#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[Bleedred]

I feel bad for Jets fans honestly. You have to be a special kind of loser to actually spend money to do that. 

It's all they have, but I think it's pretty funny.

 

[Shelterdog]

 
Eh, I would say Heath Evans is right up there with Rodney Harrison and Tedy B as the biggest Patriot fans in the media. Not exactly an objective opinion. He routinely waives his Patriot flag and bashes Miami, who cut him after 6 weeks, every chance he gets.

 
He's not objective but let's be honest--Miami is a shitty, horribly run  franchise.  Enjoy your latest overpaid big name free agents who are going to be cut in two or three years and replaced by new overpaid free agents!

 

[JimBoSox9]

Yeah. You're wrong.

 
I mean, virtually none of the scorched-earth hypotheticals posted have a chance of coming to pass, but if Kraft is putting weight behind the words at all, it's more likely than not he's doing it with an end target of Q1 2019, when Rog's contract is up.  Dunno if I'm ready to be dismissively definitive about an outcome four years out and with most of the factors being completely invisible to me.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

 
I mean, virtually none of the scorched-earth hypotheticals posted have a chance of coming to pass, but if Kraft is putting weight behind the words at all, it's more likely than not he's doing it with an end target of Q1 2019, when Rog's contract is up.  Dunno if I'm ready to be dismissively definitive about an outcome four years out and with most of the factors being completely invisible to me.

So, despite reports that every owner rebuffed Kraft earlier this year, they'll have a complete 180 on this entire saga four years from now?

If Kraft leads any charge against RG, he'll need RG to piss off 1/3 of the owners in the interim.

This whole conversation is fucking stupid.

 

[Myt1]

I think the issue is that there are very, very few "smart sports fans," generally. I used to work with a brilliant lawyer who didn't only think that Wins were a great way to measure the value of a starting pitcher, but he'd be incredibly dismissive of any argument to the contrary.

People rarely apply any sort of rigor to their reasoning. This is just an example of that.

 

[Myt1]

Kraft is as impotent on this as a Chernobyl cafeteria worker. People with power don't complain about getting screwed, they do something about it.

 

[drbretto]

So, despite reports that every owner rebuffed Kraft earlier this year, they'll have a complete 180 on this entire saga four years from now?

If Kraft leads any charge against RG, he'll need RG to piss off 1/3 of the owners in the interim.

This whole conversation is fucking stupid.

 
It's just short-sighted. 4 years is a long time. Right now, the other owners are enjoying the Pats getting their comeuppance, but ultimately as time goes on and emotions calm down, Goodell has shown enough buffoonery that isn't being missed. As soon as he starts making dumb decisions that negatively affect some of the other owners, their tunes will start changing one-by-one, with Kraft whispering in their ears in the background.
 
Not saying definite by any means, just, time can change a lot of things

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

Compelling argument.
 
I'll drop it now though before other folks get tired of this.

 
You're response didn't deserve a retort, but fuck it.
 

 
 
You have NO idea what he's going to do. He already flip flopped on this in public. Do you think he likes doing that and looking a bit like a fool? He already potentially coordinated his public statement with the NFLPA so they could include it in their petition to vacate. (It's possible the statement wasn't coordinated, but it sure looks like it was.)
 
You called his words "lip service." Lip service means saying stuff to appease people with no intention of acting. I'm saying he's already acted and you have no idea how far he might be willing to go now. Maybe he feels that since his power is gone, he has very little to lose by throwing mud.

 
I have NO idea what he's going to do? Really? I'm not a mindreader? I've been so disillusioned!
 
The fact that you think an NFL owner is aligning with the players union and that he's begun to "throw mud" at the rest of the NFL is so beyond ridiculous that I realize I was right not to fucking respond to your post in the first place.
 

 
It's just short-sighted. 4 years is a long time. Right now, the other owners are enjoying the Pats getting their comeuppance, but ultimately as time goes on and emotions calm down, Goodell has shown enough buffoonery that isn't being missed. As soon as he starts making dumb decisions that negatively affect some of the other owners, their tunes will start changing one-by-one, with Kraft whispering in their ears in the background.
 
