Deflategate: Brady suspended, Pats lose draft picks & fined

[dead_poet]

The NFL should just pull over, empty it's clown car (ie: replace Goodell and his cronies) and admit that this entire situation has been thoroughly botched from the very beginning.

It would be so fitting (and, frankly, beautiful) if Rodger Goodell was done in by a 1.5 PSI discrepancy in a few footballs. Drug policy? Television contracts? Player holdout? Nope. Football air pressure.

[Mothman]

It would be so fitting (and, frankly, beautiful) if Rodger Goodell was done in by a 1.5 PSI discrepancy in a few footballs. Drug policy? Television contracts? Player holdout? Nope. Football air pressure.

It would be fitting end to his messy "reign" as league commissioner.

[dead_poet]

Roger Goodell misled me on Tom Brady. I won’t trust him again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-s ... s/?hpid=z5

[Raptorman]

Roger Goodell misled me on Tom Brady. I won’t trust him again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-s ... s/?hpid=z5

This is the reason I believe there will be a settlement before he court date. We all thought of Brady being the liar. No it appears it was Goodell.

[DK Sweets]

Great article.

[Mothman]

This was interesting too (emphasis mine):

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/colu ... by_the_day

And then there’s the so-called “independent” Wells Report, which turns out to be not so independent.

From the transcript of the Brady appeal hearing we learn, on page 265, that Ted Wells provided drafts of his report to NFL general counsel Jeff Pash, which adds weight to the NFLPA’s argument that the NFL got exactly what it paid for.

The idea was that everyone — the key word here being everyone — would be waiting with breathless anticipation for the Wells Report. (An image emerges: Ted Wells, coming down from the mountain top, holding two stone tablets.)

Turns out the NFL got a sneak peak at those tablets. The Patriots, remember, later came out with a Wells Report in Context, but it turns out the original Wells Report was the Wells Report in Context. With Jeff Pash doing the contexting.

I don’t believe anybody in this case. I don’t believe Brady, and I don’t believe the NFL. But I don’t believe the NFL more, or something like that, because it’s supposed to be searching for truth, not trying to “win.”

And so we have a witch hunt.

Or maybe it’s a which hunt, because it has become a daily challenge to determine which side looks worse in all this.

[dead_poet]

The NFL is getting skewered everywhere since Brady's testimony was released.

Roger Goodell's manipulation of Tom Brady's testimony leaves NFL on slippery slope

When Goodell released his 20-page appeal denial, the NFL was under the impression that all testimony and documents would remain sealed. Brady's lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, wanted it available for fans to read. The NFL got its way. However, a federal judge ruled nothing should be under seal and suddenly it all came out.

So now we can see the contrast in how Goodell characterized Brady's testimony and the actual testimony. Here is how Goodell saw it, and, in the process, characterized what Brady said he and Jastremski discussed.

"The sharp contrast between the almost complete absence of communications through the AFC championship game undermines any suggestion during the three days following the AFC championship game that the communications addressed ONLY [emphasis added] preparation of footballs for the Super Bowl rather than the tampering allegations and their anticipated responses to inquiries about the tampering," Goodell wrote.

Only? Wait, Brady and Jastremski ONLY discussed the preparation of the footballs for the Super Bowl?

That certainly could undermine things. It would be incredibly suspicious, incriminating even, if Brady claimed that in the midst of this growing scandal, he and Jastremski spoke repeatedly but ONLY about preparing footballs for the Super Bowl. No one would believe that.

Which is perhaps why Goodell wrote it as such.

Like many things from the NFL in this scandal, it's completely incorrect (and actually contradicted within other portions and footnotes of Goodell's own ruling, not to mention the Wells Report). With the release of the transcript, though, the commissioner's claims have misrepresented the evidence.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roger-good ... 1-nfl.html

[Mothman]

The NFL is getting skewered everywhere since Brady's testimony was released.

Roger Goodell's manipulation of Tom Brady's testimony leaves NFL on slippery slope
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roger-good ... 1-nfl.html

That was an excellent, and well-deserved, condemnation of the league's tactics and behavior in all of this and of Goodell's behavior in particular. Thanks for the link.

