Armando Salguero: Ted Wells is not an investigator, he is a prosecutor

[The Gr8est]

Rob, all the rules of business, economics and common sense also apply in the legal industry. If a client is willing to pay several million dollars for an analysis, that analysis is not going to be unfavorable to the client, especially when there is the promise of future business of the same lucrative kind. The analysis is going to present all facts in the light most favorable to the client, which in this case means pinning the blame of a broken league protocol on a couple of bumbling team employees and insinuating that A player was the mastermind. Dont pay so much attention to meaningless labels like "independent" or "investigation." If the Patriots were absolved, the league office would look like a bunch of clowns incapable of putting uniform footballs out on the field. Just follow the money and understand who the client is. In this case--Goodell and the league office, not the Patriots or even the 32 teams collectively. Your naievete on this point continues to surprise.

They ARE a bunch of clowns incapable of putting uniform footballs out on the field!

 

[Kontradiction]

I hear that and understand it.

However, that feels separate from getting out the message to the world that Wells was never an independent, impartial fact-finding investigator.

His role was NOT as an ombudsman as they are trying to pretend it was, his job all along was to find the Patriots guilty of deflating footballs.

The conclusions he came to in his report clearly demonstrate this bias.

And that needs to come out in a court of law, not a private report that will just as easily be discredited by skeptics. Brady is wise not to show all of his cards right now.

 

[Fixit]

Deflating a football isn't illegal in the NFL.

Inflating one isn't illegal either.

Tampering with footballs on the field is.

Furthermore, the balls in the AFCCG were right where the PSI should have been according to the Wells report. In other words, they weren't tampered with. They were at expected PSI.

This, to me, is the most mind blowing part. "Here's where the psi should've been (on the conservative side, as the consultants whiffed on the actual experiment). Eight of the eleven balls are in that range, three are under by a few tenths. Verdict? TAMPERING!!!"

 

[PrairiePat]

Unfortunately, Goodell will just use the 'team did not cooperate fully with investigators' angle to punish the Pats/Brady to whatever extent he wants to. It's a setup, and it stinks.

 

[Oswlek]

Wells was given a directive: Find evidence that proves that the Pats deflated footballs.

The report found nothing of the sort. That cannot be disputed in any way, shape or form.



What a bunch of BS

In fairness, they have lots of evidence, it's just disputable how compelling it is.

 

[RobertWeathers]

In fairness, they have lots of evidence, it's just disputable how compelling it is.

They do. As I was telling another poster who was ready to jump off the Tobin, there is a fissure-sized difference between hard evidence and circumstantial evidence

 

[JarOfMayo51]

Unless they found video of someone with a needle in the football, that burden of proof could not be met. Does that mean you just ignore the text messages of someone admitting to being the deflator?

Someone referring to themselves as the "deflator" is not evidence of tampering or wrong doing.. Brady would be pissed when balls were 16 psi, etc.. so he read the rules and saw that the allowed range was 12.5 to 13.5.. and McNally was the guy who was in the officials locker room WITH the officials and he would deflate them to Brady's preferred 12.5.. he brought needles for that reason, it's not against the rules, it's not a conspiracy..

To see someone in a text refer to themselves as the deflator is not evidence of a rule being violated, especially with no context being applied other than the media's favorite coined "deflategate" term

 

[patsfan13]

Unless they found video of someone with a needle in the football, that burden of proof could not be met. Does that mean you just ignore the text messages of someone admitting to being the deflator?

The deflation language cited in the text were in the context of the equipment managers delivering game balls inflated to 16 psi outside the rules, we should also note that the refs delivered balls overinflated by 2.5 psi, which is an indictment of the process used by the NFL on game day.

Moreover the measured psi of the Pats balls at halftime of the Colts game were within the range dictated by physics of the weather that night, presuming that the Pats balls were @ 12.5 psi. Of course Anderson didn't bother to document the psi of the game so all is speculation. Again a damning indictment of the NFL's game day procedure if one supposes the ball psi is sooooooo critical.

 

[Froob]

I don't understand what the league is trying to accomplish because this doesn't reflect well for anybody by creating scandals from nothing. The NBA will cover up even the smallest of scandals because they don't want the bad press while the NFL wants to do the opposite...why?

 

[Froob]

Also, how the **** wasn't the Steelers tripgate investigated and punished? That's one of the few examples of a time where somebody blatantly cheated and they should have come down hard and they didn't...and maybe even better the Chargers using stickum is exactly the kind of advantage people think the Patriots are getting.

