He would do a complete 180 on my opinion of him if he sacked up and did it. Is it possible he's been hiding his time and the bullshit of Tuesday was just kind of the straw that broke the camels back?
I admit that I took the public messaging at face value on this one. Can anyone point me to a good objective criticism of the Boutygate investigation? Given how Deflategate has unfolded, I'd like to better educate myself on that scandal.RedOctober3829 said:If the NFL wants to bury somebody they will do it regardless of the evidence put forth. Look at Bountygate.
But it's not about that in this case, it's about this:Myt1 said: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.
Fan B: Yup, doesn't matter. They cheat and Belichick is an asshole.
I don't think the NFL set out to "get" Brady.crystalline said:It's not just mishandling, Mort's tweet shows that the NFL actively tried to frame Brady. They made up facts that made him look bad.
The other thing Brady needs is a good explanation why the NFL is out to get him. "Kensil is a Jets fan" doesn't seem like enough to make him want to smear Brady. "Goodell wants to weaken the PA" seems too conspiratorial. I don't have a good soundbite for this explanation. If you have one, tweet it at Simmons and KenT.
Brady signed a contract that says he will abide by NFL discipline rules. It seems that Sally wants to have other rules apply. Even if some other rules might apply, the destruction of evidence has always been viewed under the law as a criminal act. Brady is getting off easy in that his criminal act cost many people a lot of money and yet he's getting off with a slight slap on the hand instead of the many of years of prison that he should get. Instead of appealing, he should be thanking the NFL for not having this pursed as a criminal action and only treating it as a violation of NFL rules, policies and procedures under his contract. If he wants to repudiate his contract, then let him resign! He's a criminal who is being treated like he's someone special. The only thing special about him is that he's getting away with his criminal acts.
Heard it here first, folks. Getting rid of personal property is now a crime.drbretto said:wow, the comments under the Sally Jenkins article posted on the previous page:
Great. Now reduce that into a 3-8 word sound bite, and someone tweet it at Simmons.TheoShmeo said:I don't think the NFL set out to "get" Brady.
Rather, I think this whole thing is best explained by the series of articles written by Sally Jenkins.
The NFL botched the handling of this potential misdemeanor from the start and rather than backing down and admitting its mistake, the NFL continued to double, triple and quadruple down. Brady became a convenient victim given that he's the QB, the player most likely to benefit from deflated balls, and had that flurry of calls and texts with Jastremski in the wake of the Mort lies, which showed a consciousness of guilt, in the NFL's warped eyes. That Brady would not settle on the NFL's terms likely emboldened them and with the fight on, they keep charging.
But it's hard to believe that they set out specifically to tarnish him in the first place. Why would they?
That said, whether they set out to do it or ended up there is now kind of immaterial. And in a league with more than a few epic morons and dangers to society, Kraft's question about why they made Tom Brady the poster boy for bad remains on point. Not that we needed another example, but they keep coming:
http://nypost.com/2015/07/30/jets-sheldon-richardson-arrested-for-fleeing-cops-at-143-mph/
drbretto said:wow, the comments under the Sally Jenkins article posted on the previous page:
drbretto said:wow, the comments under the Sally Jenkins article posted on the previous page:
crystalline said:Great. Now reduce that into a 3-8 word sound bite, and someone tweet it at Simmons.
TheoShmeo said:I don't think the NFL set out to "get" Brady.
Rather, I think this whole thing is best explained by the series of articles written by Sally Jenkins.
The NFL botched the handling of this potential misdemeanor from the start and rather than backing down and admitting its mistake, the NFL continued to double, triple and quadruple down. Brady became a convenient victim given that he's the QB, the player most likely to benefit from deflated balls, and had that flurry of calls and texts with Jastremski in the wake of the Mort lies, which showed a consciousness of guilt, in the NFL's warped eyes. That Brady would not settle on the NFL's terms likely emboldened them and with the fight on, they keep charging.
But it's hard to believe that they set out specifically to tarnish him in the first place. Why would they?
