NFL Appeal oral arguments thread

[JJC]

Not just unions. Considering the growing prevalence of binding arbitration agreements in everything from employer contracts to consumer agreements, all Americans should be furious if it is determined that those in positions of power can pick arbitrators who will guarantee them the result they want without any guarantee of impartial proceedings that follow the rules.

You mean serve as arbitrators for punishments that they dished out?

Goodell was BOTH punisher and arbitrator.

 

[XLIX]

My opinion is the exact same as it was when the judges were announced:

I think Katzmann is a slam dunk for the good guys, and I like the chances of swaying 1 of the other 2.

 

[RobertWeathers]

"Mr. Brady, this a clear violation of your rights as a player. It's an infringement on your constitutional rights. It's outrageous, egregious, PREPOSTEROUS."

....who told you to use the balm?. Did I tell you to use the balm?...

THIS IS A PUBLIC HUMILIATION!

 

[Fixit]

At this point, I'm just going to assume the suspension and that American unions are completely f****d, and hopefully be pleasantly surprised when the weather is warmer.

Regardless, time to start planning my "Farewell, NFL, and FU" exit party.

 

[the Patriot]

I still don't understand how the phone has anything to do with upholding or reversing Berman's ruling....

That doesn't make much sense. The two are not one in the same.

Whether or not Brady *did* it was never supposed to be an issue, but for some reason these N.Y. judges (including Berman) have been very interested in the facts of the original scandal. Probably because the scandal is more interesting than whether Goodell's ruling violated the CBA.

Unfortunately it sounds like these judges think Brady is guilty, where Berman did not. That's not supposed to inform their ultimate ruling, but it probably will...

 

[Gronkowski123]

remember berman tipped his hand by being favorable towards kessler.
parker is certainly favoring the league. same with chin since neither find brady credible.
seems like hiring clement paid off since he destroyed kessler today.

was looking at barty hubbuchs twitter feed, he certainly seems happy!

 

[Clonamery]

You mean serve as arbitrators for punishments that they dished out?

Goodell was BOTH punisher and arbitrator.

THAT makes it "casual."

 

[smurfalarm]

You can't argue against that. I think the NFL's position is that it doesn't matter whether he had notice or not.

Even worse, their argument was that the "conduct detrimental" clause and the player contract are notice that the commissioner is empowered to punish players through fines and suspensions of unlimited length without constraint and without reference to any specific action a player takes so long as he personally perceives that the player's act could even conceivably fall under the umbrella of conduct detrimental to the league, and further that the court is legally prohibited from ever finding against him on that.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

Impossible to tell out of context, but he's only human and may have lost his cool...which these guys are paid big bucks not to do....

I get the frustration. You worked your ass off on a case. You're in the right. And then some jackwagon judge who doesn't know what he's taking about spouts crap like, "the evidence is overwhelming that he did it."

WTF are you suppose to say to that?

 

[SVN]

just pissed about all this...

 

[ANGR89]

remember berman tipped his hand by being favorable towards kessler.
parker is certainly favoring the league. same with chin since neither find brady credible.
seems like hiring clement paid off since he destroyed kessler today.

was looking at barty hubbuchs twitter feed, he certainly seems happy!

This does have me worried, I do remember most everyone coming out of the Berman hearing saying it went in Brady's favor.

 

[SVN]

 

[BelichickFan]

The only hope I have from all these tweets is that everyone remembers the last guy but forgets there were good anti-NFL points made earlier.

Regardless, I had to freshen up my hoodies this year and of the 5 I bought, zero were NFL hoodies. All I can do is my little part.

 

[ViperGTS]

remember berman tipped his hand by being favorable towards kessler.
parker is certainly favoring the league. same with chin since neither find brady credible.
seems like hiring clement paid off since he destroyed kessler today.

was looking at barty hubbuchs twitter feed, he certainly seems happy!

I'd say any idea of Jimmy G getting traded is a far fetched idea at this point..

I'm sure Kraft has some skeletons in HIS closet. That being said, I'm sure he has enough money to live extremely well for the rest of his and his kids and grandkids lives. He should go nuclear on the league. Burn the whole thing down and start from fresh. His demons and those of the entire league to be laid out in plain sight. Based on tweets we heard federal judges that have zero idea of facts or science or anything quite frankly. When you are up against that there is only one recourse.

Fire.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

d%#*!@t

The only way we can draw any conclusions from what happened today would be to analyze how these three judges typically behave when they question Appellate counsel. It's possible that one or more of them go harder after the side that they are inclined to support in order to test their own arguments.

I think there was a fantasy on this Board that the three judges would mock the NFL's position and that we'd know with a high degree of certainty that Berman's ruling was going to be upheld. It would have been nice if that's the way it had played out...but that was highly unlikely from the beginning.

My only concern was that the NFLPA would be outgunned by Clement and, as I stated in several threads going back a few months, I was surprised that they hadn't brought in a major Appellate attorney to present their case. I had always thought that Johnson was in the lead, but apparently I was wrong. Just from a human nature perspective, it's probably better to have someone arguing the Appeal who was not heavily invested in the original ruling. That's why there are lawyers who only do Appellate work. They tend to be a different breed of cat.

But, I don't think there's any reason to panic here. And, even if there were, it's out of our control.

 

[trevrox]

THIS IS A PUBLIC HUMILIATION!

So we should have Brady throw a properly inflated ball in the courtroom, then ask him to throw an under inflated one.

"I can't do it.... it's too light!"

Case closed.

 

[Jlaff]

Take this **** to the political section of the board

Point taken. But where's the outrage over the initial comment I responded to? Is Robertweathers merely the Chargers and his comment nothing more than routine towel stickum?

 

[RobertWeathers]

So we should have Brady throw a properly inflated ball in the courtroom, then ask him to throw an under inflated one.

"I can't do it.... it's too light!"

Case closed.

So is Jaz or McNally the Deflategate version of Stan the Caddie?

 

[SHOWTIME15]

d

My opinion is the exact same as it was when the judges were announced:

I think Katzmann is a slam dunk for the good guys, and I like the chances of swaying 1 of the other 2.

parker is the guy we can hope for - chin seems certain to side with the nfl.

 

[smurfalarm]

You mean serve as arbitrators for punishments that they dished out?

Goodell was BOTH punisher and arbitrator.

Which is the point I'm making. This is even more problematic for situations where we don't have a union representing us to collectively bargain an agreement guaranteeing neutral arbitration, which the NFLPA could do in their next CBA negotiation. For example, if I sign a cell phone contract, can the cell phone company include a clause requiring that all payment disputes go to arbitration with an arbitrator of their choice, charge me two hundred dollars for access to ring tones I didn't order without ever notifying me of the change, and then hand pick an arbitrator who will rule against me when I try to dispute the fraudulent charge?