Bob Costas

[Julius]

When Brady finally gave up the fight and accepted his punishment, the media narrative of "deflate gate" changed overnight. This was made shockingly clear to me last night on Thursday Night Football when Bob Costas did a complete about face and said this to a national t.v. audience.
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"The Panthers lead the Broncos 17-7 at the half.

Meanwhile, NBC's Sunday Night Football will premier with the Patriots in Arizona taking on the Cardinals, a matchup of Super Bowl contenders who both reached their conference championships last January. But the headlines for this one are also about who won't be in uniform, as Tom Brady, more than 19 months after the initial events in question, begins serving his four-game Deflategate suspension.

Without rehashing the whole absurd affair, it's still worth noting that the ultimately, the appeals court only affirmed the NFL's right to impose the penalty. It did not affirm that the penalty itself was right.

The punishment - a quarter of the season for a mere misdemeanor - needlessly turned into a literal federal case - remains striking in its disproportion.

But, the Brady ruling stands. So Sunday night, the Patriots quarterback will be 24-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo, the 2014 second-round pick out of Easter Illinois who takes charge of an offense that ranked third in the league in scoring last year, and goes against another prolific attack in the Cardinals led by Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald - a pair of veterans who are well aware they don't have that many shots left at getting to the Super Bowl."

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If I weren't so depressed by how easily we are manipulated, I'd be more happy that the narrative has shifted.

 

[Wordsmyth]

I almost fainted when BC spoke. To utter such words that fly in the face of Goodell*'s Draconian narrative defied NYJFL* heterodoxy.

 

[PrairiePat]

He's still saying that Brady's guilty, but thinks the punishment is too harsh.

At least he's half right.

 

[Froob]

Starting to think Roger was right after all if this is what Costas thinks .

 

[Tunescribe]

I don't understand how the 4-foot-11 Costas has survived all these years, you'd think someone would've accidentally stepped on him by now. Equally amazing is that he continues doing NFL football after declaring long ago, "Hey! I'm a baseball guy!"

 

[Sicilian]

If we'd had more narratives like this when everything first started happening, maybe the league would have felt pressured into a more appropriate penalty. As it was, people like Costas and the like fed off the artificial, national frenzy to boost their ratings, and the league felt justified pursuing their witch hunt.

I don't give two s**ts about Costas standing up for us now that it doesn't matter.

 

[IllegalContact]

for him to say: "the appeals court only affirmed the NFL's right to impose the penalty. It did not affirm that the penalty itself was right" puts into question the entire question of actual guilt......can't straddle a fence much better than that

 

[Tunescribe]

He's still saying that Brady's guilty, but thinks the punishment is too harsh.

At least he's half right.

You mean he's a half-pint.

 

[Ring 6]

If we'd had more narratives like this when everything first started happening, maybe the league would have felt pressured into a more appropriate penalty. As it was, people like Costas and the like fed off the artificial, national frenzy to boost their ratings, and the league felt justified pursuing their witch hunt.

I don't give two s**ts about Costas standing up for us now that it doesn't matter.

More appropriate penalty? For doing nothing? The only appropriate penalty is nothing.

 

[Sicilian]

More appropriate penalty? For doing nothing? The only appropriate penalty is nothing.

Not really the point of my post, but if we're going to split hairs here, I'm assuming there wasn't anything (short of God himself descending and laying the smack down) that was going to make the NFL admit the whole thing was fabricated from whole cloth. But beyond the facts of guilt or innocence, or what can be proven or not proven, there is NO precedent for a player being suspended four games for a minor equipment violation, never mind the team also losing two draft picks. National pressure could have at least forced them into a fine and the whole thing would have gone away. But networks want eyeballs, and Patriots hate brings in eyeballs.

Now that NBC has to hype up a game that DOESN'T have one of the best QB's ever playing in it, suddenly Costas changes his tune and thinks the whole thing is unfair, and tries to spin the narrative into "Can Jimmy carry the Patriots through this injustice!". The whole thing reeks of disingenuous nonsense.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I don't understand how the 4-foot-11 Costas has survived all these years, you'd think someone would've accidentally stepped on him by now. Equally amazing is that he continues doing NFL football after declaring long ago, "Hey! I'm a baseball guy!"

Hes listed at 5-7 but there is no way in hell he is that. I'm 6-0 and I was about 10 ft from him in NYC about 10 years ago and my 5-4 wife was with me and he was barely taller than her.

 

[Triumph]

The whole thing sucks.

The next 4 weeks will be about Brady the cheater nonstop whether Jimmy G excels or fails. I cannot fault Brady for giving in though I was hoping that he would fight this BS to the end. Id imagine that everyone has received bad legal representation and Brady is no different.

 

[Jackson 2]

I don't care what the impetus for it was or even that Costas suggested a misdemeanor occurred. The message was light years better than that which was spouted nationally for more than a year. It may have been flawed but, by comparison, I'll take it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Costas needed to say that the evidence was not compelling and not overwhelming.

If he did that he would have slammed Goody and the jackass judges for not doing their jobs.

 

[Angelpats]

The whole thing sucks.

The next 4 weeks will be about Brady the cheater nonstop whether Jimmy G excels or fails. I cannot fault Brady for giving in though I was hoping that he would fight this BS to the end. Id imagine that everyone has received bad legal representation and Brady is no different.

I didn't want Brady to stop the fight either but I think he reasoned that he would rather be taken out the first four games than the possibility of four games be during a playoff run.

 

[Tunescribe]

Hes listed at 5-7 but there is no way in hell he is that. I'm 6-0 and I was about 10 ft from him in NYC about 10 years ago and my 5-4 wife was with me and he was barely taller than her.

I'm guessing he was wearing lifts.

 

[aluminum seats]

When Brady finally gave up the fight and accepted his punishment, the media narrative of "deflate gate" changed overnight.

I hadn't thought about this, but I think you're right. If Brady had ultimately avoided the suspension, the envious hordes would have never stopped raging. Now that the corrupt league and jealous competitors have "won," there's a sense of "oh...wow....he's really suspended a quarter of a season for nothing. Ha. Our bad."

So ultimately, to the public at large and the conventional wisdom, the narrative shifts more in Brady's favor (possibly...I'm just spitballing here) than if he had avoided the penalty.

Of course, F--- them all either way.

 

[Tony2046]

I envision or hope for a documentary that digs into defamegate for what it really was. I hope it sheds light on what a POS Godell is and how Brady got caught in his maniacal crosshairs while he was aiming at the Patriots.

 

[Julius]

Now that NBC has to hype up a game that DOESN'T have one of the best QB's ever playing in it, suddenly Costas changes his tune and thinks the whole thing is unfair, and tries to spin the narrative into "Can Jimmy carry the Patriots through this injustice!". The whole thing reeks of disingenuous nonsense.

^ This

 

[Dorito Dink]

My jaw actually dropped as he started exploiting what a travesty it was. I was about to change the channel when he started talking about it but kept it on once he said "absurd affair." Just throw "made up" in between the two and that's deflategate in a nutshell.

Still doesn't excuse his behavior or NBC's when this crap first surfaced. How about Collinsworth ranting on about it as Brady was leading one of the more remarkable comebacks in Super Bowl history? F*** Collinsworth and everybody else that helped create the monster that it still is today