That said, whether they set out to do it or ended up there is now kind of immaterial. And in a league with more than a few epic morons and dangers to society, Kraft's question about why they made Tom Brady the poster boy for bad remains on point. Not that we needed another example, but they keep coming:
http://nypost.com/2015/07/30/jets-sheldon-richardson-arrested-for-fleeing-cops-at-143-mph/
Good point.Average Reds said:Theo, considering that Brady indicated the the NFL never even made an offer, how do you define settling "on the NFL's terms?"
I don't necessarilybelieve this either considering there were so many reports that they were negotiating.Average Reds said:Theo, considering that Brady indicated the the NFL never even made an offer, how do you define settling "on the NFL's terms?"
Michael McCann @McCannSportsLaw 2m2 minutes ago
Michael McCann retweeted Leigh
If NFL VP Kensil was leak, helps Tom Brady show NFL violated law of shop + if TB sues for defamation, actual malice.
riboflav said:
They set out to get Belichick. I bet some, like Kensil, are A. dumbfounded that BB was cleared and B. still believe BB was the mastermind and got away with it.
Brady has said those reports are false. An NFLPA official has stated unequivocally that those reports are false. The NFL has remained silent and allowed the leaks to speak for themselves. Much like they did for months with the incorrect report on the deflation levels.HomeBrew1901 said:I don't necessarilybelieve this either considering there were so many reports that they were negotiating.
It's a PR battle man, I take everything that everyone says publicly with a grain of salt because they all want to make themselves look good.Average Reds said:Brady has said those reports are false. An NDLPA official has stated unequivocally that those reports are false. The NFL has remained silent and allowed the leaks to speak for themselves. Much like they did for months with the incorrect report on the deflation levels.
I guess anything is possible, but I'm comfortable believing that the reports are incorrect.
What evidence have you seen that Brady is fighting a PR battle? He's held one press conference back in January and put out a statement at the end of the appeal.HomeBrew1901 said:It's a PR battle man, I take everything that everyone says publicly with a grain of salt because they all want to make themselves look good.
Tom is clearly fighting a PR battle, as well he should be and not that there is anything at all wrong with that.Average Reds said:What evidence have you seen that Brady is fighting a PR battle? He's held one press conference back in January and put out a statement at the end of the appeal.
I guess it's easy to simply dismiss everything as fluff rather than to apply a bit of critical thought.
Riiiiiiiight,Average Reds said:What evidence have you seen that Brady is fighting a PR battle? He's held one press conference back in January and put out a statement at the end of the appeal.
I guess it's easy to simply dismiss everything as fluff rather than to apply a bit of critical thought.
Whatever "it" is...riboflav said:
They set out to get Belichick. I bet some, like Kensil, are A. dumbfounded that BB was cleared and B. still believe BB was the mastermind and got away with it.
dcdrew10 said:
Someone who knows something about poker can distill it into a poker analogy about going all in on a bad hand because they misread their hand it'd be more likely to get his attention.
HomeBrew1901 said:It's a PR battle man, I take everything that everyone says publicly with a grain of salt because they all want to make themselves look good.
okDaDudeAbides said:
And yet in your previous comment you state how you don't believe they weren't negotiating because of all of the reports stating such. Your posts are idiotic and obnoxious because you're very biased and pretend not to be, so please stop.
This was very obviously a smear campaign against the Patriots and Brady. I have no idea why the NFL would want the negative publicity (although in hindsight, it's worked out for them) and I have no idea when it started (i.e. was it actually a sting operation from the start or did the NFL just mishandle a minor infraction?) and my guess is that we will never know who was involved and why.
Personally, I don't think Brady did anything illegal (i.e. told anybody to deflate balls AFTER they've been inspection) and if the balls were actually deflated (big if) then it was done by the DoritoDinks alone because Brady went nuclear on them after the Jets game (when the balls were over-inflated by the refs) and told them to make sure it never happened again.
I'm obviously biased and could be wrong, but after all of the misinformation from the league and the fact they found nothing, I'm just going with the most likely scenario.
