Semi-OT: NFL beefs up Deflategate legal team

PatsDeb said:

The ship has sailed. They should have employed these folks BEFORE going in front of Berman. Berman was disgusted (as evidenced by his use of quotations around "independent" every time he used the word) that the NFL would come in front of him claiming to have conducted an "independent" investigation, but represented in the appeal by the same firm that authored their "independent" report. That is serious hubris or serious not knowing what your are doing. Either way, the damage is done and these folks won't be able to undo the ruling. Just more $$ wasted by the NFL.

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Agreed. The time to employ the best legal minds in NOT during the appeal, because your previous team has already determined the evidence that will have been submitted, the arguments made. New evidence can't be introduced now. The appellate team can only work with what's already there.

chumpchange said:

Agreed. The time to employ the best legal minds in NOT during the appeal, because your previous team has already determined the evidence that will have been submitted, the arguments made. New evidence can't be introduced now. The appellate team can only work with what's already there.

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In other words, The new team only has chump change to work with.

Silver Blue&Red said:

I disagree. This IS PERSONAL. Without a doubt, they will not be shown to be wrong. IMO they are out to get the Pats for not conforming to their plan of parity. A few years ago, I would say you were paranoid to think this, but now, I am convinced. This ALL ABOUT THE PATS.

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I don't see how that's personal.

You may have a few overzelous Jet fanboys in the NFL offices but your issue about parity is a business issue.

The Pats have monopolized winning and the owners view it as a competitive advantage.

robertweathers said:

Its not personal.....it's strictly business.

As has been discussed 1000 times, this is no longer about Brady and footballs.

The NFL absolutely cannot have the NFLPA with any leverage on anything- especially it's ability to discredit the NFL's ability to hand out punishment without due process.

To the NFL, dropping another $2-$3m on legal fees is less than the hundreds of millions of dollars it stands to lose in another CBA where things like discipline are horse traded away in exchange for a greater % of the revenue to the players.

The NFL wants all the chips.

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I'm sure the NFL believes this but I don't think it's true that that having some arbitrary punishment power does anything besides help their egos. If the NFL could only punish people based on bargained offenses and fair arbitration the league would be fine. Maybe even make more money without all the bad PR and wasted legal bills.

For helping negotiations I can't see the NFL offering a more fair system in exchange for revenue. If anything I think all Goodell has done is create a completely combative atmosphere where the players will not concede because they distrust the owners.

The idea was that after splitting the revenue a certain amount goes to promote the league and that promoting the league helps everyone get more money. And there's probably a lot of truth to that. But I wouldn't be surprised if the players now distrust Goodell so much that their attitude is screw growing the league. You spent your money on stupid legal battles, we just want our share. That position may not be good for either side in the long run, but I can see why the players would take that position. The growing money is completely dependent on players trusting that not only the owners do intend to do use that money, but that they will use it wisely and help the players with its use. Trust was necessary for that agreement.

And they are now even more likely to lose the punishment power because they abused it. I don't think the NFL helped anyone.

IMO, the NFL is a business that's so popular, and so easy to make money at the moment it has allowed idiots to run the ship, because any idiot could run it and make money. At the end of the day, the idiots might just find a way to screw up a business that was almost impossible to screw up. Time will tell.

OK, coincidence or not.

I'm not suggesting anything beyond stating two facts, as I understand them.

Deflategate came to public knowledge on the day after the Pats filed tampering charges against the Rats regarding Revis.

The NFL* files it's opening brief in their appeal and announces the addition of these two legal heavyweights to their team, on the day after the Pats beat the Rats.

The Gr8est said:

OK, coincidence or not.

I'm not suggesting anything beyond stating two facts, as I understand them.

Deflategate came to public knowledge on the day after the Pats filed tampering charges against the Rats regarding Revis.

The NFL* files it's opening brief in their appeal and announces the addition of these two legal heavyweights to their team, on the day after the Pats beat the Rats.

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Oh Please! And next you'll be claiming that Goodell is an ex-Jets employee. Crazy Patriots fans!

the nfl is spending millions and millions on something that goodell abused. all that ****head needed to do was have a neutral arbitor

Law (n): The practice of seeing what you can get away with. Not to be confused with what's right.

Some people still thing that Brady should sue for defamation, but someone in the media commented that he would be unlikely to win due to Brady being a public figure. Public figures have a difficult time winning in court.

McNally and Jastremski, however.....think of that trove of emails between Goodell and Kensil. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

YOUGOTMOSSED said:

I have to disagree. Public opinion is on his side because . . . jealousy.

He's simply appealing to the lowest common denominator through disinformation and inflaming passions. Have you heard the game broadcasts lately? Clearly the "in the bag" broadcasters have been given party lines to spout off through the game.

E.G. Chris Collinsworth/Al Michaels- herp a derp we didn't read and/or can't understand the all of the decision or the Wells report but let's explain them to you . . . herp a derp . . . it doesn't prove Brady didn't do it . . . herp a derp . . . legal technicalities . . . herp a derp.

