Dolphins Tampering thread, loss of 2 picks and Ross suspended

sonofgodcf

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Jul 17, 2005
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The toilet.
He got 6 Superbowl wins (and 9 appearances) out of his time with the Pats, so his "price breaks" were not uncompensated. I think that it is gross that his Pats legacy ended with him going through the motions in his last year while working on his next deal. He wasn't a player who needed to be negotiating his next move while he was still supposed to be fulfilling his contract terms. This doesn't change or tarnish or ruin what he did here from 2000-2018, but those don't change his 2019 bullshit either.

It's the sneakiness of it all that bothers me. I'd be less pissed right now if, after 2018, he had said "I'm done here, I want out, failing that I'm going to sit out the first 10 weeks" (or however many a player can skip without having the contract toll) and then did it. Instead he stabbed us all int he back to do something that didn't even really benefit him.
This is absolutely absurd. How did he stab us in the back, exactly? Did he tank the season? Become a malcontent and poison the locker room? He had a fucking boat ride or whatever and a conversation with an owner that ultimately went nowhere. He had absolute garbage to throw to, but still passed for over 4000 yards and the team won 12 games. Do they win even eight if he sits out the first ten?

What a joke.
 

Eddie Jurak

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This is absolutely absurd. How did he stab us in the back, exactly? Did he tank the season? Become a malcontent and poison the locker room? He had a fucking boat ride or whatever and a conversation with an owner that ultimately went nowhere. He had absolute garbage to throw to, but still passed for over 4000 yards and the team won 12 games. Do they win even eight if he sits out the first ten?

What a joke.
Every player, Brady included, talks about the single minded focus you need to be at your best in the NFL, the harmfulness of distractions. Brady apparently lacked that in his last year here, because his focus was on orchaestrating a move to a divison rival.
 

sonofgodcf

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Jul 17, 2005
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The toilet.
Every player, Brady included, talks about the single minded focus you need to be at your best in the NFL, the harmfulness of distractions. Brady apparently lacked that in his last year here, because his focus was on orchaestrating a move to a divison rival.
How, though? How was Brady's play diminished that year?

All his talk was during the offseason, right? And then the Pats reeled off 8 straight to open the season, so I'm having a hard time seeing how Brady's supposed lack of a single-minded focus on football was anything of a detriment. It was a flawed team that didn't have depth at offense to compete against the best. If anything, that they won 12 was a testament to Brady's greatness, not some demonstration about how he failed the Patriot fanbase and was just going through the motions.
 

Eddie Jurak

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How, though? How was Brady's play diminished that year?

All his talk was during the offseason, right? And then the Pats reeled off 8 straight to open the season, so I'm having a hard time seeing how Brady's supposed lack of a single-minded focus on football was anything of a detriment. It was a flawed team that didn't have depth at offense to compete against the best. If anything, that they won 12 was a testament to Brady's greatness, not some demonstration about how he failed the Patriot fanbase and was just going through the motions.
I'm just taking him and other elite athletes at their word. He didn't need to do this, didn;t ultimately gain any benefit for himself by doing it, yet he chose to.
 

54thMA

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Aug 15, 2012
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He got 6 Superbowl wins (and 9 appearances) out of his time with the Pats, so his "price breaks" were not uncompensated. I think that it is gross that his Pats legacy ended with him going through the motions in his last year while working on his next deal. He wasn't a player who needed to be negotiating his next move while he was still supposed to be fulfilling his contract terms. This doesn't change or tarnish or ruin what he did here from 2000-2018, but those don't change his 2019 bullshit either.

It's the sneakiness of it all that bothers me. I'd be less pissed right now if, after 2018, he had said "I'm done here, I want out, failing that I'm going to sit out the first 10 weeks" (or however many a player can skip without having the contract toll) and then did it. Instead he stabbed us all int he back to do something that didn't even really benefit him.
This.

I don't get why more people don't see it this way.

There's a right and a wrong way to do things.

He did it the wrong way.
 

johnmd20

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Tom Brady is definitely the only athlete in history who looked towards the future while in the present.

It's actually amazing how terrible that is. Unprecedented. It's never happened before and it will never happen again.
 

rodderick

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I guess I'll just way for you guys to agree on whether he was checked out in 2019, or just too frustrated to be able to perform properly (hence the "most miserable 8-0 QB" comment).
 

Archer1979

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This.

I don't get why more people don't see it this way.

There's a right and a wrong way to do things.

