Semi-OT: NFL beefs up Deflategate legal team

[Ken Canin]

There are two main reasons the NFL is acting as it is:

(1) Primarily, the NFL is trying to send a signal to players - or anyone else - who challenges them legally. The more litigators the NFL hires, the more Brady's team might have to hire in response. If the NFL can cost Brady three or four million in legal fees the NFL will be happy: they will have sent the signal to future adverse litigants that it is very expensive to sue them. The NFL is just trying to discourage future litigants, sending a signal that they will litigate endlessly, and expensively, no matter what.

(2) Secondarily, although Berman's opinion will not be overruled as such, very good attorneys lessen the chance that the language of the appellate opinion will set a precedent that will constrain the NFL going forward. So the NFL lawyers will work to make sure the appellate court narrows the scope of its opinion to the exact facts of this particular case.

 

[Deus Irae]

The funny thing is, the only precedent that this sets is that people being punished need prior notification of what they can be punished for, as well as some vague semblance of due process (access to investigation notes, ability to question conductor of investigation... and that's about it, really).

And the NFL just can't have that. Being forced to abide by the rules of their own CBA is an injustice that just can't stand. The CBA is supposed to **** over everyone else! It's not supposed to constrain the NFL!

Pretty much this. The most embarrassing part about the whole thing is that it's such an easy solve. The NFLPA knows it. The league knows it. Anyone with any legal background at all knows it.

But Goodell's gonna Goodell.

 

[SVN]

Tom PelisseroVerified account ‏@TomPelissero 10m10 minutes ago
NFL brief in Tom Brady appeal argues Goodell acted within discretion under CBA, district court "vastly exceeded" narrow bounds of review.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Is someone gonna make a separate thread for the appeal briefing?

 

[SVN]

Daniel Wallach‏@WALLACHLEGAL
NFL: Goodell "authorized an exhaustive investigation of the underlying conduct, which was limited only by Brady’s failure to cooperate"


i had moved on from this..but nfl in timely fashioned digs up the hate again .

 

[The Brandon Five]

The funny thing is, the only precedent that this sets is that people being punished need prior notification of what they can be punished for, as well as some vague semblance of due process (access to investigation notes, ability to question conductor of investigation... and that's about it, really).

And the NFL just can't have that. Being forced to abide by the rules of their own CBA is an injustice that just can't stand. The CBA is supposed to **** over everyone else! It's not supposed to constrain the NFL!

That was essentially their entire argument to Berman: "Doesn't matter, we can do whatever we want". Thankfully the judge did not agree.

 

[SVN]

Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 3m3 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "Not every evidentiary or procedural ruling went in Brady’s favor, but CBA gives [Goodell] the authority to make those determinations"
Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 2m2 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "The Commissioner’s ultimate determination was elaborately reasoned and thoroughly grounded in the CBA"
Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 12m12 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: Under SCOTUS & CA2, "decisions like the Commissioner’s here are shielded by some of the most deferential standards known to the law"
Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 17m17 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: Brady scheme "was aimed at gaining an unfair competitive advantage on the field & it was devised to avoid detection by game officials"
Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 26m26 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL POINT II.B: "The District Court Had No Authority—And No Grounds—To Second-Guess the Commissioner’s Discovery Ruling"

 

[BradyFTW!]

That was essentially their entire argument to Berman: "Doesn't matter, we can do whatever we want". Thankfully the judge did not agree.

Yup, they're basically doubling down on the same argument and hoping it goes over better this time. It's possible, but I don't see any compelling reason to think it'll go better for them the second time around.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Daniel Wallach‏@WALLACHLEGAL
NFL: Goodell "authorized an exhaustive investigation of the underlying conduct, which was limited only by Brady’s failure to cooperate"


i had moved on from this..but nfl in timely fashioned digs up the hate again .

This is great because it invites a response from Brady's team along the lines of "also limited by the NFL's unwillingness to consider the many other aspects of the case that strongly indicated Brady's innocence."

FFS, of the many things that came out of this, one thing that we learned is that someone hired by the NFL was stealing active game balls from the field of play to sell for his own personal gain.