Not saying definite by any means, just, time can change a lot of things

 
OK. I'll lock the thread up and open it again in 2019. No reason to use common sense and make some obvious conclusions. We'll let this play out and simply post news articles updating the timeline. Or we can do what we've done for the past 24 hours and say stupid shit like "Robert Kraft is going to sell the team and join the NFLPA in a lawsuit!" because...well, it's so likely.

 

[DJnVa]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/it-doesn-t-make-sense-why-the-nfl-sold-out-tom-brady-140037384.html
 
 
I'm going to start with the closing of the article, which is why the other player's reactions are amusing to me:
 

The whole fiasco is probably a good warning to all players: No matter how good you are to the league, just look at what the NFL did to Brady's reputation. If the NFL will do that to Brady, one of its pillars, it sure as heck wouldn't hesitate to do it to you, too.
 

 
 
 

But the weirdest part is why the NFL chose to rip apart Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, arguably the greatest quarterback in league history, who had been ideal for the league and its growth this century.
 
And make no mistake, the NFL made that choice. There are enough holes in the Wells Report that Goodell could have chosen to go about this in an entirely different way. I'm not talking about looking the other way. I'm talking about realizing there was no evidence of Brady's wrongdoing and giving someone with a clean record in such matters the benefit of the doubt. The NFL instead said that Brady talking to equipment man John Jastremski on the phone and texting him a dozen times after the story first broke was a sign of his guilt, which makes it seem like they came to a conclusion first and then found the narrative to fit it. The NFL made Brady out to be the bad guy, using him to win public favor with the destroyed cell phone nonsense.
 

 

[MuppetAsteriskTalk]

 
You're response didn't deserve a retort, but fuck it.
 
 
I have NO idea what he's going to do? Really? I'm not a mindreader? I've been so disillusioned!
 
The fact that you think an NFL owner is aligning with the players union and that he's begun to "throw mud" at the rest of the NFL is so beyond ridiculous that I realize I was right not to fucking respond to your post in the first place.

 
 
No, I said his statement in this matter was possibly coordinated with the NFLPA. I don't think he's going to throw his hat in with the NFLPA going forward, but if he did in this instance coordinate with the NFLPA that is still sticking his neck way out imo.
 
I also believe publicly declaring that he thinks the entire process was patently unfair and that he has lost faith in RG and the NFL is in-and-of-itself throwing mud. And his little website is also a bit of mudslinging. So I would say yes, he's probably willing to throw mud since he already is throwing mud.
 
I'm impressed with your snark though. Good job good effort.

 

[GlenMorangie]

.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

I feel bad for Jets fans honestly. You have to be a special kind of loser to actually spend money to do that. 

 
He types on a message board that raised money to buy a bill board to make fun of said team's QB....

 

[Myt1]

To be fair, I think we can all agree that if Roger Goodell decides to do something that alienates the owners one by one until a majority hate them, he'll probabl be out of a job.

It just won't be particularly driven by what's happening right now if you need 16 other intervening causes.

 

[rodderick]

Still waiting for someone, any talking head, to discuss Aaron Rogers' bald-faced admission that he tried to sneak over-inflated balls into games.

There's nothing wrong with that. Rodgers likes the balls overinflated and hopes the refs won't do their jobs so that he'll play with footballs closer to his preference. There's no intent to deceive or any misconduct here, it's not the team's job to make sure the balls are within the legal range of inflation.

The only thing his comments shed light on is the fact that apparently the NFL was lax in enforcing ball prep rules, and that fact was common knowledge around the league. It's another evidence that no one gave much of a thought to ball inflation before the AFCCG, but nothing more.

 

[Peak Oil Can Boyd]

It's still baffling to me that for so many people it's breathtakingly suspicious that the two people at the center of a sensational, national news story talked to each other a few times.

 

[edmunddantes]

Or that Brady talked to the guy that would need to make sure everything was right with the balls for the upcoming Super Bowl. Especially when it had come to light that something they are doing in prepping the balls may be creating "illegal" balls according to the NFL.
 
