Zeke Elliot suspended 6 games.

[Doctor DDS]

The majority of fans revel in the misery of their competitors and never bother to assess the facts of the situation. If EE is suspended it helps "my team win" and it provides a dose of moral superiority as "we would never have a player like that" on our team. Its why so many fans refuse to listen to the truth about the alleged Patriots indiscretions. They so want so badly for it to be true and even more nefarious than reported as it provides emotional cover for their own teams failures.

I personally prefer the truth and even handedness. If EE did what they say and 6 games is the appropriate penalty and other players with the same situation are treated similarly then fine by me. If filming from an inappropriate location and a football under 12.5 PSI is worthy of a massive penalty and charges of cheating by team and player then so be it as long as walkie talkies, stickum, vaseline, piped in crowd noise, tampering, tripping... and every football ever used being re-measured, scrutinized and numbers made public receives same overall treatment.

I'd prefer we get back to just playing football and the league and media to stop worrying about a blade of grass being a 1/4" too long or some teams alleged minor indiscretion being the end of civilization as we know it. .

 

[XLIX]

The majority of fans revel in the misery of their competitors and never bother to assess the facts of the situation. If EE is suspended it helps "my team win" and it provides a dose of moral superiority as "we would never have a player like that" on our team. Its why so many fans refuse to listen to the truth about the alleged Patriots indiscretions. They so want so badly for it to be true and even more nefarious than reported as it provides emotional cover for their own teams failures.

People wanted deflategate to be true because it fits the narrative. I mean, no team could possibly be that good!! So fans want to feel that the only reason they lost is because they were cheated. People honestly get enjoyment from the feeling of being outraged. (We even see it here in this forum, albeit for different outrages)

Cowboys fans are a microcosm of their owner. For the past two years, Goodell and the league office were doing a great job and they believed everything that he said. But *now*, all of a sudden, the league office is not trustworthy and should not be believed.

You also see a lot of "why does no one else care that we are getting screwed so badly?" posts, like they're expecting the rest of the league's fandom to rally around them. It really is their own deflategate -
with the exception that in deflategate, Brady was innocent. (Please note I am not saying I believe Elliott is guilty. I honestly don't know if he did it or not. I just know I will not take the league office's word for it)

 

[QuantumMechanic]

My concern is the police did not arrest or convict Elliot of doing anything. So what gives the NFL the right to hand down such a suspension.

The players did, when they agreed to give the NFL that right in the CBA.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

Reading the article a while back that cited how Spygate was the impetus for Deflategate gave me some perspective on this point. Owners wanted to absolutely nail the Patriots in Deflategate. Why? Because the Patriots "needed to pay for Spygate".

I was like....WTF!?!? The Patriots paid, at the time, the harshest penalty the NFL had EVER issued with Spygate. Even if this was a legitimate rationale (which it's not...but presuming it IS) for hammering them with the nonsensical Deflategate stuff.... THE NFL HAMMERED THE CRAP out of the Patriots for Spygate to the tune of the harshest penalty ever instituted until.....Deflategate.

So yeah, when teams look at the NFL bringing down the strongest penalty in league history and think that somehow the Patriots still needed to pay for it, you know that perspectives are TOTALLY out of whack here. So this tweet actually does not surprise me at all.

Yeah there's a few levels to the tweet that annoy me. The most important one is that it demonstrates that owners are purely delusional if they feel their team gets the worst treatment from the League.

I think that, RE: spygate, if the Patriots hadn't gone 16-0 in the season spygate broke, and instead muddled around in mediocrity like every other franchise, then the owners' taste for vengeance would've been satisfied by the huge penalties imposed for spygate. But instead, the Patriots success just fueled their sense of jealousy and conspiracy.

 

[Clonamery]

The players did, when they agreed to give the NFL that right in the CBA.

Yup, 46ed. The NFL is missing a marketing opportunity. All kinds of paraphernalia with 46 and Goodell on it could be created and sold. Different "offenses." Instead of pretending to legitimize this crap they should WWE it and sell it. It'll go away next cba but they should have just gone with the flow ($). They should be selling the clown Goodell shirts. Too late now....or is it?

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Never underestimate the stupidity of other people. I see countless comments from moron fans of other teams - especially Cowboys fans - saying the Patriots got away with Spygate and that they got nothing but a slap on the wrist.

Yup, people are morons. They think they "got away with it" basically because the Patriots forfeited pick 31 instead of pick 7 which eventually was used on Jerod Mayo. And that Belichick wasn't suspended. That's exactly why they put the vindictive "better of" clause in the draft pick theft and why they had to suspend someone this time.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Jerry is furious because he thought the fix was in, and in the end, Roger didn't deliver the goods.

