Tom Brady/NFLPA Sue NFL In Federal Court

[Berkcelt]

I thought it was interesting that Danny tweeted this out last night:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/danielrainge/status/626194210736111616[/tweet]

B more concrn with character than ur reputation, because ur chrctr is what you really are while your rep is merely what others think u r" JW

JW = John Wooden apparently. Seemed very on point given the development on TB's case yesterday.

[campybatman]

Wow. Too little, too late. Regardless, you should've stood your ground like Brady has.

He went onto say he regretted what he said in May at the NFL owners’ meetings accepting the league’s penalties against the organization and apologized to Brady and Patriots fans.

“I first and foremost need to apologize to our fans because I truly believe what I did in May given the actual evidence of this situation and the league’s history on discipline matters would make it much easier for the league to exonerate Tom Brady,” he said. “Unfortunately I was wrong.”

“I was wrong to put my faith in the league,” he added.

http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports/newengland/football/patriots/2015/07/29/robert-kraft-comes-out-swinging-against-nfl-apologizes-to-patriots-fans-tom-brady/

[RobZagnut]

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, destroys its cell phone before info can be retrieved like a duck, it's a duck.

Brady is pulling a Clemens/Bonds. Everyone knows they did it, but they have money to fight the fight.

[Parliament10]

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, destroys its cell phone before info can be retrieved like a duck, it's a duck.

Brady is pulling a Clemens/Bonds. Everyone knows they did it, but they have money to fight the fight.

Ahhhh. Yeah.

In America. We ain't gotta prove diddly.
If they got the Goods on him, WHERE IS IT?

There was a series of Trials, awhile ago, in a place called, Salem. You might have heard of it?
You want my cell phone? -- Sure. -- Where's your Court Order???


Oh and yeah, why did they offer him a deal???
If they had him dead to rights???
WITCH HUNT!!!



Tom Brady Offered Reduced Suspension If He Admitted Guilt, Apologize
http://football.realgm.com/wiretap/35192/Tom-Brady-Offered-Reduced-Suspension-If-He-Admitted-Guilt-Apologize

The NFL offered to reduce Tom Brady's suspension to two games and possibly one if he did the following things:

1. Admit to having knowledge of whatever John Jastremski and Jim McNally did to the footballs.

2. Admit to failing to cooperate with the investigation of Ted Wells.

3. Apologized.

Settlement talks can continue independent of litigation.

[Parliament10]

Tom Brady statement on Goodell ruling
Wednesday, July 29, 2015 7:54 AM EDT

http://www.patriots.com/news/2015/07/29/tom-brady-statement-goodell-ruling

Despite submitting to hours of testimony over the past 6 months, it is disappointing that the Commissioner upheld my suspension based upon a standard that it was “probable” that I was “generally aware” of misconduct. The fact is that neither I, nor any equipment person, did anything of which we have been accused. He dismissed my hours of testimony and it is disappointing that he found it unreliable.

I also disagree with yesterdays narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.

Most importantly, I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January. To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong.

Statement from the Patriots on Goodell ruling
Tuesday, July 28, 2015 6:00 PM EDT

http://www.patriots.com/news/2015/07/28/statement-patriots-goodell-ruling

"We are extremely disappointed in today’s ruling by Commissioner Goodell. We cannot comprehend the league’s position in this matter. Most would agree that the penalties levied originally were excessive and unprecedented, especially in light of the fact that the league has no hard evidence of wrongdoing. We continue to unequivocally believe in and support Tom Brady. We also believe that the laws of science continue to underscore the folly of this entire ordeal. Given all of this, it is incomprehensible as to why the league is attempting to destroy the reputation of one of its greatest players and representatives."

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
— Anatole France, (1844-1924)
French novelist, essayist, & Nobel laureate


No matter how many people believe something, that doesn't make it true.
This is BS, at it's best.

[Captain_Caveman]

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, destroys its cell phone before info can be retrieved like a duck, it's a duck.

Brady is pulling a Clemens/Bonds. Everyone knows they did it, but they have money to fight the fight.

They totally did it, and yet, the penalties are completely out of scale, and the investigation is incompetent. Loss of a 1st and 4th round pick is already way, way more than this deserves.

Teams get up to all sort of nonsense. This was a non-issue and was going to stay that way until the Ravens and Colts got butthurt from getting beat. Harbaugh cried about our formations like a bitch, and when Brady told him to check the rule book, he decided to stick it to him via the Colts, who ran to the league with it prior to the AFC Championship Game.

