DeMaurice Smith takes Goodell to task

[JDot]

Oh damn, didn't expect them to go there. Clearly they weren't counting on Kraft as an ally, because even if he had been one before that statement, he wouldn't be one anymore.

Not gonna be able to put the pins back in those hand grenades.

Thats Pedro vs Rays circa 2000..headhunting at its finest.

Like Bedard said..

Greg A. Bedard @GregABedard · May 19
Belief in league circles is NFLPA has found the perfect player & case to go big-game hunting and change commissioner discipline forever.

This is now more about Owners vs players. Both the NFLPA and the Owners(goodell) think they have a point or precedent to establish.

NFLPA - Taking down Goodell. Or at least Goodell's power to hand out discipline(See the Missouri ruling against the NFL on Goodell's powers LINK)

Owners(Goodell) - re establishing authority over the players, that was lost in the Rice and Peterson cases..

Sadly Tommy and the Pats are just a pawns in the never ending athletes vs. owners battle. Both sides believe they caught their white whale..

 

[seven]

I am thinking Tommy should hold out for the London expansion franchise.

Or LA.
Frikkit, it is my fantasy. Both! London could be Gisele's team.

d%#*!@t, everyone wants to talk to the boss.

A song for Not Jolly Roger
I like a train theme for next year.
supplemental to the established Crazy Train.
Aerosmiths Train Kept a rollin.
Lots of trains.
For this unstoppable train.
Roger, asleep at the controls.

Cue from 1:15 for stadium use.
http://tinyurl.com/oycxmhw

In the shuffling madness Of the locomotive breath,
Runs the all-time loser, Headlong to his death.
He feels the piston scraping -- Steam breaking on his brow --
Thank GOAT, he stole the handle and The train won't stop going --
No way to slow down.

He sees his children jumping off At the stations -- one by one.
Wells and Polian -- In bed and having fun.
He's crawling down the corridor On his hands and knees --
Old Tommy stole the handle and The train won't stop going --
No way to slow down.

He hears the silence howling -- Catches angels as they fall.
And the all-time winner Has got him by the balls.
He picks up Gideon's Bible -- Open at page one --
GOAT stole the handle and The train won't stop going --
No way to slow down.
******

Shuffling Madness would be a nice name for the new dynamic D.

 

[Nitro]

My fear is that Goodell will vacate Brady's suspension and give him nothing to litigate. Is that a realistic concern or would Brady have a case even with his suspension revoked?

He can't clear brady while his report claims brady maybe did something while at the same time prison raping the team while his report claims they did nothing. Thats so far passed full ****** he'd get his own category of dumbassedness.

 

[The Gr8est]

The fact that we are hoping for our 1st ballot HOF QB to NOT get his suspension revoked shows just far off the rails the Rat infested Goodell NFL has gone.

 

[Jackson 2]

I'd love to see an arbitrator or judge get her/his hands on Goodell's phone records and see what's there to Kensil and Grigson and Harbaby and Pagano and Irsay and Mortensen and Gardi and Kravitz and Doyel...

 

[farn]

Irsay is just the worst. I hate him even more than I hate Kraft.

You don't hold him to a high standard, yet you take away picks from NE ?!?!!

 

[Ross12]

The fact that we are hoping for our 1st ballot HOF QB to NOT get his suspension revoked shows just far off the rails the Rat infested Goodell NFL has gone.

Well said, lol. I was thinking about how insane this is earlier today.

 

[Deus Irae]

While I think it's great that Smith is throwing hay makers in the NFL's direction, the truth is that it would never have come to this if he'd done his job when negotiating the CBA, with regards to discipline (and a lot of other areas).

Now it's time to wrap up my Norwegian film marathon...

 

[smg93]

My fear is that Goodell will vacate Brady's suspension and give him nothing to litigate. Is that a realistic concern or would Brady have a case even with his suspension revoked?

From the Pats perspective, he would then have to give the picks back and rescind the fine since he would be admitting that no intentional deflation of the ball happened. He would also be saying that the report his owners paid millions of dollars for was crap. In short, I highly doubt he would totally erase the penalties on appeal.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

From the Pats perspective, he would then have to give the picks back and rescind the fine since he would be admitting that no intentional deflation of the ball happened. He would also be saying that the report his owners paid millions of dollars for was crap. In short, I highly doubt he would totally erase the penalties on appeal.

Bob has accepted those penalties. Rog could call the Wells report garbage and admit the Patriots didn't do a thing and those penalties would stand.

Rog's hands aren't tied in any way right now because Bob handed him his win. Without that he has little wiggle room because of the issue you bring up. Now he could vacate Brady's penalty and claim that he has no choice because of the NFLPA.

The team has "manned up" accepting their guilt, but Brady managed to escape punishment. Flip the script on the Rog incompetence story to the NFLPA being too powerful.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

"I think the Wells Report delivered exactly what the client (NFL) wanted."

Yes. Kraft may have layed down without a fight but the NFLPA and Tom's lawyers are going to take these scum bags head on. Brady is innocent and anyone who has read the report knows it. I didn't imagine several months ago that I'd soon be eternally condemning Kraft and pumping my fist for DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA.

IMHO many hear made the error of connecting the Brady and Kraft cases. These are two very different animals. Kraft's capitulation has little to no bearing on Brady's case. Also, Kraft's capitulation was never going to be connected to a Brady deal. The entities and mechanisms involve things that simply cannot be connected (there may even be legality issues involved with these guys negotiating on behalf of a union employee).

