True enough, but if the owners think (quite reasonably) that they can keep the money flowing no matter whose names are on the org chart, then it’s a different decision for them. It’s personal then. It then becomes about keeping an employee who’s been an embarrassment and an all-around PITA vs. the cost of terminating him and getting some other flunky instead, one who can do the job at least as well but without the bullshit. That’s Jenkins’ point and I agree with her - his one job is not to be an embarrassment and a PITA, and he’s failed.
Meanwhile, his former most powerful supporter among the owners is now his most powerful enemy.
And that’s another reason the ruling is surprising to me. You’re opening the floodgates for every disciplined player to take the NFL to court. And they’ve been winning, so there’s no reason not to legally fight any punishment Goodell doles out.
The judge has no concern if this opens the floodgates for other players to take the NFL to court. He is only ruling on this particular case. And if the NFL continues to hand out player punishments without proper due process, and in amounts that grossly exceed the penalties that are written in their own rule books, then they will lose in court again. Therefore it behooves the NFL to reform how they punish their players.
I think this was all devised by Bob Kraft-he got billions of free advertising for his team. I also think that there is a new (contrived) story to keep the Patriots/Brady in the public eye…Brady and Bundchen may be divorcing.
Denver’s T.J. Ward has a beef about that, or at least about being a whipping boy for Goodell in the wake of his latest beatdown. A suspension for throwing a beer mug in a bar over a year ago. The columnist’s own tone is less than adult, too, but amusing anyway.
You may be overstating the racial aspect, considering that about two-thirds of the league’s players are black. You could argue that they’re underrepresented among the Golden Boys, but any data would be subjective.
That’s true. I have no expectation they’d force him out before his contract is up, though. That’d cost.
I am sure many competent executives will apply for job.
Well of course. Race is a subjective matter, after all, but as a white guy - which I am, and am guessing you are - it is difficult to understand, subjectively, what it’s like to be a black man. It’s a life of constant, neverending little insults and putdowns and moments of fear and injustices, mostly tiny but some huge. One never knows what could suddenly blow up in the league’s face; you never know which straw might break a camel’s back. Will it be this one? Likely not but this shit adds up.
As I said earlier, it was pretty obvious early on that Judge Berman didn’t think the NFL had much of a case. Once that became apparent, Goodell SHOULD have met with Brady and hammered out some kind of agreement that reduced or eliminated the suspension.
Goodell should have seen this coming (almost everyone else did). It speaks badly of him that he didn’t.
Yes, I’m white, and I do try to understand what that means as part of trying to help get us all past it. The social environment of professional sports is something different than out in the real world, though, race notwithstanding. Top black athletes may be more strongly influenced in their attitudes by living in the world of privilege, and nonapplicability of the ordinary rules of society, that comes with being a top athlete, than by race. So I think it might be more helpful to try to understand NFL players’ views in the context of the aristocracy of sport than of color.
Rumors from “sources” (yes, I know) had Brady willing to pay the same $50K fine as Favre for “noncooperation with the investigation” to get it over with, but would never agree to something that declared him a cheater.
A partial, and obvious, step that avoids termination costs would be to strip him of his discipline authority, the main cause of his embarrassing/PITA etc. conduct.
And looky here. “NFL owners to discuss changing Roger Goodell’s role in disciplinary process”
Multiple owners quoted. The NFLPA president says no new CBA without it, too.
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.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA.
Donald Trump says we should leave Tom Brady alone! He’s a good guy!!!
The whole appeals process has benefited Brady, though. As the folks at Deadspin point out, the restructured contract that he’s playing under this year is massively weighted towards signing bonus and not salary.
If he had served his suspension last season, it would have cost him just over $2 million in game payments. This season, the same four-game suspension will cost him about $250,000.
While that’s not chump change to most folks, Tom and Giselle have a combined net worth of half a billion dollars. I don’t think the money ever factored into it.
The decision did address one of the specific issues you raised in the post quoted by Hamlet: the extent to which the penalty follows the procedures and the level of authority outlined in the CBA.
So, in a sense, they did address one particular issue of factuality: they addressed the question of whether Goodell acted within his authority under the CBA. Answering that question involves a factual question of what his authority was under the CBA, and whether the actions he took comported with those terms.
I never said that it did. I simply made an observation about the outcome.
But it is worth noting that his current agreement was hammered out in the period since the appeal began, so it’s entirely possible that someone negotiating on his behalf (his agent or lawyer) recognized the possible implications of a future suspension, and arranged to structure his current bargain such that he would be protected from losing too much income. That’s the sort of thing that agents and lawyers get paid to think about.
Brady’s income might not have factored into the decision to appeal, but it’s perfectly plausible that the negotiations over his new agreement were undertaken with an eye to the possible consequences of the legal process.
Seriously!? FUCKTARD-OOMPAHLOOMPAH-ONE has weighed in on this…?
So, the Last four games of the season, due to “interference” and “cheating on top of cheating” will now be Automatic Forfeits with no [del]Bribed Judge Shenanigans[/del] saving throw?