"Hey, are we doing wrong?" "What might be causing this?" "Have we changed anything recently?" and on and on... 
 
Perfectly normal conversation to have when you are trying to figure out "why is this happening?".

 

[GlenMorangie]

.

 

[cornwalls@6]

So when do we acknowledge -- intelligently, sensitively but honestly -- the racial and class undercurrents in this? They are present in the lunatic rants of SAS, the tweets of several players and, in my view, the long story of how we got to today.

People here have asked many times -- how do you make sense of the RG jihad? I have explained one theory -- it's entirely logical if it is viewed as a war on excellence in the service of the god of parity. And it is incentivized by highly paid executives and frustrated owners of less successful teams.

There is another explanation that lies in history. Remember the halcyon days of Paul Tagliabue, who I love more dearly with each passing day. He did not traffic nearly as heavily in this business of "discipline" -- and we were all better off for it.

But then something happened. There were more frequently street -- or blue collar -- crimes in the headlines. Because of the racial composition of the League, it is natural that the great bulk of them were committed by African American players. It had to stop -- in RG's view -- because all this was fucking the brand.

Fine, that is understandable. But he fucked up the discipline. It was arbitrary, capricious and often without warning, flunking every reasonable standard of fairness.

What happened then also was understandable -- RG and ownership were labeled by more than a few players as racist -- the tweets, murmuring and rants again. Well we can't have that, so RG got into the white collar crime business, with a vengeance.

First came Spygate with its over the top penalties. Then Bountygate -- driven also by legal liability worries over CTE. Now DF.

You can't go easy on this -- you have to prove that white collar crime is as bad as the stuff on the street in your estimation. (I am not racist is the message). And in not going easy on this -- or any crime -- you are enhancing the power of your office, and strengthening the owners vis a vis the players. A three-fer.

TB is not a sympathetic plaintiff for the guys in the street. He is white. He is glamorous. He is too nice. He has that wife. He wins too much. And goddamit he dissed the President and may just be a Republican. Figures. Forget he put his name on the labor lawsuit; Tom is country club.

Management, of course, loves this.

 
+1,000.    Great post, that really crystalizes many of the thoughts/suspicions I, and I'm sure others, have had about this entire fiasco, and Goodell's modus operandi in general.     
 

 

[Valek123]

I'm not talking about idiots though. I mean genuinely intelligent and reasonable people. Or, basically, anyone who doesn't care about this as much as we do. Even the most reasonable person at this point who hasn't made up their minds but has only heard bits and pieces would roll their eyes or politely let us ramble on about our crazy conspiracy theories, then go back to assuming we're delusional. 

 
The short version is my terminology of idiots was just convenient to the quote above....  In my opinion the idiocy in this example isn't the IQ of the people but rather to the complete lack of even an attempt to read beyond a headline in most cases.  I think that this event could and should frankly be used to discuss law, media, social trends and group thinking for a long period in college classes.  It's been fascinating to watch in so many ways once you peel the emotion away that we as patriot fans all have to the legacy of one of the NFL's greatest players of all time being destroyed over the potential reduction of 1psi from footballs all under the premise of it being for the "integrity of the game" that is being driven by owners and ex jets employees who are sick of the Patriots streak of success.  
The NFL has played this absolutely brilliantly from a PR prospective(and it is extraordinarily painful to say that), as I believe that they correctly predicted the vast majority of the US population already hated the Patriots and would likely never read beyond a headline.  It's tabloid journalism at it's finest, and is more of a statement of the horrible place our current society is in.  One only needs to look at the power social media has in pushing agendas today, it's a reminder of the incredibly short attention span and overall lack of an attention to detail of the vast, VAST majority of our country.
 
I've almost reached the point that there is zero point in trying to convert the vast majority of people out there and it's painful.  Their mind was made up at Patriots and didn't need another bit of information beyond that.  Unfortunately much of the narrative now is we have a evidence destroying, lying, cheating, entitled, white(yes race is playing a part in this in many areas), rich, model marrying quarterback who plays for a dirty, cheating, sign stealing, taping, drone flying, whiny, headphone disrupting organization that is coached by an egotistical, arrogant, media snubbing, jack ass of a head coach(Did I miss anything?).
 