Any reasonable organization tells both teams leading up to that game that they will be checking ball pressure and just squash that right there, yet the NFL can't even tell you which gauge they used to measure the balls pregame.

Colts give a ball to the league in a game they got annihilated in, and then ex-Jet league office stoolies with an axe to grind spend the next two weeks leaking inaccurate information to the press, compelling the league to come down hard on a molehill of an infraction. They commission a report that, surprise, reaches their pre-determined conclusions, which they then edit before releasing, and come down hard on both Brady and the team as a make-up call for completely screwing up the Ray Rice scandal (who the Ravens lied way worse about, FWIW).

Way, way too hard, in fact. If Brady had punched the air out of those footballs in an Atlantic City elevator, they would have helped him cover it up, then had ESPN suspend anyone who called them out on it.

And because Goodell is too weak to manage his axe-grinding underlings from overstepping in the investigation and penalty phase, and too week to reduce the suspension to something more in scale with the largely unproven and unprovable crime, he's letting the court system do it for him, while he hides behind this narrative of a destroyed PRIVATE cell phone all parties, including his own investigators, agreed the submitting of was unnecessary and unwarranted.

Whole thing is ridiculous. Should have fined both Pats and the Brady $250k and maybe docked a 4th rounder. Still would have been way out of scale with similar infractions by other players and other teams. As someone who knows he did it and who would have accepted a reasonable penalty, it's really a black eye to how the NFL does business under Goodell. No rhyme or reason, no consistency, nothing but a completely arbitrary kangaroo court.

Oh, and **** ESPN for carrying their cash cow's water on this too, despite the glaring weaknesses of the investigation all along.

[Parliament10]

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, destroys its cell phone before info can be retrieved like a duck, it's a duck.

Brady is pulling a Clemens/Bonds. Everyone knows they did it, but they have money to fight the fight.

They totally did it, and yet, the penalties are completely out of scale, and the investigation is incompetent. Loss of a 1st and 4th round pick is already way, way more than this deserves.

Teams get up to all sort of nonsense. This was a non-issue and was going to stay that way until the Ravens and Colts got butthurt from getting beat. Harbaugh cried about our formations like a bitch, and when Brady told him to check the rule book, he decided to stick it to him via the Colts, who ran to the league with it prior to the AFC Championship Game.

Any reasonable organization tells both teams leading up to that game that they will be checking ball pressure and just squash that right there, yet the NFL can't even tell you which gauge they used to measure the balls pregame.

Colts give a ball to the league in a game they got annihilated in, and then ex-Jet league office stoolies with an axe to grind spend the next two weeks leaking inaccurate information to the press, compelling the league to come down hard on a molehill of an infraction. They commission a report that, surprise, reaches their pre-determined conclusions, which they then edit before releasing, and come down hard on both Brady and the team as a make-up call for completely screwing up the Ray Rice scandal (who the Ravens lied way worse about, FWIW).

Way, way too hard, in fact. If Brady had punched the air out of those footballs in an Atlantic City elevator, they would have helped him cover it up, then had ESPN suspend anyone who called them out on it.

And because Goodell is too weak to manage his axe-grinding underlings from overstepping in the investigation and penalty phase, and too week to reduce the suspension to something more in scale with the largely unproven and unprovable crime, he's letting the court system do it for him, while he hides behind this narrative of a destroyed PRIVATE cell phone all parties, including his own investigators, agreed was not unnecessary and unwarranted to be submitted.

Whole thing is ridiculous. Should have fined both Pats and the Brady $250k and maybe docked a 4th rounder. Still would have been way out of scale with similar infractions by other players and other teams. As someone who know he did it and who would have accepted a reasonable penalty, it's really a black eye to how the NFL does business under Goodell. No rhyme or reason, no consistency, nothing but an completely arbitrary kangaroo court.

Oh, and **** ESPN for carrying their cash cow's water on this too, despite the glaring weaknesses of the investigation all along.

This is very well Written.

I agree with you on everything, Except, whether Brady did "it" or not.
As you know, Everyone here, is Innocent. Until Proven Guilty.

They have yet to prove that Brady, is guilty of anything.
So, he remains Innocent.

[bwgood77]

Spoiler:

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, destroys its cell phone before info can be retrieved like a duck, it's a duck.

Brady is pulling a Clemens/Bonds. Everyone knows they did it, but they have money to fight the fight.

They totally did it, and yet, the penalties are completely out of scale, and the investigation is incompetent. Loss of a 1st and 4th round pick is already way, way more than this deserves.