 

[RayClay]

"Speaker Boehner’s “mini Justice Department” grew exponentially over time. The $500,000 limit imposed by the first contract signed in April 2011 was raised on three separate occasions, and this spring it became public (see this contract between the House General Counsel and Bancroft PLLC) that Speaker Boehner had put the House on the hook for $3 million for payments to Washington attorney Paul D. Clement and his partners at Bancroft. Billing was limited to $520 an hour per attorney—an annual rate of more than $1 million a year—but that turned out to be the “average” rate that could be charged for all work by all attorneys at the firm. For example, if a junior associate billed 100 hours at $140 an hour, then a senior partner could bill the same number of hours at $900 an hour, or an annual rate of $1.8 million. As Clement might well confess, it is good to be friends with the speaker."

Boehner somehow paid 3 million dollars of taxpayer money to Clement to unsuccessfully defend the defense of marriage act.

How the fark did that happem?

 

[RayClay]

Someone has to at least bluff about a lawsuit base on the anti trust exemption.

 

[SVN]

Daniel Wallach‏@WALLACHLEGAL
NFL: "The Commissioner has no incentive to favor one team over another; he has no incentive to favor one player over another."

 

[SVN]

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"

Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 8m8 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "McNally expressed frustration with Brady, once saying to Jastremski that “Tom sucks. I'm going to make that next ball a f—kin balloon"

Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 9m9 minutes agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "Text msgs b/w Jastremski & McNally indicate that the two had been deflating game balls at TB's request long before the AFC Champ Game"


WTF...is this for real ? the balloon response was for brady complainging the balls were over inflated .

 

[flasox27]

I am glad that Kraft is fine with Goodell again. I wonder what he will say when he cuts his check to pay for his share of the legal costs of this fiasco. It is a real pity how a smart and good guy got duped by that POS.

 

[SVN]

Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 41s41 seconds agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: Goodell "expressed willingness to 'revisit' his ruling [excluding Pash from testifying] "if other evidence revealed it was necessary"
Daniel Wallach ‏@WALLACHLEGAL 40s41 seconds agoFort Lauderdale, FL
NFL: "No party ever asked the Commissioner to revisit that ruling"

 

[SVN]

The best player of the season is being dragged through the mud by the league on a ruling they say is not based on of brady did do it but on procedure...disgusting.

 

[ThatllMoveTheChains!!!]

Daniel Wallach‏@WALLACHLEGAL
NFL: Goodell "authorized an exhaustive investigation of the underlying conduct, which was limited only by Brady’s failure to cooperate"


i had moved on from this..but nfl in timely fashioned digs up the hate again .

After carefully taking everyone not in the employ of the Patriots at their word they found that nothing shady was going on in the league offices...

Meanwhile if only Brady had provided them the information he provided them in a different media...

 

[The Brandon Five]

There are two main reasons the NFL is acting as it is:

(1) Primarily, the NFL is trying to send a signal to players - or anyone else - who challenges them legally. The more litigators the NFL hires, the more Brady's team might have to hire in response. If the NFL can cost Brady three or four million in legal fees the NFL will be happy: they will have sent the signal to future adverse litigants that it is very expensive to sue them. The NFL is just trying to discourage future litigants, sending a signal that they will litigate endlessly, and expensively, no matter what.

(2) Secondarily, although Berman's opinion will not be overruled as such, very good attorneys lessen the chance that the language of the appellate opinion will set a precedent that will constrain the NFL going forward. So the NFL lawyers will work to make sure the appellate court narrows the scope of its opinion to the exact facts of this particular case.

Do you think the owners (who ultimately pay for it) are going to continue to be OK with the league throwing good money after bad on legal action instead of just operating like, I don't know, a competent professional sports league?

 

[The Brandon Five]

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"

Cool story, brah!

 

[VectorPrime]

NFL: "Although he professed ignorance . . ., Brady's preference for deflated footballs had been a matter of public knowledge for years"

So why'd they wait so long to do anything about it if they, and everyone else, knew he'd been doing it for years? Why did not one single person on a single team say anything?

What a fuc.king joke. No one knew anything. They are straight up lying. Seriously, if you're a judge how can you not read that and instantly go "alright, so where are the accounts of people knowing about this for years?"