Every fan base has an emotional attachment to their team, we're just on the wrong end of this one and it sucks to see the national reaction with so few actually having a concept of what happened or even a baseline understanding beyond the headlines.  It will take an ENORMOUS anti NFL finding by the courts to even begin to sway the narrative, but I have zero doubt after this that the NFL and the NFLPA are headed to a lockout at the end of this CBA.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Hey guys, remember that huge story in 2009, when a Jets employee was suspended before a Pats-Jets game for tampering with K balls? I swear it was a huge story, and the Jets kicker was suspended and received a massive fine, because obviously he was "at least generally aware" of what was going on. The Jets lost a first rounder. No? Nobody remembers that?

Oh ok.

 

[Ed Hillel]

So when do we acknowledge...the racial and class undercurrents in this?

Here you go:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13343272/new-england-patriots-owner-robert-kraft-quarterback-tom-brady-get-taste-justice-system

intelligently, sensitively but honestly

Welllllll, not so much this part.

 

[Valek123]

So when do we acknowledge -- intelligently, sensitively but honestly -- the racial and class undercurrents in this? They are present in the lunatic rants of SAS, the tweets of several players and, in my view, the long story of how we got to today.

People here have asked many times -- how do you make sense of the RG jihad? I have explained one theory -- it's entirely logical if it is viewed as a war on excellence in the service of the god of parity. And it is incentivized by highly paid executives and frustrated owners of less successful teams.

There is another explanation that lies in history. Remember the halcyon days of Paul Tagliabue, who I love more dearly with each passing day. He did not traffic nearly as heavily in this business of "discipline" -- and we were all better off for it.

But then something happened. There were more frequently street -- or blue collar -- crimes in the headlines. Because of the racial composition of the League, it is natural that the great bulk of them were committed by African American players. It had to stop -- in RG's view -- because all this was fucking the brand.

Fine, that is understandable. But he fucked up the discipline. It was arbitrary, capricious and often without warning, flunking every reasonable standard of fairness.

What happened then also was understandable -- RG and ownership were labeled by more than a few players as racist -- the tweets, murmuring and rants again. Well we can't have that, so RG got into the white collar crime business, with a vengeance.

First came Spygate with its over the top penalties. Then Bountygate -- driven also by legal liability worries over CTE. Now DF.

You can't go easy on this -- you have to prove that white collar crime is as bad as the stuff on the street in your estimation. (I am not racist is the message). And in not going easy on this -- or any crime -- you are enhancing the power of your office, and strengthening the owners vis a vis the players. A three-fer.

TB is not a sympathetic plaintiff for the guys in the street. He is white. He is glamorous. He is too nice. He has that wife. He wins too much. And goddamit he dissed the President and may just be a Republican. Figures. Forget he put his name on the labor lawsuit; Tom is country club.

Management, of course, loves this.

 
Fantastic post.  I posted in another thread that I believe that this entire event could be turned into a legit college course(beyond the one currently at UNH) that could discuss so many of the pieces you identified and would be a frankly tremendous opportunity for a professor to tie together so many real world issues into a popular event that would be identifiable.  I have felt that there is a real underlying element to this story as it continues to go forward and you put many of my thoughts into a post perfectly.

 

[DJnVa]

I just posted this elsewhere, because that article showed up in the ESPN thread, but the solution to the issues should not be to make the system unfair to everyone.
 
It's not justice if everyone is railroaded. It doesn't rectify the issue.

 

[Erik Hanson's Hook]

So when do we acknowledge -- intelligently, sensitively but honestly -- the racial and class undercurrents in this? They are present in the lunatic rants of SAS, the tweets of several players and, in my view, the long story of how we got to today.

People here have asked many times -- how do you make sense of the RG jihad? I have explained one theory -- it's entirely logical if it is viewed as a war on excellence in the service of the god of parity. And it is incentivized by highly paid executives and frustrated owners of less successful teams.