Want to pick up some pro bono work?Average Reds said:As someone who actually works in PR, I can tell you with great clarity that Brady is not fighting a PR battle. He's adopted a defensive strategy designed to correct what he sees as egregious errors and not much else. (And IMO, this is a bad choice. You either commit to silence or commit to a full PR battle,)
The NFL and NFLPA are absolutely engaged in a PR battle.
C4CRVT said:I don't mean to pile on the good dr (bretto) but your last point is right on, man.
There is no earthly way that this is worse than the Ray Rice fiasco from a PR damage standpoint. Not even close.
Most fans of other teams are somewhere between "good, screw those cheaters" to "lol ha ha sucks to be you" to "Wow, that punishment is stupid but you have to admit, Brady looks pretty bad in all of this." That's about where it ends from an empathy and outrage standpoint. As it should be. If all of this was happening to the Steelers, we'd all be having a good laugh.
I don't work in PR.Average Reds said:As someone who actually works in PR, I can tell you with great clarity that Brady is not fighting a PR battle. He's adopted a defensive strategy designed to correct what he sees as egregious errors and not much else. (And IMO, this is a bad choice. You either commit to silence or commit to a full PR battle,)
The NFL and NFLPA are absolutely engaged in a PR battle.
TheoShmeo said:I don't work in PR.
But Donald Yee's statements after each event and accompanying road tour with media outlets sure seems like a public relations effort to me. Whether Yee is correcting errors or not, it seems to me that he is trying to shape public opinion. Said differently, the only purpose in correcting errors is to set the record straight so that the public understands the actual story as opposed to the NFL's twisted version. Or is that wrong and is there an actual, meaningful difference between correcting the record and shaping public opinion?
Tom's FB post was, to me, along the same lines as Yee's statements.
And to apply it to our discussion, the NFL wants us to believe that Tom could have been done at 1 or 2 if he would just fess up. Tom likely wants us to believe that's not true.
It certainly hurts Goodell if Kraft is no longer willing to carry Goodell's water with other owners. Of course, we don't know whether Kraft is merely talking a good game or whether he will change his behavior in the future."Hes doing an outstanding job, Jones said of Goodell. I can tell you firsthand that in his spot you have to with people that you are counting on to help build and to help excel as far as the National Football League, I'm talking about the owners, you have to know that you're going to make some decisions that are very unpopular with that particular group. This is the case.
"I can speak to that because on a personal basis as well as for my franchise and our Dallas Cowboys franchise, we've had that happen to us. I'm sitting there living with the result of the commissioner's decision still today that I didn't agree with when it happened.
The apparent shot at Kraft was this: Some of the very people sometimes that have the biggest complaints, they're the ones who give you a phone call and say, 'Hey let's be a team player now and let's all get in here and realize that this happens to everybody and let's go on and compete. We've got a great league and a great game.'"
crystalline said:Here's the relevant part of Jones' comments:
It certainly hurts Goodell if Kraft is no longer willing to carry Goodell's water with other owners. Of course, we don't know whether Kraft is merely talking a good game or whether he will change his behavior in the future.
I'm still hoping for an embarrassing slapdown from Berman that makes Goodell look really bad.
Theo, do you know Brady personally? You almost always refer to him as Tom, which I find odd, unless you have a relationship with him, even if tangential. I'm not criticizing, I'm just curious.TheoShmeo said:I agree 100% that Tom has more credibility. For every reason.
Whether Brady's effort is reactive, proactive, half-assed or something else, the NFL and the scumbag Commish have literally no credibility in my eyes.
That said, I'm confused by the differing accounts regarding the negotiations. It seems logical that the NFL would have offered 1 or 2 with an admission of guilt, and that Tom's side is saying that the NFL never countered is surprising. Maybe there is no actual disagreement in that the NFL offered the above, Tom countered and the NFL never replied to that counter.
Jim Trotter @JimTrotter_NFL 47s47 seconds ago
2 NFL owners told me they're unhappy w/ $$$ being spent on Brady case & the treatment of Brady. Said molehill has been made into a mountain.
Jim Trotter @JimTrotter_NFL 47s47 seconds ago
2 NFL owners told me they're unhappy w/ $$$ being spent on Brady case & the treatment of Brady. Said molehill has been made into a mountain.
jsinger121 said: