Thread: Patriots being investigated for using deflated balls.

I wouldn't be surprised if Belicheat tries to convince Tom Shady to just bit the bullet and then after you're back from suspension we'll figure out another way to cheat our way to another championship.

Penny for WTE's thoughts

Tom Brady: the NFL's Hillary Clinton

Originally Posted by VonDoom

Guess this answers one of my questions:

#NFL Release on Decision in Tom Brady Appeal [Snippet]: "...Following the appeal hearing, Mr. Brady's representatives provided a letter from his cellphone carrier confirming that the text messages sent from or received by the destroyed cellphone could no longer be recovered."

Wonder how much that cost Brady to "buy off" his cellphone carrier.

I just went onto Patriots Planet and some of those morons believe this is an open and shut case in Shady's favor. You have to be a complete idiot to believe that it doesn't undermine your case.

Originally Posted by aberdien

Penny for WTE's thoughts

Channeling WTE for you: Brady is innocent and this is just another hack job.

The most damning thing for Brady in today's latest news is that he claims he regularly destroys his old phones. Several sources have said that the old phone that he replaced in November to get the phone he destroyed in March was not yet destroyed. It can't just be coincidence that the phone was destroyed on March 6th or just hours prior to the Wells Report interview. They requested his phone information weeks before that. There's really no defending that.

Roger Goodell’s wish was granted in upholding Tom Brady’s four-game suspension: Deflategate still isn’t going away anytime soon.

Now the New England Patriots quarterback can take the NFL to court, allowing an independent judge to decide if the league overstepped its bounds in its discipline.

Brady and the NFL Players Association now have two choices, as pointed out by NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport. They can “fast-track it with an injunction or slow-play, keep(ing) it going until after the season,” Rapoport tweeted Tuesday.

What Brady and the NFLPA decide will impact how the Patriots plan for the 2015 season. If they fast-track it, then a decision on whether Brady will have his suspension upheld, reduced or thrown out could be made before the season. The Patriots would have to split first-team training camp reps between Brady and backup Jimmy Garoppolo in that scenario, since the possibility still would exist that Brady could miss games in 2015.

If Brady and the NFLPA decide to slow-play the lawsuit, then it’s business as usual for 2015, and the Patriots would have to begin planning for potential games without Brady in 2016.

rest - http://nesn.com/2015/07/tom-bradys-s...far-from-over/

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

rest - http://nesn.com/2015/07/tom-bradys-s...far-from-over/

I think if they slow walk this thing it means know they stand very good chance of losing the case because of the destroyed phone.

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

rest - http://nesn.com/2015/07/tom-bradys-s...far-from-over/

Yeah, Brady has now authorized the NFLPA to proceed with the lawsuit they promised. I wonder if they can drag it out for a couple of years so that if Brady still has to serve his four games, he's ready to retire by then

What's more interesting is that the NFL has preemptively filed a lawsuit against the NFLPA:

The short and simple complaint filed Tuesday by the NFL against the NFL Players Association in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York specifically seeks pre-emptive confirmation of the arbitration award reflected in Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to uphold the four-game suspension imposed on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

It’s a move likely without precedent. In past controversies, the NFL has issued a decision and then played defense in court. In this case, the NFL has opted to go on the offensive against the union and Brady.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...d-in-new-york/

Good article here:

Don’t take this as an endorsement of Goodell, who has turned the NFL into judge, jury and executioner for no apparent reason other than his own refusal to let things go. The NFL’s punishment system isn’t merely flawed, it barely exists. But on a case-by-case basis at least, Brady got what was coming to him.

Overturning the Golden Boy’s four-game suspension would have been a move designed to get in the good graces of the American public and football media, neither of whose opinion means anything to him or his job security. Perhaps it would have meant Goodell was wary of the NFLPA’s (likely) bluff to take this to court if Brady was suspended for a considerable length of time. (They still might, I suppose, but accepting this suspension would be far better for Brady’s image and the many sponsors who pay him money because of it. It’s in his best interests to take his medicine and let this go away rather than be the guy who sued the NFL.)

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/07/tom-...ate-four-games

from article:

According to the NFL's 20-page decision, Brady destroyed the cellphone he'd been using since November 2014 on or around March 6, 2015 — the day he met with NFL investigators for the Wells report to talk about why the balls were deflated during the AFC title game.

Brady's legal counsel didn't tell the NFL that the cellphone was gone and the 10,000 text messages on it couldn't be retrieved until June 18, a few days before his appeal hearing.

AND

The NFL said that destroying the cellphone hindered the investigation and is one of the main reasons the suspension was upheld. From the decision:

"Mr. Brady's direction that his cell phone (and its relevant evidence) be destroyed on or about March 6 is very troubling. Rather than simply failing to cooperate, Mr. Brady made a deliberate effort to ensure that investigators would never have access to information that he had been asked to produce. Put differently, there was an affirmative effort by Mr. Brady to conceal potentially relevant information and to undermine the investigation."

While it makes sense that a major celebrity would take some extreme steps to make sure no one could get access to one of his old phones, the NFL poked a hole in Brady's explanation. According to the NFL's decision, Brady didn't destroy the phone he used from the spring of 2014 until November 2014.

"No explanation was provided for this anomaly," the league said.

full article, plus at the end of the article, there is the NFL's full decision
http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-b...meeting-2015-7

Originally Posted by Davii

He's batting .333 with the class comment.

Ouch!

Originally Posted by aberdien

Penny for WTE's thoughts

I'll go in half with ya.

The Patriots have released the following statement in defense of Tom Brady.

“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.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/p...comprehensible

AND

Tom Brady's agent slams NFL decision as a 'sham'
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/p...sion_as_a_sham