There is another explanation that lies in history. Remember the halcyon days of Paul Tagliabue, who I love more dearly with each passing day. He did not traffic nearly as heavily in this business of "discipline" -- and we were all better off for it.

But then something happened. There were more frequently street -- or blue collar -- crimes in the headlines. Because of the racial composition of the League, it is natural that the great bulk of them were committed by African American players. It had to stop -- in RG's view -- because all this was fucking the brand.

Fine, that is understandable. But he fucked up the discipline. It was arbitrary, capricious and often without warning, flunking every reasonable standard of fairness.

What happened then also was understandable -- RG and ownership were labeled by more than a few players as racist -- the tweets, murmuring and rants again. Well we can't have that, so RG got into the white collar crime business, with a vengeance.

First came Spygate with its over the top penalties. Then Bountygate -- driven also by legal liability worries over CTE. Now DF.

You can't go easy on this -- you have to prove that white collar crime is as bad as the stuff on the street in your estimation. (I am not racist is the message). And in not going easy on this -- or any crime -- you are enhancing the power of your office, and strengthening the owners vis a vis the players. A three-fer.

TB is not a sympathetic plaintiff for the guys in the street. He is white. He is glamorous. He is too nice. He has that wife. He wins too much. And goddamit he dissed the President and may just be a Republican. Figures. Forget he put his name on the labor lawsuit; Tom is country club.

Management, of course, loves this.

 
Never thought of it this way. Maybe.
 
And Troy Vincent really grinds my gears.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Yeah, sorry, I put the article in both because I just saw DCM's post.

 

[drbretto]

To be fair, I think we can all agree that if Roger Goodell decides to do something that alienates the owners one by one until a majority hate them, he'll probabl be out of a job.

It just won't be particularly driven by what's happening right now if you need 16 other intervening causes.

 
I think it would be somewhat fueled by it. I believe with the passage of time, Goodell's actions and mistakes will be the parts that stick the longest and I don't think it'll take much to swap opinions against him down the line. It's not just going to disappear. And Kraft, who I agree can't do anything but make a stern speech right now, will be happy to fan whatever flames come up down the line. He won't be able to do much more than say "see? see what that guy is doing there?" whenever appropriate, but it's worth a little bit more than nothing, and I do still believe that this public ridiculousness is the beginning of a long chain of events that will lead to an early retirement. 

 

[PaulinMyrBch]

I'm a bit surprised that Ray Lewis precedent hasn't been cited by the NFLPA. He was not suspended despite pleading guilty to Obstruction of Justice in the murder case. While its not an ideal parallel to not cooperating with Wells, it is the same MO in a more serious forum. I would think that might come up at some point as precedent regarding punishment for failing to cooperate.

 

[PseuFighter]

Gotta wonder how much this whole thing has generated in legal fees for both sides at this point, and what that number will come to when this whole thing is said and done.
 
I've said it before -- lawyers are the true winners here.

 

[BroodsSexton]

Gotta wonder how much this whole thing has generated in legal fees for both sides at this point, and what that number will come to when this whole thing is said and done.
 
I've said it before -- lawyers are the true winners here.

 
Gimme a break.  It's a rounding error on the economics at issue between the owners and players.

 

[PseuFighter]

 
Gimme a break.  It's a rounding error on the economics at issue between the owners and players.

 
Don't deny that, but the billable hours have to be insane regardless.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

 
Gimme a break.  It's a rounding error on the economics at issue between the owners and players.

They said they can't afford cameras at the goal line, which was far less money than this mess.

 

[troparra]

They said they can't afford cameras at the goal line, which was far less money than this mess.

 
 Cameras on the goal line don't increase page clicks, jersey sales, etc.  You have to be a full-on cynic to make any sense of this mess.

 

[Doctor G]

+1,000.    Great post, that really crystalizes many of the thoughts/suspicions I, and I'm sure others, have had about this entire fiasco, and Goodell's modus operandi in general.

