I never said to go the lawsuit route. Pats could have been much more aggressive on the PR front with strategic leaking and other tactics, and they also should have filed an official appeal with the league. Could have made things much more painful and embarrassing for all concerned. The ex-Jet miscreants in NFL HQ want to stick it to the Pats every chance they can. Have to make them less eager to jump on the next complaint they get from the Atlanta Falcons or whomever.
I'm now posting about this in two threads so apologies to the mods. Lobbies and donors are one thing but I think you are overestimating how passionate voters would be about this. Seventy percent of voters in their district would object?!? I mean, Henry Waxman was the guy who tried to end the era of the long ball by holding steroid hearings. He didn't suffer politically for it. I mean, would you vote against Ed Markey or Al Franken if they took this on?
I suspect the NFL would rather have Congress get involved than to have some state legislature get involved due to worker's comp issues. Its a hook for some local yahoo (lets say a pissed-off Missouri legislator) to start digging around whether the league or a team has been truthful about injury causation.
Why? The one thing that the NFL is frightened of is bad publicity, and a Congressional investigation would be a font of bad publicity. A federal grand jury would have the potential to put the NFL in a real bind.
How exactly does one insert oneself "Marciano-style"? I'm not familiar with that manner.
I am not saying anything new here, but if this is true, to me, this seems very short-sighted of the other owners. By striping the Patriots of draft picks, they are severing limiting the ability of the team to improve itself in the immediate future. The group that is most hurt by this action is not Kraft and the ownership. The group that is most hurt are the fans of the Patriots, or as I would call them, a significant portion of the NFL's customer base. I do concede that fans of other teams make up a larger portion of the NFL's customer base.
I ask this every time this is brought up - mostly in this thread - and I haven't seen anyone answer. How do we know that the Bountygate scandal never really happened? Are you referring to Tagliabue's reversal of the player punishments? Because that's not why he reversed them (according to his own words). Were there subsequent facts that came out which vindicated the Saints? I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm more skeptical after having seen how DFG went down, and I'd really like to know.
I think your question presumes a lot more long term thinking and maturity than the average NFL owner, or average person, normally demonstrates.
People also cared about the "sanctity" of baseball and the records that were bring broken. Nobody cares about the sanctity of football and PEDs and I would like to think most people realize every athlete is doing something for an advantage.
Tagliabue reversed discipline that was unprecedented and unlawful. That's what matters. I don't really care whether Bountygate happened or not, because you can't go hog wild on the discipline just because your sensibilities were aggrieved.
Sure, if I'm from the San Diego area, or Missouri, or any locale screwed over by the NFL I wouldn't have a second thought about making the billionaire boys club pay up. It would not only make me really popular in my district, it's good for the bottom line as the billionaire boys club will need to start funneling me money to make sure nothing untoward happens.
Why would this thread get locked? There is still a very important appeals process that appears to be months away from getting resolved. Once that has concluded, I agree that we will have exhausted the discussion but definitely not until then. And if the wishcasting, whining, etc. bothers people so much, just stay out of the thread.
dcmissile - That's an understandable position, but it's not what RA said, nor what has been repeated here time and again. A few people keep saying Bountygate didn't happen, and I have seen no evidence to support that. You don't need to misconstrue facts in order to show that the league is corrupt.
I do not profess any expert knowledge of Bountygate. The link below is from a Saints fan that calls into question much of the "evidence" . The only confession came from the former DC Williams a year after he left the Saints and following significant pressure by the league office. Most of the players on the team have given sworn statements that the allegations are all BS.
I don't have the time to do it, but I do believe if you dig back through steph stradley's stuff pre-Deflategate, you'll find a lot on the Saints case.
Reading this stuff will probably cause you to break out in hives as watch/read all the earmarks of a classic NFL investigation and punishment that we all have come to love.
Yes, I'm aware of the study which shows that more players than expected weren't injured. I can think of several reasons why that could be the case. It doesn't mean that a bounty program didn't exist, nor that it isn't immoral activity which should be stamped out of the league.
Thank you! I'll take a look at this later. I know the handling of the matter was similar to DFG in many ways, but that doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen. I guess the thing that bugs me is that they do have someone who admitted to the whole thing. Not even the Dorito Dinks cracked...why would they?
Not a problem. I'm not sure where I land on the Bountygate case anymore. I'd have to say I'm guesising nothing happened at least in any semblance of what the NFL claimed.
True. I guess my biggest problem is with people saying "we know it didn't happen". I don't know what to believe, but thank you for bringing me back down to Earth. We do know the NFL league office is corrupt.
I'm not going to focus on the details, if only because there's plenty out there (much of it cited here already) to support what I said.
We know the bounty program did not happen as the NFL outlined the case because as a matter of logic, it could not have.
You seem to be very curious about this case. Which makes your inability to actually use your fingers to type questions into the Google monster yourself very puzzling indeed.
Vilma's case was actually heard in Federal court first. Under oath, every individual who testified denied the existence of a bounty program.
Which is precisely what TB and the Union are asking for -- and what Bob Kraft asked for, only to be denied. And I would be delighted to have this much.
AR, if you read my orginal reply to you, you'd know that I did indeed research the case. You seem to have ignored the point I made about Tagliabue specifically not clearing them, which is why I asked the question. If someone else cleared them, I'd like to hear it. I'm not trying to start anything - I'm interested in facts, that's all.
What about being the congressperson who 'fixed' football? Help the NFL and football in general find a way over the threshold to the next iteration. We know it's coming...someone could try to make a litte name for himself or herself in that way.