[dead_poet]

This would be...insightful.

@sallyjenx Judge Berman should demand — not under seal - Jeff Pash’s communications with Ted Wells re Brady report and all notes on it by NFL staff. Seems to me any input by NFL into Wells Report is relevant in determining if this was fair arbitration by Goodell.

[Mothman]

This would be...insightful.

Indeed! I'd love to see/hear those communications.

[TSonn]

It seems pretty clear to me what happened now:

1. Brady likes his footballs at the lowest rule-abiding PSI level of 12.5.
2. The NFL got a tip from the Ravens about this possibility (with the Ravens adding their own hyperbole that it is cheating and misinformation about kicking footballs being deflated despite a QB never throwing a kicking ball) and the NFL decided to set up a trap to try to catch the Patriots "cheating" (instead of stepping in early and preventing it from the beginning - otherwise known as keeping the integrity of the game in tact).
3. The NFL finds low PSI readings on footballs used in the game and leaks misinformation (11 of 12, exaggerating actual PSI levels) that makes Brady and The Patriots look terrible.
4. Ignoring all science and other facts (some Colts footballs were also under 12.5 PSI), the NFL goes after Tom Brady and the Patriots because most other teams/owners want to take down the Patriots for many other reasons. (Evidence from that ridiculous Ron Wolf video from last night).

I'll admit that I root for the Patriots (they've been my second favorite team since I drew a Curtis Martin Upper Deck autographed card in 1996) so I'm a bit biased, but it seems pretty clear this is a witch-hunt with a completely non football-related agenda.

Also - all the while this is going on, Aaron Rodgers admitted to Phil Simms that he purposely inflates footballs over the regulation PSI amount and waits "to see if the officials take air out" before the game. That's also cheating. That's Rodgers admitting to trying to cheat. Yet, there's no huge investigation (or barely even any media reports) about it. To me, that's more proof that this isn't about football at all - it's about the owners and Roger Goodell.

[PurpleMustReign]

Roger Goodell continues to ruin the NFL. Worst commissioner of any sport all time.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Cliff]

Here's what I still don't understand ... What is the NFL's incentive for doing this to Brady and the patriots? It doesn't exactly make the league look better if their super bowl champs cheated.

[Mothman]

Here's what I still don't understand ... What is the NFL's incentive for doing this to Brady and the patriots? It doesn't exactly make the league look better if their super bowl champs cheated.

True, but appearing to take the integrity of the game seriously makes them look better in the wake of a report about cheating.

I don't think there's a very satisfying answer to your question or to what actually happened in this whole scandal. One theory is that NFL VP of Game Operations Mike Kensil, who spent nearly 20 years as Director of Football Operations for the Jets and has supposedly had issues with Belichick ever since the latter bolted to the Pats one day after essentially inheriting the Jets HC job from Bill Parcells, was the source behind the leak to Chris Mortensen. That leak brought "deflategate" into the public eye where it rapidly gained attention and momentum. Kensil's name has been tied to the scandal almost from the very beginning and some suspect he was initially the driving force behind the investigation.

To me, regardless of whether the Pats were set up or they just plain cheated, it looks like the whole thing rapidly spiraled out of control and rather than defusing the situation, the league foolishly escalated it. Once the story was inaccurately leaked to Mortensen and public outrage over suspected cheating (by a team that's already despised by many) grew, the NFL seemed to shift into PR mode. Rather then correct inaccurate information and work to defuse the situation, they left it out there, commissioned an expensive investigation to keep up appearances/get to the bottom of things and so on. Essentially, their motivation was to prove their case and save face (by demonstrating integrity) after the scandal broke. In the end, I think it's just made everybody involved, including the league, look worse.

[TSonn]

The part that really irritates me is that the NFL is putting on this facade of "keeping the integrity of the game in tact" with this suspension/penalty when, in reality, the most ethical thing to do would have been to check the ball pressure right before the start of the game and not allow potentially deflated balls in play at all.

That's the NFL prioritizing setting up a trap over the integrity of the (AFC Championship) game.