Deflating deflategate --[Mod Edit] AEI Opinion Piece in NY Times

[libra957]

This is what we've been saying all along, NY Times finally gets it right. WHY did it take this long??

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/opinion/deflating-deflategate.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2&referrer=

Our study, written with our colleague Joseph Sullivan, examines the evidence and methodology of the Wells report and concludes that it is deeply flawed. (We have no financial stake in the outcome of Deflategate.)


Our recommendation? When the N.F.L. hears Mr. Brady’s appeal of his suspension later this month, it should proceed with the knowledge that the Wells report is unreliable.

With that, Kraft's approval rating will sink even lower.

 

[RobertWeathers]

 

[Ross12]

Is it possible Kraft made nice and "ended the rhetoric" just to start talking to the media behind closed doors and get a piece like this published independently? In my opinion, if Kraft was waging war himself with his own people doing the research, mainstream media would've covered the battle itself more than the facts. With this, the actual facts and science are examined and a conclusion is reached independent of Patriot influence.

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

Nobody will care, because "what about the DEFLATOR text! And Brady wouldn't hand over his phone!"

That sig is awesome!

 

[primetime]

I too started wondering about the sponsorship for this piece of work as soon as I saw it in the NYT. It is possible that it was done out of general funds, as a marketing tactic (how many of you now know about AEI who didn't before?). Or as a freebie by the authors, in their "spare" time, to draw attention to themselves.

But it is far more likely that someone wrote a check for this. We can speculate, but we'll probably never know.

Knowing what I know about the way think tanks operate and how staff time is budgeted, it was almost certainly paid for by someone. People imagine it to be Kraft, but it very well could be Brady and his team. For a summer project at a DC think tank, the (anonymous) donation required for this probably wasn't remarkable in the stratosphere of millionaires and billionaires. $100k would almost certainly have gotten it done, which is nothing compared to the millions lost for a 4 game suspension. Brady and co. makes more sense than Kraft.

Nothing in here is particularly new, but the ability to marshal more evidence is certainly useful.

 

[primetime]

And, BTW, events like this don't happen by accident. Some powerful people with serious political "pull" made this happen. The AEI and the New York Times don't combine their efforts on very many issues.

This isn't true at all. Arthur Brooks, AEI's president, writes a monthly column in the Times. Hell, the Times employs David Brooks, a neoconservative.

AEI is a think tank that represents big business, and the Times is a big business. Their nominal politics on a dichotomous right/left scale are immaterial.

 

[eom]

Is it possible Kraft made nice and "ended the rhetoric" just to start talking to the media behind closed doors and get a piece like this published independently? In my opinion, if Kraft was waging war himself with his own people doing the research, mainstream media would've covered the battle itself more than the facts. With this, the actual facts and science are examined and a conclusion is reached independent of Patriot influence.

people talk so much about this and spew so much hate, but I think it's very possible the 'hidden reason' is just what kraft stated.
maybe the guy really did want to just move past this nonsense, and was willing to take the hit, once he hashed it out with his people and goodell and realized he had no avenues to win any fight.

I understand some people think it's heroic to strap on a bomb and throw yourself into the deathstar, but that's not really always the wisest move in the long run, and I'm sure the older people get the more they come to understand this.

let brady and kessler take the battlefield, because maybe that's a battle we can win.

 

[The Gr8est]

people talk so much about this and spew so much hate, but I think it's very possible the 'hidden reason' is just what kraft stated.
maybe the guy really did want to just move past this nonsense, and was willing to take the hit, once he hashed it out with his people and goodell and realized he had no avenues to win any fight.

I understand some people think it's heroic to strap on a bomb and throw yourself into the deathstar, but that's not really always the wisest move in the long run, and I'm sure the older people get the more they come to understand this.

let brady and kessler take the battlefield, because maybe that's a battle we can win.

So what was the hug?

Overacting?

 

[Ross12]

people talk so much about this and spew so much hate, but I think it's very possible the 'hidden reason' is just what kraft stated.
maybe the guy really did want to just move past this nonsense, and was willing to take the hit, once he hashed it out with his people and goodell and realized he had no avenues to win any fight.

