#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[wibi]

 
What's the motivation for a celebrity to keep their SIM card in a safe, as opposed to destroying it? If it's just conversational material and some nude pics, why keep it? The under investigation part is obviously the problem here, I just don't understand what's so unbelievable about any celeb trashing a SIM.

 
You are missing the point I'm trying to make.  I'm not says its unbelievable for Brady to destroy his SIM card or phone (BTW if your SIM keeps your pictures you have a weird phone) but its unbelievable that a majority of the population (or even a significant minority) destroy their old phone when they get a new one.  Using me as a reference was because I work in a highly security conscious environment where people would actually have security and safety reasons to destroy their phones and yet no one I know actually does.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

 As I said, it was filed in SDNY, and Brady is not named as a party.
 
I assume Akin Gump's associates did research that says an employee is not an indispensable party in the Second Circuit. Quick googling says that's the case in the Fourth. “An individual employee represented by a union . . . generally does not have standing to challenge, modify, or confirm an arbitration award because he was not a party to the arbitration.” Bryant v. Bell Atl. Maryland, Inc., 288 F.3d 124, 131 (4th Cir. 2002).

 
One suspects it was Covington's associates on this one...

 

[WayBackVazquez]

 
One suspects it was Covington's associates on this one...

 
Every dog gotta eat.
 
And Akin filed the complaint.

 

[bankshot1]

 
The NFL likened it to PEDs, not real cheating on a serious scale.
 

But wasn't precedent for non-cooperation a $50k fine? What's to prevent the NFL to likening it to anything they want?

 

[PedroKsBambino]

 
Every dog gotta eat.
 

 
 
True that.   Doesn't really matter---way too lawyer inside baseball to interest most here anyway!

 

[H78]

The NFL is a circus.

 

[troparra]

Maybe Brady still has the texts.   You can transfer your old texts to a new phone.    

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Just put this on Facebook, but I'll put it her too.  The Patriots should be stripped of their AFC Championship win and the Super Bowl should be declared vacant.  I'm completely serious.  If the NFL regards this as a cover up of real cheating on a serious scale, that's the correct position. 

 
Is this some jujitsu black belt level sarcasm? NFL can regard anything it wants. The problem is they haven't proven shit, nevermind "real cheating on a serious scale".

 

[( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)]

Whats the time table to get the injunction look like?  Is it days? weeks? I would think from Brady's side they want to know asap.  

 

[Super Nomario]

It's been suggested on Twitter that this might mean we start with a battle over jurisdiction, because the NFLPA will likely want to file in MN. Delays likely. The lawyers, as always, are the big winners.

 

[glennhoffmania]

As an impartial observer, what strikes me the most is how horribly Goodell has managed this whole process and has basically taken a scorched earth approach to possibly cause damage to the league that could last for a very long time.  I said this during the Rice debacle, but if I was one of the principals of this organization I would have absolutely zero faith in this clown running my league.  The fact that he still has a job is one of the biggest mysteries in sports in a long time.
 
As a football fan of a team other than the Pats, the less Brady plays the better.  As a fan of football in general, I can't get over how ridiculous this whole process has been and the fact that Brady could miss a quarter of a season is repulsive.

 

[phrenile]

Every dog gotta eat.
 
And Akin filed the complaint.

Robert Hardy Pees has had a chip on his shoulder his whole life (I assume).

 

[rodderick]

Don't they already have McNally's and Jastremski's texts? Who would Brady be talking about deflating footballs with, if not the ball prep guys? Does the NFL think this comes up in casual text conversation?

 

[Dotrat]

McCann is on with Dale & Holley now.

 

[Shelterdog]

 
One suspects it was Covington's associates on this one...

 
Filed by an Akins partner.
 
A substantive reason you might not have Covington on this is that C&B partner Gregg Levy was the judge (more or less) of the Brady hearing.  Those are some shitty optics when you're trying to assert that the process is impartial.

 

[ivanvamp]

From page 1, paragraph 3 of the final decision:
 
"The Patriots did not appeal from the discipline that was imposed on the club."  First off, terrible sentence structure.  Second, the Patriots COULDN'T appeal the decision against the club, could they?  That was the whole point - that Kraft had no recourse, that a team CANNOT appeal a penalty handed down.
 
If I'm right about that, this statement is just about as disingenuous as it gets, because it implies that the Patriots accepted their penalty, knowing that they did something wrong.  

 

[NatetheGreat]

The only real conclusion you can draw from Brady destroying his old phone is that he didn't think anything in there was going to help his case. Which isn't at all the same thing as saying it definitely contained incriminating information.
 
