I am NOT a Patriot’s fan, but I’ll take a stab at it:
The NFLPA’s dream scenario AIUI:
Judge: NFL, you violated the CBA in the process of “punishing” Mr. Brady - specifically based on the fact that Mr. Goodell is not authorized to delegate authority, etc, etc. The NFL is enjoined from blah, blah, blah…
insert a couple of rounds of appeal that the NFL loses
NFL: Well, fuck a duck. Okay, we’re gonna redo this. But this time, no delegation, the boss will make the call.
Roger “Stud Muffin” Goodell: 4 GAMES! AND A BIG FINE! HA!HA! I AM THE MAN!
NFLPA: We appeal. And since we already have a court case that says you can’t hear the appeal if you made the decision, we’d like a third-party.
NFL: Well, fuck a duck.
Appeal dude/dudette: Are you fucking kidding me with all this bullshit? No suspension (or down to 1-2 games*), keep the fine if you want.
And the precedent is now firmly established that Roger Dodger the old Codger has to do the punishing his own self - which allows for/requires independent arbitrators to hear the appeal. This process (in some form) is then codified in the next CBA.
*Of course, by this time, Tom Brady is long retired and living in an old folks’ home in The Villages, but it’s the process that’s important.
Yes, you do have to be pretty casual - or should we just call it lazy? - in order to believe that.
As to what the court can do, yes, it’s a matter of labor law, which is a matter of contract, and the NFL has to follow it as much as the players do. It cannot be arbitrary or frivolous, as multiple previous court slapdowns of it in other matters have shown (although they don’t quite get it themselves yet, obviously), and it does have to follow the evidence in its disciplinary matters. The fact that the evidence was rigged will no doubt be of interest to the court if the league does not back down before being slapped down once again. They’re being given the chance first.
What do you want to wager? I can’t believe it hasn’t occurred to me before, with how frequently and unabashedly wrong you’ve been over and over and over in this thread, but how about we wager something on the outcome of the court case?
A possible outcome - the NFL has fucked up enough things in this case, that they fear losing in court. The NFL (outside of Roger’s ego) doesn’t care about punishing Tom Brady over an equipment violation nearly as much as they want to keep their current system of allowing the Commissioner to set punishments without an outside arbitrator. To avoid the potential of losing that power, or having it decreased significantly, and also to avoid more embarrassing documents coming out, the NFL and the NFLPA settle out of court for a much reduced penalty. One suggestion floating around would be allowing Brady to play for the 4 games, but fining him the salary for those games, which would be a $2 million penalty, by far the harshest ever handed down by the NFL.
Brady’s made it pretty clear that he will not accept an outcome that declares him a cheater. There are stories that he’d grudgingly accept a fine for incomplete cooperation, like Favre’s $50K, but beyond that it truly is personal for him. Don’t forget that he’s intensely competitive to a near-psychotic degree, even by pro athlete standards, and this truly matters to him in as deep a place as any man has for anything.
Of course, there is a rather large faction that will accept nothing *short *of declaring him a cheater, right? They’ll continue to believe what they want to believe, while the court will have to address fact instead.
Your apology will be sufficient, as long as it’s sincere and appears to be. I don’t wager, and I certainly don’t use it as a substitute for personal responsibility.
Cool. When Brady is suspended, even if for less than 4 games if they settle out of court, I fully expect you to live up to your word and admit you were wrong, as I will if the court somehow reaches the facts of the case and exonerates Brady.
I admit, I do find myself troubled at your lack of admissions that you’ve been wrong in the multitude of times you already have been in this thread. I don’t think that bodes well for your abilities to perceive the reality of the situation or take “personal responsibility” for your statements. But it will have to do.
The email says that the concern the Ravens expressed was that the wrong kicking balls were used in the game: new ones instead of the broken-in ones (which it seems is a ref problem, not a Patriots problem). The next bit, regarding ball inflation, is prefaced with “it is well known around the league…” That part has nothing to do with the Ravens.
Again, we have the actual text from the Ravens: “Make sure the refs rotate the kicking balls cause last week they wouldn’t let our ball in the game. Their ball was done so poorly that it was nearly impossible to kick off deep…It was hard and not worked in well at all…Let Tom [McMahon, Colts special-teams coordinator] know he can call me at any time.”
Not my bet, but the judge in this case, if it gets to him, will not be deciding whether or not Brady is innocent or guilty. He will only determine if the NFL can enforce the punishment they have handed down under the guidelines of the current CBA. But you two are far beyond caring about little details like that.
No, that’s the case, except that it’s about the NFL following the processes set out in the CBA too before it gets to that point, in the good faith that it requires. That’s come up multiple times in court over the last few years, as you may know. The facts show that they failed to do so this time as well, don’t they?
But believe what you want to about what other people believe, if you insist.
Except that it’s in a e-mail that’s *about *discussing what the Ravens told the Colts via phone. Where else would the Colts get the idea that “it is well known around the league”, d’ya think?
The rest of your post is just picking apart which of those two teams is whinier and bitchier than the other.
Here is what he posted: “… and it does have to follow the evidence in its disciplinary matters. The fact that the evidence was rigged will no doubt be of interest to the court if the league does not back down before being slapped down once again. They’re being given the chance first.” It seems to me from that comment, that Elvis believes that somehow the court will be interested in the facts and would conclude there was no factual basis to discipline Brady. Pinning him down to an actual statement of his beliefs regarding the facts has been … difficult … given his … interesting … style of posting, though, so I attempted to word the wager in a way that fit his beliefs. He is dead set against, however, committing to a point or a prognostication as the outcome of the case, so I have trouble pinning him down. Perhaps you could phrase it in a way that would be able to pin him down.
They say that things become true if you tell yourself something enough times. I suppose if you recite “Brady won’t be suspended” enough you’ll believe that, too. Alas, reality isn’t based on self-delusion.
So what is anybody’s opinion on the judge in the case so far? It seems like the judge is REALLY trying to get the two sides to settle this before a hearing. Do his comments regarding settlement make things look “better” for one side or the other or is it just SOP for these types of disputes?
My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that the judge thinks the whole deflategate thing is a waste of a federal court judge’s time. Like when two petulant children run into the room, each pointing their fingers at each other shouting “HE did it. No, HE did it!!!”
