Pats angling to get picks back?

[OhExaulted1]

People here seem to overlook the fact that there are owners who are pissed that we didn't get a harsher punishment.

The idea of getting the majority of owners to side with the (supposedly) cheating Patriots and returning high round draft picks is flat out absurd. It will never happen. As you said, the closest they'd ever get would be to hope that 1-2-3 influential owners would pressure Goodell on behalf of the Patriots, and that Goodell would then somehow hold their opinions higher than the other 28-29 owners. That seems like quite a fantastical scenario.

I don't know how any rational posters here can honestly consider how the team could try and get the punishment reversed when the decision has already been made, the timeframe for appealing was long gone before Memorial Day, and, wait for it.....there's currently an open court case where the NFL is rumored to be willing to take it all the way to the Supreme Court, should they lose again.

Everyones upset Kraft rolled over and played dead back in May and I get that but the idea of Roger taking this all the way to the SCOTUS is equally absurd, and the public has begun to take notice in spades.

Oh, and for future reference, don't call it "the NFL" when speaking of this matter. This is all Fraudger. It's all about him and his sociopathic megalomaniacal lust for power.

He didn't cave to owners who wanted harsher punishment, the minority who grumbled about Spygate merely opened the door and fed into his superiority complex and his ongoing Milgram experiment using players as his subjects. This is a very unstable person who's been given a position of authority yet never heard of the word benevolence.

 

[everlong]

The only way the Pats get this reversed is if Kraft is able to get enough owners on his side. We know he can't get the Colts, Ravens, Jets, Cowboys and Redskins given the first three's hatred and the last two Kraft backed Goodell against them. I'll assume can't get divisional rivals Miami and Buffalo. He backed Spanos in the LA talks so we'll assume that's one in his pocket but it also eliminated the Rams. McNair has made a bunch of anti-Patriots comments on this issue so that's 1-9 of the first ten. So given a vote to overrule Goodell they've already lost. Of the remaining owners I cannot see the upside for any of them to go to bat for the Pats in a strong manner. Even if he got Rooney and Mara in his back pocket somehow to make a push, which again why, I'm not sure it would be enough.

I'll make it two ways. Bob digs up incriminating evidence showing Goodell purposely didn't watch the Ray Rice video for plausible deniability and threatens to make it public. The problem here is if he had that evidence I would think he would have fired that bullet already. Personally I wouldn't blackmail somebody under normal circumstances but if I was getting railroaded and hung out to dry like this that changes everything and I don't care how big of a saint even the biggest Bob supporters are everybody has a breaking point where they will compromise their ethics.

 

[OhExaulted1]

There are those who really believe that Goodell will reverse his decision, do not see it at all no matter the outcome of Brady's Court Hearing.. decisions have been made and for Goodell to reverse himself would make him look weak or indecisive..

The owners like this decision and anything contrary to this decision will be interpreted by the billionaire boys club will look like Goodell is enabling the most successful franchise of all time.. nothing would make that club happier than a 4 - 12 season.. the Pats do not fit the "parity" narrative..

Thinking this will happen is just more false hope..

Despite not having a first round pick this team will win between 12-13 games again next year..

I realize where not getting the picks back. I'm still going to bit(h about Roger anyway just to even out the "blame it all on Kraft and forget the fact that it was Goodell who is the one truly responsible for screwing the team over" crowd.

 

[Ring 6]

League meetings are March 20-23. No ones invented a time machine to go back and change the past so dwelling on it is pointless. The opportunity to do something now is sitting in front of them and the public conscience has swung decidedly in the opposite direction since May of last year.

He forfeited his right to appeal.

 

[OhExaulted1]

He forfeited his right to appeal.

Which would have been a resounding victory had he done so, right?

Who would the arbitrator have been again?

If at the very least I'd like to see Kraft blast off at the owners meetings later this month. He hasn't said anything about it since July 29th other than to quip "they did us a favor" when we were rolling at 8-0, which meaning was obviously conveying he and the team were still pissed off.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

The only way the Pats get this reversed is if Kraft is able to get enough owners on his side. .

The only way I see that happening is that if the court case goes unbelievably bad for the league this week and the judges appear to rip the NFL apart in their questioning and then the national media like ESPN follow suit by asking the tough questions instead of the fluff scripted softballs that Mike and Mike toss him when he graces them with his presence.....
The odds of that happening? Somewhat akin to me hosting a card game this week with Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart and D. B. Cooper (with Judge Crater as a backup)...that ship sailed and it ain't coming back.....