I'd say that this maybe lost him the battle of public opinion, but I'm not sure how winnable that ever was to begin with.

 

[DJnVa]

Don't they already have McNally's and Jastremski's texts? Who would Brady be talking about deflating footballs with, if not the ball prep guys? Does the NFL think this comes up in casual text conversation?

 
Friends, coaches, teammates...
 
They're fishing.
 

 

[cornwalls@6]

One thing from Goodell's release today sticks out. He makes mention of complaints received the day before the AFC title game, yet to my knowledge no warnings were given to either team to make sure there were no shenanigans going for the title game. Doesn't this lend some credence to the idea of this being a sting? And doesn't much of the leagues handling since that day(leaks, absurd delay tactics, etc.) further that along? Is there anyway that constitutes legal ammo for NFLPA to question Goodell's claimed role as neutral arbiter? Or am I just wish casting that this asshole might have inadvertently stepped on his junk today.

 

[TSC]

Maybe Brady still has the texts.   You can transfer your old texts to a new phone.    

That would be quite the power play.

"You're honor, I destroyed the phone. NOT the relevant text messages. The NFL misunderstood me."

 

[Shelterdog]

McCann is on with Dale & Holley now.

 
 
Do yourself a favor and don't listen to the guy.  dcmissle and WBV and myt1 are infinitely more informed about civil litigation than he is.

 

[dcmissle]

The phone is likely an enormous fuck up by Yee -- and maybe Kessler too.

If I am Yee, I anticipate heat destroy it. So I insist he out it in a fireproof safe in my office to which only TB has the combination.

I don't know why Kessler let him get into this in the hearing. I would have just said, we are not producing the phone. Period.

Only caveat is if what was on the phone was so incriminating, TB just had to destroy it.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

As a football fan of a team other than the Pats, the less Brady plays the better.  As a fan of football in general, I can't get over how ridiculous this whole process has been and the fact that Brady could miss a quarter of a season is repulsive.

 
May your team make the playoffs. Unless it's the Jets. 

 

[NatetheGreat]

I love how this case has turned every layperson in New England into some kind of amateur expert on civil litigation (not to mention physicists, when it comes to air pressure at least)

 

[joe dokes]

The only real conclusion you can draw from Brady destroying his old phone is that he didn't think anything in there was going to help his case. Which isn't at all the same thing as saying it definitely contained incriminating information.

 
They are both plausible conclusions.  Goodell was probably within his rights to pick one.

 

[drbretto]

 
My point was that its not as common to destroy cellular phones (or SIM cards) as people want to believe it is. 
 
Even if I'm Tom Brady why dont I just take the phone and put it into a safe instead of destroying it ... especially if I'm under investigation from the NFL.

 
What people should do isn't the same as what people DO do. Once upon a time, I was a PC technician. We would recycle people's old hard drives. While most people didn't actually bother wiping them first, a bunch of them did and all of them should. 
 
And, this is very important, Brady was under investigation from the NFL. Not the FBI. They weren't getting the phone. He made that clear. So when it comes time for a new phone, there's no reason not to be business as usual. Because, again, this is important, fuck the NFL.

 

[DJnVa]

I don't know why Kessler let him get into this in the hearing. I would have just said, we are not producing the phone. Period.
 

 
Is it possible that Kessler is playing the NFL somehow? That he knew exactly how they would treat that info, and that they would use it as a crutch to support the suspension and he has something to nullify that?

 

[WayBackVazquez]

The phone is likely an enormous fuck up by Yee -- and maybe Kessler too.

If I am Yee, I anticipate heat destroy it. So I insist he out it in a fireproof safe in my office to which only TB has the combination.

I don't know why Kessler let him get into this in the hearing. I would have just said, we are not producing the phone. Period.

Only caveat is if what was on the phone was so incriminating, TB just had to destroy it.

 
These were my first thoughts as well.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Doesn't this lend some credence to the idea of this being a sting?

 
You'll new 'round here, ain't ya? There are literally thousands of posts devoted to this very question

 

[H78]

I wonder if TB destroyed the phone for football reasons not related to DG and he just didn't want Roger getting details about anything else.

Brady's phone, for Goodell, would be a gold mine, and not necessarily for reasons that would appeal to TMZ.

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

 
SDNY.  NFLPA--not Brady--appears to be the defendant. No idea if that flies jurisdictionally.

NFLPA is the right defendant. NFLPA owns the grievance. It could file a petition to vacate without his consent--buy of course the union wants him on board.