I feel this is likely to lead to the end of Roger.

If you think that says something about how much more pull Jones has than Kraft, I think you are right.

I agree with you completely on this - which is part of the reason for my meteor comment. Jerry is the wrong guy to piss off. Remember the meeting on the LA proposal - where Goodell was backing a solution for the Chargers and Raiders to share a stadium in Industry (which Kraft, Mara and Rooney also backed)? The expectation was that would pass, but Jerrah wound up giving an impassioned speech about the Rams vision, and completely flipped the vote; the Rams got the stadium instead and Goodell was stunned.

If he can do that, I think he can get the votes to oust Goodell if he's had enough of him. From that article, it was told that a lot of the new money owners (like Jerrah and Kroenke) despise the old guard (Mara, Rooney, Spanos), but that Kraft was one of the few new money guys who was always on the old guard side (will refrain comment as to why).

 

[Doctor DDS]

The Patriots going 16-0 and setting all sorts of offensive records should really have shut up the Spygate critics as it basically invalidated their stupid claims that Brady is good because he knows all the plays" The Pats offense was substantially better post Spygate yet as stated before, the critics do not deal in facts, they deal in butthurt.

 

[rochrist]

Someone, NFLPA maybe, should file and injunction to prevent Roger being the arbitrator of Zeke's appeal. Something along the basis of incompetence and demonstrable lack of fairness. As we know, once he gets to arbitrate, the game is lost.

Unfortunately, the precedent has been set.

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Two games, tops. All the rest of this is nothing more than skilled professional media control of public indignation and subsequent acceptance of a "relevant circumstances" reduction of the penalty. Cynic I may be, but this is as transparent as it comes, even to the more obtuse public observer.

 

[supafly]

People wanted deflategate to be true because it fits the narrative. I mean, no team could possibly be that good!! So fans want to feel that the only reason they lost is because they were cheated. People honestly get enjoyment from the feeling of being outraged. (We even see it here in this forum, albeit for different outrages)

Cowboys fans are a microcosm of their owner. For the past two years, Goodell and the league office were doing a great job and they believed everything that he said. But *now*, all of a sudden, the league office is not trustworthy and should not be believed.

You also see a lot of "why does no one else care that we are getting screwed so badly?" posts, like they're expecting the rest of the league's fandom to rally around them. It really is their own deflategate -
with the exception that in deflategate, Brady was innocent. (Please note I am not saying I believe Elliott is guilty. I honestly don't know if he did it or not. I just know I will not take the league office's word for it)

That's one of the things that I've never been able to understand about the cheating accusations, in the sense that they'd most definitely have come back down to earth, right?

I mean, how does anyone explain the 2/3 SBs since deflategate, or the fact that they actually have a higher winning percentage since spygate? It's ridiculous.

 

[Froob]

Here's the thing.

Eliot should have gotten 2 games for grabbing a stranger's breast and exposing it. NO ONE is denying that this didn't happen. Why should that assault be considered a prank by a 22 year old.

I think, very much like Rothlessberger's case, Elliot's DV is one of those situations where you know it happened, but you don't have enough evidence to prosecute. That's been kind of clear from the beginning. Now later on, this has become big business and the "fall guys" (the club fight) and pay offs are already in place to keep this out of the courts.

Now I'm not sure Eliot is simply a bad guy, or just a stupid and entitled jackass who could still grow up and become a good man. I'd like to think its the latter, but to me this 6 game suspension sounds about right; although I'm pretty sure it will wind up being 2 or 3 in the end.

All that being said, I HATE every comparison between this and Brady's situation. It is not even close, for all the reasons everyone here knows intimately. So regardless of what happens in the end, the FACT remains that Goodells actions have stamped the Patriots with the label of cheaters FOREVER. Make no mistake about that. Whether it is through haters who don't care about the truth OR the supposed "independant" journalists who will always praise the Pats, and then add that ubiquitous "qualifier" to remind us of the their sordid past.

BTW- I'm not so pissed that the franchise has to live with this. They are all getting paid very well and get all the glory. I'm furious that what Goodell has done has negatively affected every single fan of the Pats for over a decade. WE essentually were the ones left to fight the "battle", and deal with the angst that comes with it. We should never have had to deal with *'s or cheater labels, when we should have been able to simply enjoy the extraordinary run this team has had.

