Seeking opinions for legal questions

[TruthSeeker]

The picks are at the NFL's discretion, it seems. The slight possibility of return is that we have almost a year to see what comes out. If the facts are bad for us, or remain as is, I think they're gone. However, if facts come out during the Brady process that exonerate the Patriots, the NFL would have little choice but to return the picks. I'm not remotely optimistic that will happen but it's certainly possible.

You, sir, are an incredible optimist.

There's no doubt that what you said is a very reasonable course of action. But the NFL has been anything but reasonable throughout this entire process. Here's a sampling of mis-steps taken so far:
- were notified of concerns the day before the game yet chose not to inform the Patriots leaving themselves open to the charge of running a sting operation
- an NFL official blatantly told a Patriots employee at half-time that the NFL was going to get us (yes, that includes me and all of us as Patriot fans)
- despite knowing that this could become a significant issue (any accusation of the Patriots cheating is significant), the took practically no steps to insure the integrity of either the PSI measuring process or the security of the footballs. They didn't even bother to keep the footballs in sight of an NFL official when they were brought out to the field at half-time!
- they didn't record what gauge was used to measure the footballs pre-game. This was incredibly important since if the referee's memory is correct then best evidence provided by the Wells Report itself is
-- 3 footballs were over-pressurized
-- 5 footballs were in the expected range
-- 3 footballs were under-pressurized (2 slightly and one by .42 - which is so small that the gauges themselves apparently differed by about that much).
This is clear and convincing evidence that no deflating happened.
- An NFL official leaked incorrect information to the press which portrayed the Patriots in a very bad light - and then the NFL refused to either correct this mis-information or allow the Patriots to do so. This went a long way towards establishing a mindset of guilt in the public perception.
- The NFL may or may not have hired someone who was independent, but they certainly did not hire someone in order to get a balanced report. They got one of the most one-sided reports I've ever read with so many half-truths and jumps to conclusion that I wouldn't take the report's word on it that water is wet. Another indication of a sting operation.
- Tampering with pressurization is a minor offense (2 teams caught doing this during games this year were disciplined by being sent a warning letter) but the Patriots and their QB have been have had huge, unprecedented penalties applied.

There's so much more, but this post is long and the point has been made. The NFL process for investigation and punishment is inept, biased and arbitrary - and has been for years. At least in the other cases the NFL has investigated there has been some guilt; best evidence indicates only the NFL has any guilt in this mockery of an issue.

There is no precedent for you (or anyone) to believe that Roger Goodell would magically "do the right thing" on an issue that has completed its course through the NFL's laughable disciplinary process.