Teams get up to all sort of nonsense. This was a non-issue and was going to stay that way until the Ravens and Colts got butthurt from getting beat. Harbaugh cried about our formations like a bitch, and when Brady told him to check the rule book, he decided to stick it to him via the Colts, who ran to the league with it prior to the AFC Championship Game.

Any reasonable organization tells both teams leading up to that game that they will be checking ball pressure and just squash that right there, yet the NFL can't even tell you which gauge they used to measure the balls pregame.

Colts give a ball to the league in a game they got annihilated in, and then ex-Jet league office stoolies with an axe to grind spend the next two weeks leaking inaccurate information to the press, compelling the league to come down hard on a molehill of an infraction. They commission a report that, surprise, reaches their pre-determined conclusions, which they then edit before releasing, and come down hard on both Brady and the team as a make-up call for completely screwing up the Ray Rice scandal (who the Ravens lied way worse about, FWIW).

Way, way too hard, in fact. If Brady had punched the air out of those footballs in an Atlantic City elevator, they would have helped him cover it up, then had ESPN suspend anyone who called them out on it.

And because Goodell is too weak to manage his axe-grinding underlings from overstepping in the investigation and penalty phase, and too week to reduce the suspension to something more in scale with the largely unproven and unprovable crime, he's letting the court system do it for him, while he hides behind this narrative of a destroyed PRIVATE cell phone all parties, including his own investigators, agreed was not unnecessary and unwarranted to be submitted.

Whole thing is ridiculous. Should have fined both Pats and the Brady $250k and maybe docked a 4th rounder. Still would have been way out of scale with similar infractions by other players and other teams. As someone who know he did it and who would have accepted a reasonable penalty, it's really a black eye to how the NFL does business under Goodell. No rhyme or reason, no consistency, nothing but an completely arbitrary kangaroo court.

Oh, and **** ESPN for carrying their cash cow's water on this too, despite the glaring weaknesses of the investigation all along.

I seriously doubt they beat the Ravens with regular inflated footballs. They needed everything and that to beat them. Of course it doesn't matter now though. He did what he could to win, as have many with steroids, spying on other teams, etc, and even if there is proof at some point, then it still doesn't really matter, because the record books won't reflect it. I'm surprised some don't think he had anything to do with it though.

I didn't originally stop by to comment on that though...I wanted to let you know about the over/under challenge on the NFL general forum. If you'd like to participate you can do so here... viewtopic.php?f=139&p=44468648#p44468648

[Captain_Caveman]

I seriously doubt they beat the Ravens with regular inflated footballs. They needed everything and that to beat them. Of course it doesn't matter now though. He did what he could to win, as have many with steroids, spying on other teams, etc, and even if there is proof at some point, then it still doesn't really matter, because the record books won't reflect it. I'm surprised some don't think he had anything to do with it though.

I didn't originally stop by to comment on that though...I wanted to let you know about the over/under challenge on the NFL general forum. If you'd like to participate you can do so here... viewtopic.php?f=139&p=44468648#p44468648

Irony here is that the Ravens are way more dishonest organization that -- as the Ray Rice saga shows -- is fully complicit in covering up the antics of a team full of steroid-laden criminals. And we are talking about slightly underinflated footballs? Lord knows what we could narc on them about, if we were as bitchmade as they are.

[bwgood77]

I seriously doubt they beat the Ravens with regular inflated footballs. They needed everything and that to beat them. Of course it doesn't matter now though. He did what he could to win, as have many with steroids, spying on other teams, etc, and even if there is proof at some point, then it still doesn't really matter, because the record books won't reflect it. I'm surprised some don't think he had anything to do with it though.

I didn't originally stop by to comment on that though...I wanted to let you know about the over/under challenge on the NFL general forum. If you'd like to participate you can do so here... viewtopic.php?f=139&p=44468648#p44468648

Irony here is that the Ravens are way more dishonest organization that -- as the Ray Rice saga shows -- is fully complicit in covering up the antics of a team full of steroid-laden criminals. And we are talking about slightly underinflated footballs? Lord knows what we could narc on them about, if we were as bitchmade as they are.

Well I'm not sure how many would agree with you. The Ray Rice saga didn't have much actual football impact. The private lives of a team's players, particularly domestic abuse, in history, has come with a 2 game suspension. The Pats were caught spying and not inflating footballs properly. I'm guessing that if Brady made the choice to do it knowing that it was against the game rules, that it gave him a pretty good advantage.

