John Dowd in Editorial on CNN: Was Brady Ambushed ?

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY! Somebody got it right. In a calm, logical, step by step structure, Dowd makes the case that we all know is the truth.

1. Nothing happened in the first place. No one deflated any ball except mother nature. More importantly the competitive nature of the game was never in danger. There was never a reason for an investigation in the first place

2. Tom Brady did nothing. In fact he cooperated far beyond his legal responsibility

3. The League offices launched a well planned purposeful, and malicious campaign to use FALSE information to demonize the Patriots and slander Tom Brady.

4. The League office NEVER required Brady to turn over his phone, and then ambushed him by penalizing him for not doing it. And this LIE is on the record, and is only one of many.

5. The league office went beyond any sense of fairness by penalizing Brady, not only for crimes he didn't commit, they further gave him a punishment that went so far beyond anything within its by laws or precedent, it defines any logic, let alone fairness.

In other words, FINALLY, a legal analysis that has NO qualifiers. None of this "well they both look bad" crap. No speculation of Brady taking a fine or lesser suspension. Dowd is having NONE of this. Best of all, this is a well respected legal mind who isn't from New England

This report needs to be stickied. It needs to be a REQUIRED read for anyone who is a member of this site. Ie needs to be put in a file where it can be copied and pasted and sent to every meidiot we can find. BOTH felger and mazz should be EACH forced to read it out loud for the first 2 hours of their next show. Volin should be force to memorize it and banished to Fairbanks Alaska.....and you can fill in the rest.

Finally the truth came out in words even the haters have to acknowledge. Andy, hopefully you got Florio's email and have already sent him this. . Now lets spread the word.

I wonder if this is Dowd's way of putting his resume into the mix should the Commissioner's position become available??? It's a small investment for a pretty good ROI........

Gotta love Ben Volin. To paraphrase, "why would he do this?" Uhm... because he's a REAL, actual, journalist Ben and can do something besides Google. "But, but... websites are hard." Uhm... no.

God I wish I wasn't being subjected to Volin in the sidebar. I don't even follow him but I can't help but see that crap over there.

Hammer of Thor said:

In the fantasy where Goodell is canned..... The issue with Dowd is that he's 74 years old. They'd want someone younger and vibrant running the league. I think their ideal candidate would have a legal background (like Tags) so could be solid on this type of stuff and on CBAs, would be a consensus builder like a politician (to get owners behind him), and have CEO vision for expanding the brand. And of course be a lover of football. Tough to find someone who hits all the checkboxes. One guy who does is Mitt Romney - who has past history in dealing with a corrupt institution in the IOC - but he's up there in age himself and probably is too high up in the political landscape so as to be a polarizing public representative of the game. I have no idea of anyone else at this point who would hit all those perfect candidate requirements.

Click to expand...

Quite a few years ago I heard someone claim that their dream job would be NFL Commissioner. That person was then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

1. It's been obvious to me from the beginning what this was about, so I stopped giving it much thought about a week before the SB. Too bad so many Pats fans let it negatively affect their enjoyment of the greatest SB of all time.

2. I never imagined that Goody and the Jests would be so poor at hiding their tracks. I guess I underestimated the very low opinion that I had about those clowns.

3. Is there anyone in the world who could be a worse choice as Commish than Fraudger? I'm drawing a blank.

1960Pats said:

1. It's been obvious to me from the beginning what this was about, so I stopped giving it much thought about a week before the SB. Too bad so many Pats fans let it negatively affect their enjoyment of the greatest SB of all time.

2. I never imagined that Goody and the Jests would be so poor at hiding their tracks. I guess I underestimated the very low opinion that I had about those clowns.

3. Is there anyone in the world who could be a worse choice as Commish than Fraudger? I'm drawing a blank.

Click to expand...

it is amazing that this really did all happen.


i mean when you really think about it, its insane to think a multibillion dollar industry can be this corrupt that they would create and execute a plan to take down the best team and QB in the past 15 years just because they are tired of seeing them soo successful.

I said it before and will say it again....

what a crock of ****...

1960Pats said:

1. It's been obvious to me from the beginning what this was about, so I stopped giving it much thought about a week before the SB. Too bad so many Pats fans let it negatively affect their enjoyment of the greatest SB of all time.

2. I never imagined that Goody and the Jests would be so poor at hiding their tracks. I guess I underestimated the very low opinion that I had about those clowns.

3. Is there anyone in the world who could be a worse choice as Commish than Fraudger? I'm drawing a blank.

Click to expand...

fraudger goodell !! that's good.

tuckeverlasting said:

fraudger goodell !! that's good.