He did it the wrong way.
Here's the thing with this though... has there been any report of how much Brady (or even his agent) were involved in the discussions? I've got to think that it may have been more a lop-sided love affair in that Ross kept pursuing and Brady kept backing off based purely on how Miami didn't end up signing him.

In other words, are we kind of getting ourselves worked up here over nothing about Brady's involvement?
 

54thMA

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Here's the thing with this though... has there been any report of how much Brady (or even his agent) were involved in the discussions? I've got to think that it may have been more a lop-sided love affair in that Ross kept pursuing and Brady kept backing off based purely on how Miami didn't end up signing him.

In other words, are we kind of getting ourselves worked up here over nothing about Brady's involvement?
The league hammered the Dolphins, if it was just a lop sided love affair, it's doubtful they come down on them as hard as they did.
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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This.

I don't get why more people don't see it this way.

There's a right and a wrong way to do things.

He did it the wrong way.
To me it doesn't even matter if this courtship didn't affect his play on the field that season (which we can never know). This is kind of like breaking up with your long time girlfriend or wife and then later finding out that she had been cheating on you for a year. I'm over the breakup, so it doesn't really matter that much anymore, and it doesn't change anything about what he accomplished here. But it doesn't make me feel good about him. That's for sure.
 

Archer1979

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The league hammered the Dolphins, if it was just a lop sided love affair, it's doubtful they come down on them as hard as they did.
If the Dolphins were getting penalized for JUST the tampering, I think the penalties may have been less. The whole Brian Flores thing is the elephant in the room on this though. The league can't really come out and say that the product was tainted, but they can still get their point across that tanking, formal or implied, isn't going to be allowed.

The other thing is that we've watched Brady grow up before our eyes. Is there anything in his past that we've observed that makes us think that he would have been actively reaching out to Miami, or even taken part in real, substantive conversations? I'm going to give him the benefit of a doubt on this as I'm thinking that the biggest takeaway for Brady on Ross's tampering is that it allowed Brady to actually see himself playing for a team other than New England.
 

djbayko

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If the Dolphins were getting penalized for JUST the tampering, I think the penalties may have been less. The whole Brian Flores thing is the elephant in the room on this though. The league can't really come out and say that the product was tainted, but they can still get their point across that tanking, formal or implied, isn't going to be allowed.

The other thing is that we've watched Brady grow up before our eyes. Is there anything in his past that we've observed that makes us think that he would have been actively reaching out to Miami, or even taken part in real, substantive conversations? I'm going to give him the benefit of a doubt on this as I'm thinking that the biggest takeaway for Brady on Ross's tampering is that it allowed Brady to actually see himself playing for a team other than New England.
Maybe not everyone here would agree, but he did seemingly orchestrate the ousting of his head coach. Maybe Arians deserved it, but Brady isn't exactly opposed to scheming in his later years.
 

Rice14

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Apr 23, 2008
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I emember
Tom Brady is definitely the only athlete in history who looked towards the future while in the present.

It's actually amazing how terrible that is. Unprecedented. It's never happened before and it will never happen again.
Dolphin fan here.

I'll never forget back in 1992 the Dolphins started off 6-0, including beating the crap out of the Bills in Buffalo. It seemed like they were the best team in the league and finally were going to knock the Bills off. (They did end up winning the division that year and hosted Buffalo in the AFC Championship game, but lost). Anyways, Inside the NFL decided to do their show from Miami that week, it was supposed to be a feel good celebration of the league's hottest team. What I'll always remember though, even 30 years later, was a scene with Mark Clayton, at a bowling alley, ripping the Dolphins for not paying him and how he couldn't wait to get out of there. (Which he did the next season). I don't know if I've ever looked at pro sports quite the same way since then,
 

rodderick

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To me it doesn't even matter if this courtship didn't affect his play on the field that season (which we can never know). This is kind of like breaking up with your long time girlfriend or wife and then later finding out that she had been cheating on you for a year. I'm over the breakup, so it doesn't really matter that much anymore, and it doesn't change anything about what he accomplished here. But it doesn't make me feel good about him. That's for sure.
It's more like informing your girlfriend/wife you were seeing a lawyer to commence divorce proceedings and then finding out she started seeing someone else after you broke the news but were still married. A big part of the reason Brady operated as if he was gone after 2019 is Bill making it very clear to him that was the case.
 

Ferm Sheller

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It's more like informing your girlfriend/wife you were seeing a lawyer to commence divorce proceedings and then finding out she started seeing someone else after you broke the news but were still married. A big part of the reason Brady operated as if he was gone after 2019 is Bill making it very clear to him that was the case.
If you're paying lawyers to help you divorce girlfriends, I think I can save you some money.