[Parliament10]

Well I'm not sure how many would agree with you. The Ray Rice saga didn't have much actual football impact. The private lives of a team's players, particularly domestic abuse, in history, has come with a 2 game suspension. The Pats were caught spying and not inflating footballs properly. I'm guessing that if Brady made the choice to do it knowing that it was against the game rules, that it gave him a pretty good advantage.

"guessing" "if" "knowing"

Innocent, until Proven guilty.
You are not supposed to have to prove your innocence.

[Berkcelt]

They totally did it

So you don't buy into the scientific analysis of the air pressure? Whenever someone says, "he/they did it," I wonder what they mean by "it." Because strictly speaking, allegedly what they did was deflate the balls to gain a competitive advantage. If the balls aren't under regulation, which the best analysis suggests, how could they have done "it"? Unless that analysis is in question and I missed it, I don't even understand how the rest of this case makes any sense.

[No-Man]

I am not going to enter the debate on who is right and who is wrong, because I honestly dont care, but no one else finds extremely ridiculous Bill Simmons twitter timeline? he is whining so much, it is surprising me that nobody has called him out anywhere since he is a public figure, it is even worse than Skip Bayless.
And like I said, I am not taking sides, Bettis and other ex-Steelers have been pretty shameful too.

[Celtics_History_Lesson]

Before I show how ludicrous this all is, I have a way for Brady to maintain his fitness and throwing touch in games for a month. He should sign with a CFL team, under the name Brady Thomas. I once saw Pierre Pierres run 524 meters to avoid a rouge in the CFL, I am sure Brady would be even better.

A quarter of the season, 25%. A ban of that long, for doing nothing. No footballs were hurt during the playing of that game. Fidel Goodell threw out a computer he used, well he must be guilty of something. This is the Soviet or French way of thinking. Tom Landry threw away his hat in 1975, maybe the Cowboys were cheating that year. John Riggins threw away a napkin in the 1980s, maybe he is guilty.

We can all list the huge number of NFL players who did terrible, illegal things and were caught and allowed to play. But now someone who may have known someone who may have done something to some footballs is out for a quarter of a season. It would be like banning Jerebko for 20 games because, after a game, someone on the Pacers started to say that the basketball had been replaced by a Swedish meatball. It was the ref's job to make sure the basketball was a basketball, and it was the NFL officials' job during the game to make sure the field, equipment and footballs were at the right standard.

We all know this is about people inside and outside the NFL with an axe to grind and to try to bring down a team that doesn't go along with their strange agenda. I can't believe other teams are sitting back and allowing the NFL to do this, as they will be next. The NFL is wrong. It's totally inappropriate. It's lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous. It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous.

Just send this all to Judge Judy. It would be five minutes, the NFL would be yelled at, Tom Brady would be free to play.

In 2015 a celebrated quarterback was sent to the sidelines by a football league for a crime they didn't commit. This man promptly escaped from a maximum ban of 4 games to the CFL underground. Today, still wanted by the NFL, he survives as a quarterback of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the brAdy-Team.

Another thing, Tom Brady should ask LAX to remove his name from the Tom Brady International Terminal there. That place is disgusting, I am sure it was meant to honor the QB but he really shouldn't want to be associated with a place that is really, really bad to be in.

[kevin44]

You guys got caught cheating again & should accept the punishment. Since you play in such a crap division you will still make the playoffs.

[truth18]

You guys got caught cheating again & should accept the punishment. Since you play in such a crap division you will still make the playoffs.

Your basketball team will never win the championship.

Spoiler:

Also, go **** yourself.

Have fun with Rondo next year, and then losing your franchise in the next ten, twenty years.

[kevin44]

The Kings already won a championship. Oh wait the ref cheated & stole it from them. Sound familiar?

[truth18]

The Kings already won a championship. Oh wait the ref cheated & stole it from them. Sound familiar?

No. I remember you losing a WCF unfairly. Who gives a ****. Not I. Maybe you remember it as the Finals because it's the closest you'll ever get to that.

Have fun winning nothing. Have fun losing your NBA club to Seattle. Get off our forum you troll. Plenty of threads to whine on the NFL GB.

Spoiler:

[kevin44]

I wished you played in the NFC. You wouldn't remember what the playoffs were. You win your crap division just by showing up.

[truth18]

I wished you played in the NFC. You wouldn't remember what the playoffs were. You win your crap division just by showing up.

Fail. Try again.

Spoiler:

Or don't