As far as anger to Kraft? I am angry with him. It isn't, per se, because he looked at the landscape and knew his battle was very difficult to win and would hurt the team in some respects. I somewhat understand that from a business perspective. What I don't understand is why not simply defer. Just say 'for the good of the league I am not going to appeal at this time'. No mention of accepting or fighting the punishment, no mention of going forward or dropping a lawsuit, nothing on any of that. Just leave the side door open to fighting it and, by inference, let the fans know that this isn't necessarily over. Then just take a page out of BB's playbook and any time asked about this fiasco say "we're on to Pittsburgh".

 

[Joker]

It just dawned on me...the GIANTS are behind the whole thing!! LOOK...LOOK at the evidence I found from a sign at a Giants game last December

GO ODELL!!!

See that??? It's plain as day....that sign was a secret message to Der Omissioner to launch an all out blitzkrieg...Go Odell...put it together and what do you get? GOODELL!!

I KNEW IT!!!

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Bob has accepted those penalties. Rog could call the Wells report garbage and admit the Patriots didn't do a thing and those penalties would stand.

Rog's hands aren't tied in any way right now because Bob handed him his win. Without that he has little wiggle room because of the issue you bring up. Now he could vacate Brady's penalty and claim that he has no choice because of the NFLPA.

The team has "manned up" accepting their guilt, but Brady managed to escape punishment. Flip the script on the Rog incompetence story to the NFLPA being too powerful.

Look, I am not happy with Kraft but me made it crystal clear he does not agree with the proclamation of guilt. He made it crystal clear he is not appealing for the good of business. Even lying smack-meats like Borges did not say the Patriots accepted or admitted they are guilty. Even the ass-hats at ESPN will not run with a story that says 'The Patriots accepted and admitted they were guilty, Brady too is guilty regardless of abatement of punishment'. These hemorrhoids will push Brady is guilty independent of Kraft's decision and everything else (and push it mightily).

Bottom line: Kraft's capitulation, stories from Rolling Stone and the Washington Post, visual evidence of other teams 'customizing footballs', hard science, or a Brady victory that only procedurally overturns the punishment is going to have very little affect on the assumption of 'guilt'. You have to know that the only tangible way that Brady will be seen as innocent by a significant amount of John Q-Dumb Public is if a neutral third party gets the case in front of him/her, and this third party has authority to look at the evidence to decide if it has met a preponderance of the evidence. If that happens and the third party says 'the evidence does not support a declaration of guilt, here is why it does not' in a concise way, we have our victory. If it doesn't happen then forget about anything else, just accept that Brady will be seen as guilty by the dumb (and getting geometrically dumber by the day) masses, then move on. Just is what it is...

 

[tuckeverlasting]

Look, I am not happy with Kraft but me made it crystal clear he does not agree with the proclamation of guilt. He made it crystal clear he is not appealing for the good of business. Even lying smack-meats like Borges did not say the Patriots accepted or admitted they are guilty. Even the ass-hats at ESPN will not run with a story that says 'The Patriots accepted and admitted they were guilty, Brady too is guilty regardless of abatement of punishment'. These hemorrhoids will push Brady is guilty independent of Kraft's decision and everything else (and push it mightily).

Bottom line: Kraft's capitulation, stories from Rolling Stone and the Washington Post, visual evidence of other teams 'customizing footballs', hard science, or a Brady victory that only procedurally overturns the punishment is going to have very little affect on the assumption of 'guilt'. You have to know that the only tangible way that Brady will be seen as innocent by a significant amount of John Q-Dumb Public is if a neutral third party gets the case in front of him/her, and this third party has authority to look at the evidence to decide if it has met a preponderance of the evidence. If that happens and the third party says 'the evidence does not support a declaration of guilt, here is why it does not' in a concise way, we have our victory. If it doesn't happen then forget about anything else, just accept that Brady will be seen as guilty by the dumb (and getting geometrically dumber by the day) masses, then move on. Just is what it is...

i just have one question....who the hell cares ? i can't think of anything i care less about than what other teams' fans think.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

i just have one question....who the hell cares ? i can't think of anything i care less about than what other teams' fans think.

Agreed....well said.

 

[TruthSeeker]

What I don't understand is why not simply defer. Just say 'for the good of the league I am not going to appeal at this time'.

That's fine. Be aware that the appeal deadline of Thursday, 5/21, has now already passed.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

Look, I am not happy with Kraft but me made it crystal clear he does not agree with the proclamation of guilt. He made it crystal clear he is not appealing for the good of business. Even lying smack-meats like Borges did not say the Patriots accepted or admitted they are guilty. Even the ass-hats at ESPN will not run with a story that says 'The Patriots accepted and admitted they were guilty, Brady too is guilty regardless of abatement of punishment'. These hemorrhoids will push Brady is guilty independent of Kraft's decision and everything else (and push it mightily).

Bottom line: Kraft's capitulation, stories from Rolling Stone and the Washington Post, visual evidence of other teams 'customizing footballs', hard science, or a Brady victory that only procedurally overturns the punishment is going to have very little affect on the assumption of 'guilt'. You have to know that the only tangible way that Brady will be seen as innocent by a significant amount of John Q-Dumb Public is if a neutral third party gets the case in front of him/her, and this third party has authority to look at the evidence to decide if it has met a preponderance of the evidence. If that happens and the third party says 'the evidence does not support a declaration of guilt, here is why it does not' in a concise way, we have our victory. If it doesn't happen then forget about anything else, just accept that Brady will be seen as guilty by the dumb (and getting geometrically dumber by the day) masses, then move on. Just is what it is...

I agree that the only way Brady gets exonerated in the public's eyes is the 3rd party option.

I think not having Bob's appeal opens the door for Rog to vacate Brady's punishment while not really losing. It seems like upholding the organization's penalty and vacating Brady's would strengthen whatever case the Patriots took to the courts.