that Brady didn't do anything.
So I think in the end, most fans know it was all Bull ****, but it was BS that hurts us and helps THEIR team, so in that short sighted sense it is a good thing.
12. I have by and large defended Bob Kraft on these pages despite the horrendous decision he initially made in this case. He has publicly acknowledged his mistake and his 20+ years of superior ownership of this franchise far out weighs this one incredibly bad misstep.
That being said, I had better NOT see any clips or pictures of him making nice to Roger Goodell after this point. Icy politeness better be the limit of his interaction with Goodell at this point.
13. Oh, my, I have once again rambled on. It's past midnight and I have a 5:45am wake up call, so I better end this.
