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2. You Have To Relinquish Your Rights As A Private Citizen
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Even though the NFL has zero right to read the text messages and emails you send from your private telephone, you have to give it up if the league (or a league-paid investigator) asks you to. You have to. You have no choice. Otherwise, you will automatically be deemed guilty, and it will impact your punishment.
Again, it doesn’t matter that
there are many reasons a player should be unwilling to hand over his private communications to anybody. It doesn’t matter that the NFL league office has been leaking incredibly damaging —
and occasionally false — information to the media whenever it feels like it. It doesn’t matter that, upon learning that a four-game suspension is suddenly the penalty for this behavior, you do decide to hand over those communications. It doesn’t matter that Richie Incognito “cooperated” with a Ted Wells-led investigation by turning over his cell phone, and he was rewarded by having thousands of his private text messages released to the public. Few had to do with the actual “bullying” investigation; most were salacious and served only to embarrass Incognito.
Yet Tom Brady, a man who is
at least 14,000 times more famous in this country and even around the world than a journeyman offensive lineman, is supposed to trust
that same Ted Wells to keep the private communications from reaching the public?
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3. Precedent Does Not Matter
The NFL relied on its Competitive Integrity Policy in order to suspend Tom Brady. That’s despite the fact that the Competitive Integrity Policy is not distributed to players. It does not apply to players. Yet in this case, it applied to Tom Brady, who was suspended for a quarter of an NFL football season.
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It doesn’t matter that nobody has ever been suspended for “general awareness” of anything, nor has anybody ever been suspended for “noncooperation.” Well, some Saints
were suspended for it, but former commissioner Paul Tagliabue ruled that Roger Goodell had overreached in his punishment and therefore vacated the suspensions.
Doesn’t matter. Goodell will do what he wants to do, precedent and history be damned.
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