Goodell's emphasis on the importance of the cellphone issue must be causing a lot of anxiety in the Hillary Clinton campaign. Outrage is communicable across sports and politics.

 

[BroodsSexton]

They said they can't afford cameras at the goal line, which was far less money than this mess.

 
Yeah, handing out sandwiches to refugees would cost far less money than this, too.  So what?  This isn't litigation where "the lawyers are winning."  That implies a situation where neither side sees value in the outcome that exceeds the cost of the litigation.  Here, the lawyers are getting paid for their time, for sure, and they're throwing resources at it, for sure, but it's all in the service of a much larger economic relationship.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

It was a joke. Maybe I should have made a joke about holding a bake sale so everyone got it. No wonder people hate lawyers.

 

[BroodsSexton]

Leave the lawyers alone!!
 
(In seriousness, though, even lawyers kind of despise litigation where only the lawyers are winning.   I think most of us actually like to think that we're in the service of a larger principle, not just professional transaction costs.)

 

[Jimbodandy]

Leave the lawyers alone!!
 
(In seriousness, though, even lawyers kind of despise litigation where only the lawyers are winning.   I think most of us actually like to think that we're in the service of a larger principle, not just professional transaction costs.)

 
Please ignore any typos.  This message was sent by my monkey butler.

 

[Shelterdog]

 
Yeah, handing out sandwiches to refugees would cost far less money than this, too.  So what?  This isn't litigation where "the lawyers are winning."  That implies a situation where neither side sees value in the outcome that exceeds the cost of the litigation.  Here, the lawyers are getting paid for their time, for sure, and they're throwing resources at it, for sure, but it's all in the service of a much larger economic relationship.

 
I agree with all of this but I think it is worth pointing out that for the player's union the $5? $10? million this is going to cost when this is all said and done is real money for a union with about 2000 members.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Leave the lawyers alone!!
 
(In seriousness, though, even lawyers kind of despise litigation where only the lawyers are winning.   I think most of us actually like to think that we're in the service of a larger principle, not just professional transaction costs.)

That's what you want us to think. We all know the truth. #stonecutters.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

 
I agree with all of this but I think it is worth pointing out that for the player's union the $5? $10? million this is going to cost when this is all said and done is real money for a union with about 2000 members.

Out of curiosity, where are you getting those numbers? I know Wells charged some $5M+, but I wouldn't think Kessler would clock on anywhere near that, considering he didn't have any investigations to pull off.

 

[PseuFighter]

Out here in NYC, I'm suffering from the lulz that coworkers are having on this.
 
How are you guys coping with the non-football watching "omgs brady's a cheater lulz ha ha ha" people?

 

[slowstrung]

I Was out at Cooperstown for Pedro's induction and was having a few beers with some Giants fans before the HoF parade when the Patriots came up. They began to tell me that they respect Brady and the Patriots, but that people hate them because Belichick is a fucking asshole and the Patriots are cheaters. We had a brief conversation about the deflated footballs before they mentioned Spygate. Out of curiosity, I followed the lead of some SoSHers here and asked them to tell me, in their own opinion, what Spygate was. After about 5 seconds of hemming and hawing - I hate that term because it's often an exaggeration, but this really is as close to "hemming and hawing" I've ever seen - they began to spit out their definition of Spygate:
 
Fan A: Well, it was the Patriots cheating.
 
Fan B: Yeah, they were filming teams practices.
 
Fan A: Right. It was the Jets, right?
 
Fan B: No, the Rams I think.
 
Me: Ok. What if I told you that they didn't film team practices and that story was debunked and the author forced to issue an apology. What if I told you that Spygate was simply the Patriots filming opposing teams hand signals - which was legal then and still legal today - but were caught doing it from the sideline instead of from the designated filming area?
 
Fan A: (Dismissively) They're still fucking cheaters.
 
Fan B: Yup, doesn't matter. They cheat and Belichick is an asshole.
 
Me: (Defeated) Ok then.
 
