McCann: Going to be a very tense hearing on Deflategate.

[Ivan]

maybe lawyers can chime in, or have already done so, but the language used up until the court appearances has probably been sufficiently vague as to avoid defamation, and I think you are shielded from that when you're actually in court.
so, the nfl can pretty much say what they want to in court docs, at this point, knowing everything gets broadcast to the public, but wouldn't be on the hook for defamation cuz it's coming from court docs.

which is, no doubt, why we've seen the rhetoric get ratcheted up a couple notches.

The NFL is really counting on the idea that none of the federal judges have paid any attention to this matter as it has wound it's way to them, and nothing would funnier than having them called on the evolution of their lies from Wells tepid "Brady may have known about something that might have happened" all the way to "Tom Brady masterminded a plot to destroy the integrity of the game." The NFL has taken their cue from politicians and the media that you can say anything you want no matter how dishonest and those who want to believe it will support you 100%.

 

[Ivan]

He was involved in the Adrian Peterson appeal....
http://thesportsesquires.com/wp-con...-appeal-brief-adrian-peterson-8th-circuit.pdf
signatory at the end.

Interesting.

 

[IllegalContact]

The NFL is really counting on the idea that none of the federal judges have paid any attention to this matter as it has wound it's way to them, and nothing would funnier than having them called on the evolution of their lies from Wells tepid "Brady may have known about something that might have happened" all the way to "Tom Brady masterminded a plot to destroy the integrity of the game." The NFL has taken their cue from politicians and the media that you can say anything you want no matter how dishonest and those who want to believe it will support you 100%.

no matter how hard the league tries, its largest difficulty in the face of an unbiased arbitrator or judge is the simple idea that there is a detailed process in place when it comes to penalties for equipment violations, but the league decided to step outside of that process in the name of 'integrity of the game'

theoretically, the judges could ask a small number of simple questions and throw the appeal out due to the fact that they did not follow their own agreed to with the union process.

the league will try to keep going with the matter does not belong in a courtroom, but their failure to follow their own process says it is

 

[sb1]

I don't expect it to happen but if they somehow win this appeal and Brady has to sit... what's stopping them next time there is a glitch with headsets saying "Belichick masterminded a plot to mess with communications therefore he is banned a year because integrity"? Or for that matter anyone from any team?

For the sake of the NFL and actual integrity the judges have to end this here.

 

[archstanton543]

I don't think it's going to be very tense. There doesn't (to these layman eyes) appear to be any malfeasance on Judge Berman's part in siding with the NFLPA in this case. The appellate court is going to uphold his decision. And I doubt the NFL is going to take this to the Supreme Court...and, even if they did, I doubt they would even hear the case.

 

[Ivan]

I don't expect it to happen but if they somehow win this appeal and Brady has to sit... what's stopping them next time there is a glitch with headsets saying "Belichick masterminded a plot to mess with communications therefore he is banned a year because integrity"? Or for that matter anyone from any team?

For the sake of the NFL and actual integrity the judges have to end this here.

The league is in charge of communications.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

I don't think it's going to be very tense. There doesn't (to these layman eyes) appear to be any malfeasance on Judge Berman's part in siding with the NFLPA in this case. The appellate court is going to uphold his decision. And I doubt the NFL is going to take this to the Supreme Court...and, even if they did, I doubt they would even hear the case.

I suspect that the NFL knows it's going to lose the appeal. Chances are, we're not going to get a decision from CA2 before the draft date of April 28 and, even if by some miracle we do, the NFL then will request the "en banc" and cert. to be heard by the SCOTUS. The 2016 draft will have come and gone by the time we get the final final decision on this matter (most likely the SCOTUS denying cert.)

So when the more astute members of the football community openly wonder whether it's fair to uphold the penalties after Brady has been finally cleared, the NFL can simply respond that "the matter is still pending" or "it's too late as the draft date has come and gone."

I can't help but wonder if those slippery bastards in the NFL front office had all this calculated while we were forced to wait such a long, long, long, long time for the Wells report.

 

[XLIX]

I don't expect it to happen but if they somehow win this appeal and Brady has to sit... what's stopping them next time there is a glitch with headsets saying "Belichick masterminded a plot to mess with communications therefore he is banned a year because integrity"? Or for that matter anyone from any team?

For the sake of the NFL and actual integrity the judges have to end this here.

Belichick would be different because he is not in the CBA, but yes, if he wins here, there's really nothing that would stop him from calling anything he wants an "integrity of the game" matter and doing whatever his demented mind desired (at least until the expiration of the current CBA).