I understand some people think it's heroic to strap on a bomb and throw yourself into the deathstar, but that's not really always the wisest move in the long run, and I'm sure the older people get the more they come to understand this.

let brady and kessler take the battlefield, because maybe that's a battle we can win.

Perhaps Brady is piloting the X-Wing, but Kraft could've supplied the photon torpedo to drop into the weak point of the Death Star.

May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan Kessler-obi.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Perhaps Brady is piloting the X-Wing, but Kraft could've supplied the photon torpedo to drop into the weak point of the Death Star.

May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan Kessler-obi.

Kraft is Admiral Akbar...a spinless wuss of a jellyfish afraid of taking on the Death Star and Star Destroyers head-on. He's brilliant, but overly cautious.

I'll go with Brady as Luke in Episode IV and Kessler as Lando Calrissian in Episode VI

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Kraft is Admiral Akbar...a spinless wuss of a jellyfish afraid of taking on the Death Star and Star Destroyers head-on. He's brilliant, but overly cautious.

I'll go with Brady as Luke in Episode III and Kessler as Lando Calrissian in Episode VI

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, for one more opportunity to say...

 

[Ross12]

Kraft is Admiral Akbar...a spinless wuss of a jellyfish afraid of taking on the Death Star and Star Destroyers head-on. He's brilliant, but overly cautious.

I'll go with Brady as Luke in Episode IV and Kessler as Lando Calrissian in Episode VI

Yeah! Kessler is totally Lando!

 

[juny]

oh how would i love to hear tagliabue's unfiltered opinion on this mess

 

[shmessy]

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, for one more opportunity to say...

Uh oh. Nerd alert. Here come the Comic Cons out of the basements to hijack the thread to Planet Clearasil.

 

[Zuma]

Is it possible Kraft made nice and "ended the rhetoric" just to start talking to the media behind closed doors and get a piece like this published independently? In my opinion, if Kraft was waging war himself with his own people doing the research, mainstream media would've covered the battle itself more than the facts. With this, the actual facts and science are examined and a conclusion is reached independent of Patriot influence.

That's an interesting angle...and I hope it's true.

 

[Ross12]

Uh oh. Nerd alert. Here come the Comic Cons out of the basements to hijack the thread to Planet Clearasil.

Lmao. For what it's worth I'm just a casual Star Wars fan, so...

Then again, I did just finish playing Pokemon Red on my game boy.

 

[raduray]

ESPN declared a code red. Emergency procedures- strict silence lest we be proven to be idiots.

The same silence which was their response to the Kelly Naqi and Chris Mortensen provenly erroneous reporting.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

God, I wish Tags was still running this operation instead of the Boob we have.
Look what Tags has to say about off field talk in the Saints case, apply it here to the " deflator texts"

If one were to punish certain off-field talk in locker rooms, meeting rooms, hotel rooms
or elsewhere without applying a rigorous standard that separated real threats or “bounties” from
rhetoric and exaggeration, it would open a field of inquiry that would lead nowhere.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/Tagliabue-decision-bounty-appeal.pdf

 

[Hoodie]

Former MLBer Pedro Guerrero was accused of a crime, and his defense in court was that he wasn't smart enough to have committed the crime.Maybe this is the tack the Omissioner takes?

http://www.complex.com/sports/2014/08/dumbest-crimes-sports-history/

"Sport Played: MLB
Year: 1999
Crime: Got caught trying to buy $200,000 worth of cocaine in Miami

Guerrero is borderline ******ed. At least, that’s what Guerrero’s attorney claimed when he was charged with trying to buy 33 pounds of cocaine from an undercover agent. His attorney said that the four-time MLB All-Star and co-MVP of the 1981 World Series never finished 6th grade in the Dominican Republic and has an IQ of 70. He also argued that Guerrero could not write checks, make his own bed, or buy insurance. The low IQ defense actually worked as Guerrero was acquitted of all charges. But still, WTF?"

I don't know. I'm guessing he doesn't go this way despite its accuracy.

 

[LJRomanoff]

Agreed. And the draft picks aren't coming back no matter how many people threaten to huff and puff and blow Goodell's house down.

If Goodell's house does get blown down - i.e., if he's no longer commissioner before next year's draft - the picks are back in play. I don't think that's likely but it remains possible.