Click to expand...

I borrowed it from someone here a while ago.

NJPatsfan26 said:

it is amazing that this really did all happen.


i mean when you really think about it, its insane to think a multibillion dollar industry can be this corrupt that they would create and execute a plan to take down the best team and QB in the past 15 years just because they are tired of seeing them soo successful.

I said it before and will say it again....

what a crock of ****...

Click to expand...

What's really amazing is how poorly Goody and the Jests covered their tracks. It's a combination of ego and stupidity that set the wheels in motion and allowed this to get this far. Hopefully they'll get run over.

This will also be a very good case for journalist courses everywhere.

Bump -

BTW- I'm making it a point to read this short but articulate and powerful article at least every day. And as good as it is, it always amazes me just how much MORE evidence of maliciousness, collusion, incompetence, flat out lies and purposeful misrepresentations, and just plain maleficence; he could have added to the mix. Those people were not only evil, they, thank God, were remarkably STUPID.

1960Pats said:

Quite a few years ago I heard someone claim that their dream job would be NFL Commissioner. That person was then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of Condi Rice. I wish she would run for president. She would have put all those nit-wits to shame Thursday night.

NFL Commissioner...its beneath her but IMO she would be fantastic.

NJPatsfan26 said:

it is amazing that this really did all happen.


i mean when you really think about it, its insane to think a multibillion dollar industry can be this corrupt that they would create and execute a plan to take down the best team and QB in the past 15 years just because they are tired of seeing them soo successful.

I said it before and will say it again....

what a crock of ****...

Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the owners have approved Goodell from the start. They are either ignorant--unaware of what he is doing (because they are too lazy to do their jobs)--or corrupt--they know and approve.

1960Pats said:

Quite a few years ago I heard someone claim that their dream job would be NFL Commissioner. That person was then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Click to expand...

Condi Rice or Steph Stradley. Either would be a great choice.

How wonderful it would be to have the next domestic violence case disciplined by a female NFL Commissioner!

As much as I agree with the article and believe it will all be dropped, remember when most of us thought the the Wells Report would exonerate Brady.. then we all believed that the suspension would be reduced when Brady Appealed to Goodell.

Courts/legal systems can be quite fickle... I am in the camp called "guarded optimism"...

DarrylS said:

As much as I agree with the article and believe it will all be dropped, remember when most of us thought the the Wells Report would exonerate Brady.. then we all believed that the suspension would be reduced when Brady Appealed to Goodell.

Courts/legal systems can be quite fickle... I am in the camp called "guarded optimism"...

Click to expand...

I am unfortunately a bit pessimistic. Everything tells me it should be overturned and the suspension lifted BUT as Darryl wrote, nothing about this case has gone the way it should. Granted, that is because it was in the hands of cabal at 345 Park Ave (no disrespect intended to other cabals)and now it in the hands of a Federal judge but the bar to overturn a collectively bargained arbitration award is extremely high.. Did the NFLPA, Kessler and Brady meet it? I hope so, I think they did but Federal judges with lifetime appointments march to the beat of their own drummers.....especially one in NY....

Patsfanin Philly said:

I am unfortunately a bit pessimistic. Everything tells me it should be overturned and the suspension lifted BUT as Darryl wrote, nothing about this case has gone the way it should. Granted, that is because it was in the hands of cabal at 345 Park Ave (no disrespect intended to other cabals)and now it in the hands of a Federal judge but the bar to overturn a collectively bargained arbitration award is extremely high.. Did the NFLPA, Kessler and Brady meet it? I hope so, I think they did but Federal judges with lifetime appointments march to the beat of their own drummers.....especially one in NY....

Click to expand...

who knows what will happen, but right now it's at 4, so I don't see how it would get worse.

RobAllan said:

Gotta love Ben Volin. To paraphrase, "why would he do this?" Uhm... because he's a REAL, actual, journalist Ben and can do something besides Google. "But, but... websites are hard." Uhm... no.

God I wish I wasn't being subjected to Volin in the sidebar. I don't even follow him but I can't help but see that crap over there.

Click to expand...

I think Volin has found a link between Dowd and the Kraft Foundation in Arizona.

but WHY did he start that site.....?

DarrylS said:

then we all believed that the suspension would be reduced when Brady Appealed to Goodell.

Click to expand...

Who the hell believed that?

VectorPrime said:

Who the hell believed that?

Click to expand...

I held out hope he would lessen the sanction, many of us did.. but Goodell changed the goal posts to making huge brou haha about cellphones..