 

[XLIX]

I don't think it's going to be very tense. There doesn't (to these layman eyes) appear to be any malfeasance on Judge Berman's part in siding with the NFLPA in this case. The appellate court is going to uphold his decision. And I doubt the NFL is going to take this to the Supreme Court...and, even if they did, I doubt they would even hear the case.

Getting the SCOTUS to hear a case is a longshot, but I think they'd have a chance. As much as people joke about how stupid it would be if they heard a case about deflation, there is an important issue of arbiter misconduct and impartiality at stake.

 

[archstanton543]

I can't help but wonder if those slippery bastards in the NFL front office had all this calculated while we were forced to wait such a long, long, long, long time for the Wells report.

I think we had to wait such a long time for the Wells report is because they had to make sure they worded it such that it supported the NFL's assertion that Tom Brady was running a ball deflation scheme.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

I think we had to wait such a long time for the Wells report is because they had to make sure they worded it such that it supported the NFL's assertion that Tom Brady was running a ball deflation scheme.

Probably a combination of a lot of things like Pash's edits, meetings about the timing of releasing the report, and maybe even 1-2 voices of reason asking "do we really want to do this?"

 

[MagicMarker]

I just wonder what the risk is for the NFL. A federal court in Missouri ruled the NFL could NEVER be unbiased in it's appeals. If this court were to find that, the NFL could lose its right to hear any appeal.

 

[rochrist]

The league is in charge of communications.

All the more reason to dock the Pats a draft pick!

 

[PatsFanSince74]

He was involved in the Adrian Peterson appeal....
http://thesportsesquires.com/wp-con...-appeal-brief-adrian-peterson-8th-circuit.pdf
signatory at the end.

Thanks. too bad that we amateurs on this Forum have to be pointing this stuff out, instead of McCann.

It's all significant because by engaging a former Solicitor General and another high profile DC Appellate Attorney, the NFL is clearly going to fight this on grounds of precedent and sidestep the arguments on the "facts," which it has obviously lost both in Berman's Court Room and in most objective media.

The Solicitor General is the face of the Justice Department to the Supreme Court, argues regularly before the Court and is nearly always on the short lists for SCOTUS Appointments. So, this is a big gun. The quality of the NFLPA Appellate Team that will be going toe to toe with him is critical. Kessler more than "Did his job," but this is a different fight.

 

[The Gr8est]

I'm sure a lot of folks here would disagree, but if the NFL* somehow wins their appeal, I would like Brady to tell Goodell that he will never accept a suspension for something that he never did and even affirmed under oath, and that the NFL* only has extremely weak circumstantial evidence that has been totally rebutted by science, and that as a result he is retiring from the NFL* and putting his full time efforts into pursuing a defamation case against the NFL*.

 

[archstanton543]

I'm sure a lot of folks here would disagree, but if the NFL* somehow wins their appeal, I would like Brady to tell Goodell that he will never accept a suspension for something that he never did and even affirmed under oath, and that the NFL* only has extremely weak circumstantial evidence that has been totally rebutted by science, and that as a result he is retiring from the NFL* and putting his full time efforts into pursuing a defamation case against the NFL*.

Even if he did that, he would have to prove that he lost money directly because of Defamegate. That's almost impossible to do and even if he spent all his time and money and won, it wouldn't be worth what he'd get in return.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Even if he did that, he would have to prove that he lost money directly because of Defamegate.

He doesn't have to do that if the defamation is defamation per se. I don't know if the potentially actionable statements (which, remember, don't count things in legal filings) rise to that.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

He doesn't have to do that if the defamation is defamation per se. I don't know if the potentially actionable statements (which, remember, don't count things in legal filings) rise to that.

And this would seem to fit one category of defamation per se in that the defamatory statements made about Brady were "allegations injurious to another in their trade, business or profession".

 

[PatsFanSince74]

And this would seem to fit one category of defamation per se in that the defamatory statements made about Brady were "allegations injurious to another in their trade, business or profession".

Interesting. Thanks. I still don't see him filing such a suit.

Why? He has more to lose by losing than he stands to gain by winning. The haters are still going to hate, the ill-informed are still going to be ill-informed and the just plain dumb are going to continue being just plain dumb, even if he wins. On the other hand, if he loses, he will look bad to the few who have given him the benefit of the doubt and the haters, ill-informed and dumb will feel vindicated.

You can bookmark this and throw it in my face if he ever files such a suit. I just don't see it even if the point of law you are making is correct.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

.

Interesting. Thanks. I still don't see him filing such a suit.

I don't either but was expanding on Quantum's point that Brady wouldn't have to prove damages to win, should he decide to file suit.