And I never really gave a sh!t about the money that was taken or even so much about the 4 game suspension those are just punishments that last just a moment in time. However the loss of all those draft picks are punishments that have had effects that could last years.

And we all know just how unjustified BOTH cameraplacegate and defamegate were, and how unpresidented the punishments were for no particular reason other to attempt to derail the train.

Not saying in any way what he did should be okay, but there's no policy for that and the league has show their judgement cannot be trusted. It's either six games or none, there's no one game or two games that's not in their policy. Most sensible way to go is derive punishment based on actually criminal charges that are not only charged but resolved. If you get hit with a domestic violence charge and are punished by the law then it's six games. Otherwise the teams need to hand down their own justice.

 

[Froob]

The players did, when they agreed to give the NFL that right in the CBA.

Sadly they are unwilling to bargain against that in the next CBA. Money is everything.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

I have a hard time believing that if you are being abused in day one, you don't leave til day six? Elliott is clearly an idiot, judging by his actions in the float, but these guys are in a no win situation with these woman they pick up, some are looking for money, some fame, and some wish to conceive a meal ticket for the next 18 years. If they were smart, they would have a hidden camera somewhere in the room. When they decide on participating in such activities.

Goodell had to give him six games, because of the Josh Brown fiasco. But, it's a slippery slope when the NFL wastes all this money on conduct investigations which never seem to come to any concrete conclusions.

 

[XLIX]

Sadly they are unwilling to bargain against that in the next CBA. Money is everything.

That's the thing a lot of people don't realize. Article 46 doesn't affect all that many players, so the entire union (as a whole) won't sacrifice terribly much to do away with it.

 

[Froob]

I have a hard time believing that if you are being abused in day one, you don't leave til day six? Elliott is clearly an idiot, judging by his actions in the float, but these guys are in a no win situation with these woman they pick up, some are looking for money, some fame, and some wish to conceive a meal ticket for the next 18 years. If they were smart, they would have a hidden camera somewhere in the room. When they decide on participating in such activities.

Goodell had to give him six games, because of the Josh Brown fiasco. But, it's a slippery slope when the NFL wastes all this money on conduct investigations which never seem to come to any concrete conclusions.

Leaving isn't always that easy. I haven't looked very closely at the allegations, but that's not a good assumption to make.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

That's the thing a lot of people don't realize. Article 46 doesn't affect all that many players, so the entire union (as a whole) won't sacrifice terribly much to do away with it.

Exactly. Very few players get hit by it in a given year and most players (correctly!) think they won't have to worry about it. $$ matters much more to them (as it should, frankly).

 

[Deus Irae]

Here's the thing.

Eliot should have gotten 2 games for grabbing a stranger's breast and exposing it.

No, he shouldn't have. That's for the criminal justice system.

 

[Koma]

That's one of the things that I've never been able to understand about the cheating accusations, in the sense that they'd most definitely have come back down to earth, right?

I mean, how does anyone explain the 2/3 SBs since deflategate, or the fact that they actually have a higher winning percentage since spygate? It's ridiculous.

You never hear anyone say the Saints weren't punished hard enough for the bounty accusations because the team never really recovered from Payton's suspension. In the 3 years before the suspension, NO won double digit games, went to the playoffs each year and won the SB. In the 4 years since Payton's been back, they've gone to the playoffs once and went 7-9 for last 3 seasons.

If the Patriots went into a lull after the spygate penalties, no one would be saying they slap on the wrist. Since they kept winning 10+ games a year, kept winning the division and kept going to the playoffs (except for 2008, but that was without Brady), Patriots haters never got the satisfaction of seeing the team suffer.

Instead of considering that they may have exaggerated the importance of taping signals, they pretended that the punishment was too light. I know they already have a SB win, but if the Patriots keep chugging along as the AFCE champ and getting to at least the AFCCG for the next 2 years, we'll hear that the deflategate penalties were a slap on the wrist.

It really is hard to believe that a group of owners told Goodell "This team is too successful, find an excuse to take them down." After the first attempt didn't work they way expected, they tried and failed again.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

That's one of the things that I've never been able to understand about the cheating accusations, in the sense that they'd most definitely have come back down to earth, right?

I mean, how does anyone explain the 2/3 SBs since deflategate, or the fact that they actually have a higher winning percentage since spygate? It's ridiculous.

H8tahs simply say that evil genius BB is just cheating in a new way we haven't detected yet.
That idiocy actually fits the data point of Deflategare coming after CameraGate. A new way to cheat was deployed & discovered.