 

[VectorPrime]

I expect the league to give the 4th rounder back. They can do that without admitting any kind of error. And the quid pro quo would probably be yet more bendover kinds of PR.

**** I'll take it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Which would have been a resounding victory had he done so, right?

Who would the arbitrator have been again?

If at the very least I'd like to see Kraft blast off at the owners meetings later this month. He hasn't said anything about it since July 29th other than to quip "they did us a favor" when we were rolling at 8-0, which meaning was obviously conveying he and the team were still pissed off.

I'd like Kraft to go Joey Zasa on the other owners but ain't gonna happen.

 

[IllegalContact]

Because that's the right arena for this fight, right? Tucked way in a place where people have to search out and read 20,000 odd words on a website. News flash, nobody except Patriot fans will read it, not the NFL, not other owners and not 99% of the media. So good luck with the passive approach, it should work real well.

Yep, should be getting the pics back any day now.

Cuz the fellowship of the miserable says your weak unless you wail like a 5 year old at the busiest street corner in tien

 

[Ring 6]

Which would have been a resounding victory had he done so, right?

We will never know.

Who would the arbitrator have been again?

If at the very least I'd like to see Kraft blast off at the owners meetings later this month. He hasn't said anything about it since July 29th other than to quip "they did us a favor" when we were rolling at 8-0, which meaning was obviously conveying he and the team were still pissed off.

Why would you endorse him doing nothing then, but doing something now? It seems your judgment of whether what Bob Kraft did was correct or not, is to check and see whether Bob Kraft did it or not, then agree with whatever he did.
I'm sure if he continues to do nothing you will ultimately endorse that as well.

 

[Ring 6]

Everyones upset Kraft rolled over and played dead back in May and I get that but the idea of Roger taking this all the way to the SCOTUS is equally absurd, and the public has begun to take notice in spades.

Oh, and for future reference, don't call it "the NFL" when speaking of this matter. This is all Fraudger. It's all about him and his sociopathic megalomaniacal lust for power.

He didn't cave to owners who wanted harsher punishment, the minority who grumbled about Spygate merely opened the door and fed into his superiority complex and his ongoing Milgram experiment using players as his subjects. This is a very unstable person who's been given a position of authority yet never heard of the word benevolence.

Kraft didn't blame Goodell, he blamed the lawyers. Kraft is good with Roger.

 

[BTTA]

Oh, and for future reference, don't call it "the NFL" when speaking of this matter. This is all Fraudger. It's all about him and his sociopathic megalomaniacal lust for power.

That's certainly one narrative.

I tend to see it the other way around, that Goodell is empowered and directed by the owners, including his attitude. Yes, his personal insecurity feeds into it, but that's just the prerequisite for the job.

I could make a case that having Pats fans see the Pats persecution as about him as an individual, rather than seeing it as about a systematic response to the Pats' excellence and success, is exactly how they want us to see it. It becomes the shiny object we all look at while our pockets are picked.

 

[OhExaulted1]

Kraft didn't blame Goodell, he blamed the lawyers. Kraft is good with Roger.

He blamed it on the lawyers in May and he thought he an Fraudger were on the same page with going light on Tom.

He sang a whole different tune on July 29th. And what proof do you have Kraft is "good" with Roger other than a handshake at MetLife Stadium where it was reported they only spoke about league tech-stuff?

 

[Ring 6]

He blamed it on the lawyers in May and he thought he an Fraudger were on the same page with going light on Tom.

He sang a whole different tune on July 29th. And what proof do you have Kraft is "good" with Roger other than a handshake at MetLife Stadium where it was reported they only spoke about league tech-stuff?

He blamed it on the lawyers in July.

He has not said a negative word. If Kraft has a problem with Goodell he is asking us to conclude that by telepathy or osmosis.

 

[JoeSixPat]

He forfeited his right to appeal.

I think it's well about time that we as Pats fans stopped citing and defending an arbitrary rule in the NFL bylaws. This is Goodell's excuse - and shouldn't be used by anyone to explain why justice can't be corrected - especially when it unfairly impacts the on field quality.

It's like finding out a guy on death row is innocent with new evidence - but then having everyone - including his own "fans" say - "oh well, he forfeited his right to appeal, too bad he still has to die, but we all understand."

But if the owners want to start getting nitpicky about following their own rules, then I'd point them back to Article VIII of their bylaws where they state that the Commissioner "shall be a person of unquestioned integrity."