 

[Oswlek]

They do. As I was telling another poster who was ready to jump off the Tobin, there is a fissure-sized difference between hard evidence and circumstantial evidence

What's most amusing is how much of the evidence they claim supports their conclusion actually disputes it.

8 of the 11 balls are within the range you specifically said they should be? Tampering!

Brady apparently put this all into place after frustration with the dense balls against the Jets and the ball boy even calls himself the deflater! Gotcha! But then why did he call himself that back in May of 2014? Nevermind! Tampering!

 

[karguy85]

I posted this in another thread. From Yesterday's New York Times. This shows a lot of bias.

But the N.F.L., which has hired Paul Weiss on and off since the 1980s, has recently become one of the firm’s biggest clients. It hired the firm to investigate accusations of bullying on the Miami Dolphins, which led to a 144-page report from Wells, and negotiate a settlement with former players who accused the league of hiding the dangers of concussions. In the case of the deflated footballs, Wells worked alongside Paul Weiss’s chairman, Brad S. Karp, and a former senior federal prosecutor, Lorin L. Reisner.

Also the below. He definitely did not show any respect for Brady.

Normally you see him in these high-profile financial cases, but Ted is no stranger to these types of sports investigations,” said Tony West, the former high-ranking Justice Department official who squared off against Wells in a number of cases. “What makes Ted so good is he’s able to strike a very difficult balance between being a hard-charging advocate for his client while also engendering respect and even admiration from his adversaries.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/s...l-player-known-best-as-trial-lawyer.html?_r=0

 

[upstater1]

In fairness, they have lots of evidence, it's just disputable how compelling it is.

Can't disagree with this more.

Evidence of what?

That some balls may have been tampered with in the past?

So what? Aaron Rodgers has admitted to that. Hell, the Vikings and Jaguars were caught doing it.

The only question is, did Brady and these guys do it before the AFCCG?

There is no communication that shows they even talked about it. The balls themselves fell within the expected natural ranger.

This means there is not even one little bit of evidence at all.

What someone did in the past is totally irrelevant.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

I don't understand what the league is trying to accomplish because this doesn't reflect well for anybody by creating scandals from nothing. The NBA will cover up even the smallest of scandals because they don't want the bad press while the NFL wants to do the opposite...why?

Negative publicity is good publicity. Really all that's missing from the NFL are players coming out from under the ring and hitting someone in the back with a metal chair while the Ref isn't looking

 

[Froob]

Negative publicity is good publicity. Really all that's missing from the NFL are players coming out from under the ring and hitting someone in the back with a metal chair while the Ref isn't looking

Patriots players that is...

 

[DarrylS]

It is more probable than not that this was a "sting" operation.. and that they could have used a less intrusive and disruptive method to advise the Patriots of their wrongdoing.. but their hate got in the way.

It is more probable than not that the deliberate leaving out of all of the information in appendixes casts shadow of doubt on this whole investigation, if they provided the texts from Grigson and the NFL it would show beyond a shadow of doubt that the Wells narrative fit the allegation.

It is more probable than not that Wells, et al are hired guns for the NFL to protect the shield..

 

[Marko]

Deflating a football isn't illegal in the NFL.

Inflating one isn't illegal either.

Tampering with footballs on the field is.

Furthermore, the balls in the AFCCG were right where the PSI should have been according to the Wells report. In other words, they weren't tampered with. They were at expected PSI.

Winner, winner chicken dinner. The farce is that they are putting the text messages before the fact that the balls were not out of range. incredible.

 

[Danger Zone]

And that needs to come out in a court of law, not a private report that will just as easily be discredited by skeptics. Brady is wise not to show all of his cards right now.

In my opinion it all comes down to what Brady wants to win, first.

Win the sentencing appeal. Win in a court of law. Or put a dent in public opinion.

If he wants to win in a court of law, I agree absolutely, hold your cards to your chest -or rather, leave them face down on the table as it were.

 

[Kontradiction]

In my opinion it all comes down to what Brady wants to win, first.

Win the sentencing appeal. Win in a court of law. Or put a dent in public opinion.

If he wants to win in a court of law, I agree absolutely, hold your cards to your chest -or rather, leave them face down on the table as it were.

He can win all three in one shot.

 

[Koma]

Isn't the text where McNally calls himself "the deflator" from May of last year? A person giving himself a nickname based on something he did during OTAs is evidence of tampering during games?