Dump on me all you want, I think Krafty is a little smarter than he's given credit for

[Gumby]

1. Except that, during the interim, nothing was done against the Pats, while N.O and other teams were disciplined. Meanwhile, according to surveys, Kraft had become the most influential leader in all sports according to surveys.

Sometimes it's useful to take the laser focus off your own view and gain some perspective,

therest...

Kraft was never going to sue the league. He couldn't win a lawsuit based on punishment, he belongs to an exclusive club of owners who had agreed to abide by any punishment their Frankenstein meted out.

Had he wanted to sue, he would need to sue to eliminate the anti-trust exemption and the salary cap and declare his club an independent business separate from the NFL.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'll challenge one of the lawyers here to tell me otherwise, meaning that he could get Goods verdict overturned in court without changing the legal status of the nfl.. maybe I'm wrong.

Look at Brady's case. He was not cleared, it was ruled the NFL didn't arbitrate fairly according to union rules/precedents.

There are none for owners.

That is just silly. That is like saying a state has to overturn all the clauses of the constitution because they dont like what Obama does with illegal immigration/immogrants.

Maybe you have to sue RG and his cast of clowns by name, i dont know.

But you cant tell me that in a free association of interdependent but separate businesses that one overarching entity is able to use falsehoods and media-BS to unfairly penalize one single subentity.

That doesnt pass commonsense test to me

Might not be easy, but i dont believe it is categorically impossible as you seem to.

 

[RayClay]

Agreed, but my 'essentially' was meaning that not appealing makes any suit 10x harder to get in the door. Once you get get the court to hear it-giving up the appeal right doesnt matter so much.

get the court to hear what? what is the basis of the suit? Who is he suing, what is he suing for, elimination of the antitrust exemption? What are his damages?

McCann is the lawyer everyone quotes about Kraft's appeal, yet his opinion was it was a waste of time.

I would be in copyright violation if i pasted half of it, but he has about 20 paragraphs why.

"Unlike Brady, the Patriots have no collectively bargained right to an appeal. Their only source for appeal is to reach out to Goodell and hope he or a designate of his choosing revises the punishment. The Patriots are members of a franchise of leagues and are contractually bound to follow the NFL’s constitution and other legal instruments. The NFL’s constitution makes clear teams can’t take their grievances to court and that any attempt to do so would likely be futile. Like the other 31 NFL ownership groups, Kraft has agreed to abide by the Constitution and assented to not sue the league or other owners.

In an appeal to Goodell, Kraft would implore the commissioner to reconsider the severity of the penalty. Kraft might ask other teams’ owners to weigh in privately, as well. Unfortunately for Kraft, this approach would likely fail. Goodell is now wedded to this historic penalty. If he reduces it, some would argue it is because of Goodell’s perceived close relationship with Kraft or because Kraft is powerful. Others would describe Goodell as weak and question why he would impose such a harsh penalty in the first place. Goodell lowering the Patriots penalty would also risk a slippery slope effect: it would create precedent for other teams’ owners to petition the commissioner for leniency"

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/05/12/deflategate-tom-brady-new-england-patriots-legal-options

there's a lot more

As to the one sentence everyone quotes [hard to find among the million words mccann wrote about how futile appeal or suit would be] He qualifies it in the very next sentence...


“Robert Kraft would face an improbable legal fight since he accepted the punishment,” McCann continued. “But he could argue acceptance is void if he was misled.”

 

[Jackson 2]

get the court to hear what? what is the basis of the suit? Who is he suing, what is he suing for, elimination of the antitrust exemption? What are his damages?

McCann is the lawyer everyone quotes about Kraft's appeal, yet his opinion was it was a waste of time.

I would be in copyright violation if i pasted half of it, but he has about 20 paragraphs why.

"Unlike Brady, the Patriots have no collectively bargained right to an appeal. Their only source for appeal is to reach out to Goodell and hope he or a designate of his choosing revises the punishment. The Patriots are members of a franchise of leagues and are contractually bound to follow the NFL’s constitution and other legal instruments. The NFL’s constitution makes clear teams can’t take their grievances to court and that any attempt to do so would likely be futile. Like the other 31 NFL ownership groups, Kraft has agreed to abide by the Constitution and assented to not sue the league or other owners.

In an appeal to Goodell, Kraft would implore the commissioner to reconsider the severity of the penalty. Kraft might ask other teams’ owners to weigh in privately, as well. Unfortunately for Kraft, this approach would likely fail. Goodell is now wedded to this historic penalty. If he reduces it, some would argue it is because of Goodell’s perceived close relationship with Kraft or because Kraft is powerful. Others would describe Goodell as weak and question why he would impose such a harsh penalty in the first place. Goodell lowering the Patriots penalty would also risk a slippery slope effect: it would create precedent for other teams’ owners to petition the commissioner for leniency"

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/05/12/deflategate-tom-brady-new-england-patriots-legal-options

there's a lot more

As to the one sentence everyone quotes [hard to find among the million words mccann wrote about how futile appeal or suit would be] He qualifies it in the very next sentence...


“Robert Kraft would face an improbable legal fight since he accepted the punishment,” McCann continued. “But he could argue acceptance is void if he was misled.”

Why do you continue to bother? The truth doesn't matter to them.

 

[RayClay]

But you cant tell me that in a free association of interdependent but separate businesses.

A what? you need to read up on the NFL.

 

[RayClay]

Why do you continue to bother? The truth doesn't matter to them.

My thread, I'll continue.

Funny thing is, if Kraft eventually gets him to leave, everybody will say he didn't do anything, because he didn't broadcast it on the evening news.