If they can ignore that rule, they can ignore the rule that says they can't consider lifting a penalty they all privately know and admit was a bogus charge that has, and will cost them as owners untold millions in legal expenses and lost revenues in a future CBA negotiations

Now, I know this won't happen - for various reasons. But I'm going to continue to point out the hypocrisy of the owners, NFL in General and Goodell specifically and make these lost draft picks yet another albatross of corruption and incompetence around their necks.

All ANYONE who is a fan of the NFL wants - and INSISTS on - is fairness in the game of football

When the Commissioner and his office are unfair, the game of football is unfair, and when the game of football is unfair, the game itself is seriously threatened.

The fact that the picks will not be given back, sadly, is proof that the NFL is unfair - and we shouldn't let anyone forget that.

 

[JoeSixPat]

He blamed it on the lawyers in July.

He has not said a negative word. If Kraft has a problem with Goodell he is asking us to conclude that by telepathy or osmosis.

"I was wrong to put my faith in the League. Tom Brady is a person of great integrity and a great ambassador of the game, both on and off the field. Yet for reasons that I cannot comprehend there are those in the league office who are more determined to prove that they were right rather than admit any culpability of their own or take any responsibility for the initiation of the process and the ensuing investigation that was flawed."

Didn't see the word "lawyers" in there.

Osmosis suggests to me that Kraft in fact DOES have a problem with Goodell

Unless your osmosis suggests that "those in the league office who are more determined to prove they are right" exempts Roger for some reason. I don't think it does.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

People here seem to overlook the fact that there are owners who are pissed that we didn't get a harsher punishment.

The idea of getting the majority of owners to side with the (supposedly) cheating Patriots and returning high round draft picks is flat out absurd. It will never happen. As you said, the closest they'd ever get would be to hope that 1-2-3 influential owners would pressure Goodell on behalf of the Patriots, and that Goodell would then somehow hold their opinions higher than the other 28-29 owners. That seems like quite a fantastical scenario.

I don't know how any rational posters here can honestly consider how the team could try and get the punishment reversed when the decision has already been made, the timeframe for appealing was long gone before Memorial Day, and, wait for it.....there's currently an open court case where the NFL is rumored to be willing to take it all the way to the Supreme Court, should they lose again.

100% agreed.

Even if the case goes to the US Supreme Court and the League loses, it will only resolve the narrow matter of Goodell's authority under the CBA in relation to one of the League's players.

As far as the draft picks (and team fine) go, "Shaming" seems to be the only strategy left...and it's not gonna work.

 

[Huckleberry1]

"I was wrong to put my faith in the League. Tom Brady is a person of great integrity and a great ambassador of the game, both on and off the field. Yet for reasons that I cannot comprehend there are those in the league office who are more determined to prove that they were right rather than admit any culpability of their own or take any responsibility for the initiation of the process and the ensuing investigation that was flawed."

Didn't see the word "lawyers" in there.

Osmosis suggests to me that Kraft in fact DOES have a problem with Goodell

Unless your osmosis suggests that "those in the league office who are more determined to prove they are right" exempts Roger for some reason. I don't think it does.

He made the comments about lawyers in the league office after Berman's ruling.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

The only thing that would carry weight would be 31 personal phone calls from Kraft telling each of the other owners that this was a screw job and finding out where the stand, and letting them know that it could happen to them as it has to the Pats and Saints.... and it would carry weight only IF
they then called Goodell and told him, "enough is enough, end the witchhunt".
It would force the owners to let Kraft know where they stand and let him know how man of the "32 above all" actually have his back. Likely few.....

Clearly, the league favors some teams and disfavors others. I don't think that the NY teams, or the Colts, or the Ravens, or the Broncos, have any realistic fear that something like this could happen to them.

 

[JoeSixPat]

He made the comments about lawyers in the league office after Berman's ruling.

And he mentioned the lawyers earlier too.

I'm no Bob Kraft but I have been, and actually am in, a similar situation.

It often makes sense to make the lawyers the fall guys. Kraft personally attacking Roger - as damning has his July statement about his faith in the league and unnamed individuals in the league office is - doesn't get this resolved.

You always want to give someone a way out, and letting Goodell have a change of heart and blame the lawyers, while he himself saving some face, is the way one would want to approach this with anyone with an ego as large as Roger's.

Personally and publicly humiliating Roger isn't going to help Kraft in any negotiation (though it DOES help if the rest of us, and the media, do that for him!)