 

[Comfortably Lomb]

I hope everyone is ready to learn all kinds of fascinating things about civil procedure.

 

[troparra]

The only real conclusion you can draw from Brady destroying his old phone is that he didn't think anything in there was going to help his case. Which isn't at all the same thing as saying it definitely contained incriminating information.
 
I'd say that this maybe lost him the battle of public opinion, but I'm not sure how winnable that ever was to begin with.

 
There is another real conclusion. Brady wanted to protect his privacy.  

 

[WayBackVazquez]

Lol NFL

What a bunch of lazy fools

 
Well, he's right about that. 

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Only caveat is if what was on the phone was so incriminating, TB just had to destroy it.

 
It is entirely plausible that the sole reason for destroying it is to protect his privacy, despite how bad it may look in regards to his penalty (and to the public "optics").

 

[joe dokes]

dcmissle, on 28 Jul 2015 - 4:28 PM, said:
 

The phone is likely an enormous fuck up by Yee -- and maybe Kessler too.

If I am Yee, I anticipate heat destroy it. So I insist he out it in a fireproof safe in my office to which only TB has the combination.

I don't know why Kessler let him get into this in the hearing. I would have just said, we are not producing the phone. Period.

Only caveat is if what was on the phone was so incriminating, TB just had to destroy it.

 

These were my first thoughts as well.

 
And mine. Unfortunately -- because reactions are just that -- mine tended towards the bolded.

 

[bluefenderstrat]

I wish the CBA was expiring a bit sooner than 2020.  

 

[ivanvamp]

Lol NFL

What a bunch of lazy fools

 
It may be legitimate for them to want Brady to give it to them and not want to have to go through that work, but let's be honest, that's a ballsy play by Brady.  It's a huge bluff if there really is something there.  If he plays that card (and he apparently did), then he's daring the NFL to go get that information.

 

[soxhop411]

“@walsha: The notion that a professional sports league believes it has the legal right to a players cell phone is ridiculous.”

 

[DJnVa]

Lol NFL

What a bunch of lazy fools

 
 
Also, the NFL could say that they would have no way of knowing if that list was complete.
 

 

[Drocca]

 
Is it possible that Kessler is playing the NFL somehow? That he knew exactly how they would treat that info, and that they would use it as a crutch to support the suspension and he has something to nullify that?

 
No.

 

[cornwalls@6]

You'll new 'round here, ain't ya? There are literally thousands of posts devoted to this very question

Not the context I was referring to. If you had quoted the entire post, I was referring to Goodell including in his statement today, and asking if that could somehow be used against him the federal appeal. If that was a stupid, wishful question, happy to to take the beating for it. Well aware that the sting angle has been thoroughly examined in many other posts.

 

[Marciano490]

 
Well, he's right about that. 

 
How much you figure it'd cost to have a team of contract attorneys do that legwork?

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

 
 
Do yourself a favor and don't listen to the guy.  dcmissle and WBV and myt1 are infinitely more informed about civil litigation than he is.

McCann's not great on labor law either. He's trying, and he's fairly objective, but it's clear he has very limited experience.

 

[troparra]

Lol NFL

What a bunch of lazy fools

 
Not practical? Was the Wells report practical?  

 

[PedroKsBambino]

Another possible conclusion is that Brady and NFL wanted to protect player's right not to turn over phone, and felt (I think oddly, but not insanely) that destroying the phone guaranteed that bad precedent was not set on that issue as part of this case.   

Do we have clarity on whether Brady received a preservation request on the phone from the NFL?

 

[Marciano490]

“@walsha: The notion that a professional sports league believes it has the legal right to a players cell phone is ridiculous.”

 
I don't even know who this is or supposed to be?  Is it someone whose opinion means a damn?

 

[Drocca]

I wonder if TB destroyed the phone for football reasons not related to DG and he just didn't want Roger getting details about anything else.

Brady's phone, for Goodell, would be a gold mine, and not necessarily for reasons that would appeal to TMZ.

 
This is not how electronic discovery works --- which, though not bound by those terms, is how the turning over of phone records would occur. 

 

[WayBackVazquez]

 
How much you figure it'd cost to have a team of contract attorneys do that legwork?

 
Wouldn't be much legwork. Without subpoena power, it goes something like this: "Hi, Mr. Wahlberg, Tom Brady has identified you as receiving texts from him. Would you mind if we saw them?" *dial tone*

 

[LuckyBen]

 
 
Also, the NFL could say that they would have no way of knowing if that list was complete.
 

Would that info not be in his phone records? I never look at my phone bill.