These two guys were pretty intelligent people and, other than the Patriots talk, seemed to be pretty smart sports fans. I know I shouldn't care, but I do. If I'm lucky, there will be a day when I'm sitting on my couch with my grand kids watching an NFL Films presentation on Tom Brady. And instead of being able to talk about the greatest QB I've ever seen, I'm going to have to explain "The controversies surrounding Brady and the Patriots", because this shit is something that will follow Brady and the Patriots through history. 50 years from now I'll still be explaining to people what the truth is and, then as now, it still won't fucking matter. That's just sad.

This is a great example of why some of us think we might be done with the NFL after Brady and Belichick go. Will the joys still outweigh the aggravation? I'm sure I'll eat those words if Jimmy G. turns out to be Yaz to Brady's Ted, but really - since its extremely likely that this is by far the greatest we'll ever see, why keep playing along with a league going to such lengths to wreck it for us - not just now, but permanently? Where their accomplishments are viewed like Lance Armstrong or whomever else gets branded "cheater."

I don't understand the venom and never will - from other fans sure, but the league itself? Of course other fans say "Pats are cheaters!!" The league has made an enormous investment over the last decade in getting the fans to do exactly that. Why they didn't treat Brady as their Michael Jordan for even greater profits makes no sense to me. If David Stern could grasp the big marketing picture, why couldn't the NFL?

Anyway, I have no love for the NCAA either - I may just start going to local HS games for my football fix (living in a football-crazed part of the South for the next few years in a work rotation, so the play quality is actually pretty good). I know we're in the eye of the storm here, so I may lighten up. But right now it just feels like, "is this still fun as a hobby - is it worth staying invested as a fan?"

 

[Dewy4PrezII]

I'm only discussing it with intelligent football fans and those who are smaller than me, which statistically is about 95% of the population

 

[Granite Sox]

Out here in NYC, I'm suffering from the lulz that coworkers are having on this.
 
How are you guys coping with the non-football watching "omgs brady's a cheater lulz ha ha ha" people?

 
There's a special brand of stupid here in Indianapolis.  Kravitz and Doyel make this Ground Zero for fictional narratives...

 

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

Still waiting for someone, any talking head, to discuss Aaron Rogers' bald-faced admission that he tried to sneak over-inflated balls into games.

The guys filling in for Boomer and Carton brought it up around 8:15-8:20 today.  But they basically dismissed it as:  why would anyone want to do what's generally considered to be making throwing and catching MORE difficult, so it's a no real advantage.  (went on to discuss AR having the strongest arm they've  ever seen, so maybe that has something to do with it yada yada yada)

 

[Shelterdog]

Out of curiosity, where are you getting those numbers? I know Wells charged some $5M+, but I wouldn't think Kessler would clock on anywhere near that, considering he didn't have any investigations to pull off.

 
I'm mostly making it up--you actually can look up the NFLPA's spending on external vendors if you want but they won't be up to date--but I'm just guessing what a fairly major engagement that lasts a couple of months and has already included a hearing, Brady's initial appeal, the yesterday's filing, motions to recuse, countless negotiations and letters with the NFL, and all the legal and fact work behind those would cost.

 

[johnmd20]

Leave the lawyers alone!!
 
(In seriousness, though, even lawyers kind of despise litigation where only the lawyers are winning.   I think most of us actually like to think that we're in the service of a larger principle, not just professional transaction costs.)

 
Maybe some laywers work in the service of the larger principle. Every field has idealists, so there even idealistic lawyers out there. But this post above is just not true, because I personally know many laywers who love litigation like this. It's a massive amount of hours of work, paid for by clients with very deep pockets who will obviously do anything to win.

 

[Punchado]

This is like when Maury told Hansel that the files were "in" the computer.

 

[j44thor]

This is like when Maury told Hansel that the files were "in" the computer.

 
That would have been a better explanation from Brady. "Mr. Wells, I opened my phone just as you asked but couldn't find the texts anywhere.  I even smashed it to pieces to see if they were hiding behind some of the random pieces."

 

[JimBoSox9]

It just won't be particularly driven by what's happening right now if you need 16 other intervening causes.

 
Merely a pace of one per quarter, I've got faith Rog has it in him!