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one of the idiot hosts on fox sports said brady got off on a technicality which isnt the truth.
nfl has nothing.
too bad kraft caved when he should of fought. as spineless as it gets.

btw the rest of the owners are behind this as well. so they obviously dont want this crap to end. kraft's relationships with the other owners are more important to him than his relationship with his greatest players. pats are one of the 5 most valuable sports teams in the world and most of that is due to tb12...but being able to hand out with arthur blank and jerry richardson is more important to the jellyfish

I know it's common thinking that Kraft wussed out in dealing with the NFL office. But I think Goodell threatened to ban BB indefinitely. That sort of strong-arming is difficult to defy. Who amongst us would honestly act any differently? Kraft had too much to lose.

Goodell already suspended Sean Peyton for a year, and Peyton didn't even know about the bounties. What's more, coaches are unprotected due to a lack of union, which brings up a separate point.

If the NFL is exerting so much effort in the vein of cheapening its labor costs, they should beware that a coaches union would represent a severe backfiring due to over-reaching.

I know a lot of people complain about unions, but a coaches union could be set up just to protect the coaches from the executives in New York City. Perhaps additional impetus is necessary to initiate that narrative/dialogue.

patriot lifer said:

Some people still thing that Brady should sue for defamation, but someone in the media commented that he would be unlikely to win due to Brady being a public figure. Public figures have a difficult time winning in court.

McNally and Jastremski, however.....think of that trove of emails between Goodell and Kensil. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

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Jaws and McNally most likely signed away their right to sue to get reinstated. Whatever chance for a defamation suit there is won't be apparent until the present case runs its course, depending on how it's ruled.

My latest hope is the way the NFL worded their briefing opens the door to how they measured the footballs and why their treatment of the pressure guages.

TheFlyingWedge said:

Hopefully his reign of Error will come to an end soon.

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Hopefully in a figuratively similar way.

SVN said:

Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 3m3 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "Although he professed ignorance . . ., Brady's preference for deflated footballs had been a matter of public knowledge for years"

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That's ridiculous. It's rumor and innuendo with no basis in fact. I can't believe they put that in their brief, since the NFLPA lawyers will have a field day with thtat.

TheFlyingWedge said:

For a guy with a public relations background, he really has an amazing knack for messing up the NFL's relations to the public.

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I had an email exchange earlier today with my niece who lives in London. She and her boyfriend are going to the game in London this weekend and in the thread I mentioned that NE had just defeated the Jets. Her response was "Wonder how the Pats cheated their way out of that one!". Disheartening, to say the least. I'm going to walk her through my Ideal Gas Analysis when I see her over the holidays. She's an economist and should be able to understand the high school level algebra required. But will she have an open mind? After all, she's a Jets fan.

chumpchange said:

Agreed. The time to employ the best legal minds in NOT during the appeal, because your previous team has already determined the evidence that will have been submitted, the arguments made. New evidence can't be introduced now. The appellate team can only work with what's already there.

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Or to create a process that would withstand legal scrutiny, and help Rog adhere to it.

I'm surprised the ****ing union and Roger Goodell cannot find a way to meet somewhere in the middle on this while the NFL still has any leverage at all? At least clearing Brady and letting a different case go to arbitration or something. Let the player get on with it, he's 38 and lighting it up and this is the history of the game you're ****ing with over contracts. I absolutely hated Derek Jeter more than anything in the world but man he was one of the best Yankees of all time and there's no way I would have wanted to see him sidelined over some nonsensical **** toward the end of his career.

If it weren't for the obviously money dropped passes the guy would be on track to an 80% completion rate at age 38. It should be pretty frickin' clear deflated footballs isn't part of the equation.

SVN said:

Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 3m3 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "Although he professed ignorance . . ., Brady's preference for deflated footballs had been a matter of public knowledge for years"

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YOUGOTMOSSED said:

I have to disagree. Public opinion is on his side because . . . jealousy.

He's simply appealing to the lowest common denominator through disinformation and inflaming passions. Have you heard the game broadcasts lately? Clearly the "in the bag" broadcasters have been given party lines to spout off through the game.

E.G. Chris Collinsworth/Al Michaels- herp a derp we didn't read and/or can't understand the all of the decision or the Wells report but let's explain them to you . . . herp a derp . . . it doesn't prove Brady didn't do it . . . herp a derp . . . legal technicalities . . . herp a derp.

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Maybe my perception is influenced because I tend to read more Pats-nation friendly news sources, but it still seems like more national columnists are just openly mocking him now for being incompetent if nothing else.

Gronkowski123 said:

one of the idiot hosts on fox sports said brady got off on a technicality which isnt the truth.

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That's another in the multitude of annoying things about this situation. Berman's decision basically said that the entire process that NFL used to arrive at a 'guilty' verdict was unfair. That's not a technicality.

A technicality would be if the NFL had rock-solid, indisputable proof, but the judge tossed it all because one of the the league's attorneys forget to sign some form.

The question these media folks should be asking was, if the evidence was so strong, why did the NFL have to 'rig' their system to get the verdict they wanted?