Tom Curran: Don Yee said that Wells told the Brady camp they did not want his phone

[Wrath Mania]

I do agree that Brady's team of Kessler & Co have been outmaneuvered by the league's lawyers/advisors on the cell phone brouhaha. It's their job to anticipate and counter before the issue goes viral.

I do agree with this, and it's also become tiring to see this same cycle play out over and over: NFL drops a bomb, media catches on fire, moral columns ensue talking about tarnished legacies; then the next day, Team Brady defends itself, and a few people in the media start to get suspicious. But the NFL keeps setting the tone from the start, and when it concerns things like the judgment on Brady's appeal, it's frustrating not to see TB and the NEP take preemptive measures. We keep hearing "It's on!"; there's even, bafflingly, new "Kraft declares war!" headlines today. Hopefully with court looming this finally changes.

 

[Rob0729]

These guys are in the business to expect such things, no?

I would hope that they have all of their notes easily accessible in a text file so, how long might it take to open said file up and toss it up? A minute or two. Certainly not hours!

It seems to me Brady's guys have been late to the punch the entire process.

Again, they may never have known it was a big deal until the NFL made it a big deal. Both the NFLPA and Yee issued statements within an hour or two of the Goodell ruling. It wasn't like they waited til today.

 

[Oswlek]

To be fair, it's hard to anticipate something when it's completely misrepresented and in as loud of terms possible.

If I walk by a graveyard, and you call me a mass murderer, am I supposed to anticipate that?

Tommy? Is that you?

 

[TommyD4207]

Tommy? Is that you?

Who else would it be?

 

[RobertWeathers]

any chance we will hear from Brady's lawyer (Kessler?) too?

They only bring out Kessler for special occasions. Like thermonuclear war

 

[Oswlek]

Who else would it be?

I didn't realize you ventured to this side of the pond. How have you been?

 

[JMC00]

Well..personally , we have said all this from yee before including the notes he took in the room. Hopefulyl he releases all that info instead of continuing just this PR battle via the media. Yee needs show some data now other than just plain voice.

Why the hell would he do that? "Here you go nfl, here is something that is going to be used against you in court"

 

[vyrago]

Would have liked to see this made available immediately after the "destruction" revelation instead of days afterwards.

2 days??

 

[TommyD4207]

I didn't realize you ventured to this side of the pond. How have you been?

Fine. I've been on both sides the last couple days. I had too many dopey takes to share with the world, and one side of the pond decided to go all crash city yesterday.

 

[ViperGTS]

Listening to Curran on Florio's PFT broadcast. He said he talked Don Yee for an half an hour. Yee said when Brady told Wells that he would not turn over the phone, Wells' response was that they did not want his phone and only information from it. So "destroying" the cell phone was never a big deal in Brady's and Yee's eyes because Wells supposedly never wanted to see the cell phone.

Also, Yee told Curran that they didn't trust Wells with the information because we see how he twisted texts with Jastremski and McNally and that since he was a high profile person beyond just being a QB that he was concerned someone would leak what could be used for the gossip pages.

Curran said an article with notes from the full conversation will be up later today.

Just popped on F&M. Brady is lying. Brady embarrassed himself.

 

[Rob0729]

Just popped on F&M. Brady is lying. Brady embarrassed himself.

Did you expect anything else?

 

[Rusty Coupe]

He might be too busy trying to explain how he allowed the NFL to play him by beating him to the punch and filing a motion in an NYC court to have the ruling upheld a second after Goodell's ruling was released. That's the kind of stuff that $1,000 an hour lawyers are supposed to anticipate and it's reasonably probable that he did not. The consequences aren't clear yet, but if it turns out that the NFL has secured the right to have the case heard in a court in New York city, the fight will be over before it's begun.

Since the NFL filed for this to be heard NYC, I've thought that maybe the reason for the delay in Godell's ruling had to do with the timing of judge's summer vacations, and what judges would be available to hear this case before the start of the season timeframe.

 

[Kdo5]

Just popped on F&M. Brady is lying. Brady embarrassed himself.

Thanks for the update. Never could have seen that coming!

 

[ViperGTS]

Did you expect anything else?

Actually I did. Krafts responses, Bradys explantion. But no, they are on their high horse. I expected some BS but a little bit more openess. Quite the opposite. It makes it move obvious that any sensible response actually triggers something in them. Something worse than the reported misdeeds.

 

[Tony2046]

Clearly the defender will always be at a disadvantage when being aggressively attacked from all angles. The NFL has the luxury of the timing of it's releases and they have all the major media outlets on board.

The response from Brady's camp has countered respectively well through this entire mess considering what they are up against. They are not in this to win a PR battle and I would imagine anything they put out into the public can be used in a court battle so it would have to be carefully thought out.

The NFL filing its case in NY may have been close to impossible to beat since they had the luxury of knowing when they were going to release it's decision.

Today's Kraft statement was definitely a nice blind sided hit on the NFL and I would like to think they were not expecting it.

 

[strngplyr]

As painful as this has been the last 24 hours, you can already see the change in the NFL's attempt at controlling the narrative. Yesterday was the NFL's day. Today, while they still have the upper hand, we are seeing some significant cracks in their wall. This will only continue to occur until that wall comes down.

I think the reality is that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the NFL as we know it, just as Mark Cuban to predicted. When the league office becomes as corrupt as this one is, and the ownership becomes so Self-interested, along with all the true scandals like criminal players, substance abusers, and concussion issues, the game is in true jeopardy, Little by little the talent pool will shrink, along with the fans who are turned off by all this crap. Brady's case is the tipping point IMHO.

Even worse, the NFL today have been called gigantic liars who work backdoor deals.

Kraft said as much. He basically admitted that they covered up the underlying thought that his acceptance of penalties WAS an underground deal. That's as dirty as it can get for the league. "Accept this penalty which EVEN THE WELLS REPORT says you don't deserve, and I'll help your boy." Then the NFL proceeds to backstab.

 

[Rob0729]

Actually I did. Krafts responses, Bradys explantion. But no, they are on their high horse. I expected some BS but a little bit more openess. Quite the opposite. It makes it move obvious that any sensible response actually triggers something in them. Something worse than the reported misdeeds.

Apparently, you never listened to Felger and Mazz before.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Again, they may never have known it was a big deal until the NFL made it a big deal. Both the NFLPA and Yee issued statements within an hour or two of the Goodell ruling. It wasn't like they waited til today.

At this level of legal play, time is of the essence which necessitates timeframes that are measured in minutes, not hours and certainly not in day(s) as has, seemingly, been commonplace with these guys.

Let me just say that I think Brady needs a much better PR team in place then he has currently.

 

[ViperGTS]

Apparently, you never listened to Felger and Mazz before.

Oh I have. But I figured there could be zero way they could a spin Krafts statement. Pretty cut and dry. Yet they managed to. Quite a feat actually.

 

[Rob0729]

At this level of legal play, time is of the essence which necessitates timeframes that are measured in minutes, not hours and certainly not in day(s) as has, seemingly, been commonplace with these guys.

Let me just say that I think Brady needs a much better PR team in place then he has currently.

I don't think they have handled it all that well, but I don't think the response time by his people was an issue. In fact, I think doing it too close to the NFL announcement could get the message drowned by the noise of "He destroyed the cell phone". Just look at the Wells Report in Context. There were points that blew the Wells Report out of the water, but all the talk was weight loss because that was the simple headline. Sometimes it is better to wait for the dust to settle a little bit.