So now that the legal system has ‘cleared’ Brady to to play, I wonder if the NFL can use the legal system to charge him with destroying evidence?
Does anyone in the US have any morals? Are the examples of the political class, the sports class, the famous class indicative of Americans in general?
No wonder the place is going to pot. Related
That’s what happens when you melt your gold and cast false idols of members of the pop culture. The West is circling the heavily skid marked bowl…..and fully deserves it.
The NFL has rules with tampering with footballs. In the past kickers have put balls in front of heaters to soften them. That’s against the rules. The penalty for ball tampering is $25,000. Its not 4 game suspension, loss of draft picks, million dollar fine. It’s simple. It’s like holding, you get caught you’re penalized according to the rule. The referee doesn’t arbitrarily give a 25 yard penalty for holding just because he thought the player intentionally held as opposed to a 10 yard penalty for accidentally holding. The commissioner over stepped his authority, as the judge ruled. Players should play by the rules. When they don’t and get caught they should be penalized according to the rules.
“Does anyone in the US have any morals? Are the examples of the political class, the sports class, the famous class indicative of Americans in general?”
Sure,lots of Americans still have morals and an innate sense of right and wrong, but those are mostly average Americans, not privileged stars who are simply above the laws made for the peasants.
Brady is following in the footsteps of the former First Lady,who erased far more electronic messages,and far more important ones,than a mere millionaire NFL Q/B.
Yep, that’d be my first goto; comparing heated footballs for 1 play during the game to an alleged conspiracy involving staff and players to make it easier for the QB to throw.
In thw world of auto racing we have a theory about guys starting to believe their own press releases about how wonderful they are. Maybe that’s applicable in the football, hockey, political worlds, as well.
I’m with Brady on this one.
There is poor evidence — and no direct evidence — that Brady did the foul crime. There are many plausible scenarios where the footballs could have become underinflated unintentionally, as Steve McIntyre has pointed out.
Brady didn’t cheat. Period.
The ref handles the ball every play, therefore, the balls were fine. Anyone who has played basketball or football knows a flat ball if they handle it.
Furthermore, doctoring the ball is no different than a hockey player with a doctored curve on his stick. 2 minute penalty! Not cheating.
I am tired of convicting people on the basis of news reports.
Any one with any knowledge of any area that is reported on knows that reporters and the article get things wrong. Every time it seems.
is is why we have courts and due process. It is enough that due process was not followed by the NFL.
So what if Brady destroyed his phone. Maybe there was indicationof him cheating on his wife. Maybe business dealings. Do you trust that that information would not have leaked?
Yeah, he probably did it but I do not know that because the NFL failed in their kangaroo court investigation.
Does any non-lefty trust the media? Why trust it now?
I ran the NFL out of casa f1 when they let dog killer Michael Vick return following his felony conviction. Nothing I’ve seen since has made me change my mind.
Poor old Tom didnt do anything wrong it was his Deflater that had been with the Patriots for 20 years:
McNally: “Chill buddy im just f^ckin with you….im not goin to espn……..yet.”
What emerges from the texts between that date and the days shortly after the Patriots’ 45–7 defeat of the Colts in the January 18 AFC title game is a classic criminal hierarchy:
Brady is the boss, Jastremski is the buffer, the go-between, and McNally is the fixer. When investigators asked Brady about McNally, in fact, he claimed to not know who he is, a narrative that the texts make very hard to believe.
Jastremski: “Tom is acting crazy about balls.”
Unknown number presumed to be McNally: “He saying there [sic] not good enough??”
Jastremski: “Tell later.”
The following morning:
McNally: “Tom sucks…I’m going make that next football a f^cking balloon.”
Jastremski: “Talked to him last night. He actually brought you up and said you must have a lot of stress trying to get that done.”
Jastremski: “I checked some of the balls this morn…the refs f^cked us…a few of them were at almost 16 [psi; regulation is closer to 12.5 psi].”
McNally: “F^ck Tom….16 is nothing…wait till next Sunday.”
Jastremski: “OMG! Spaz.”
One week later, Jastremski and McNally, who described themselves in interviews with NFL investigators as “good friends,” texted again regarding footballs and air pressure:
Jastremski: “Can’t wait to give you another needle this week.”
McNally: “F^ck tom….make sure the pump is attached to the needle….f^ckin watermelons comin this week.”
Jastremski: “So angry”
McNally: “The only thing deflating sun…is his passing rating”
–
They should have fired Tom Brady’s ass..
When he comes to play the Carolina Panthers, I am going to throw Old Cell Phones at him..
The NFL made up stuff the penalty, had poor evidence, and didn’t follow their own rules. Surprise? Shouldn’t be! Not a computer geek -I’m curious – can you ever really make an email disappear if your name isn’t Hillary?
Cripes Lance, The Judge admonished the NFL for lack of evidence as well as other errors which led them to their knee jerk suspension. Somehow I’ll go with the judge over all the spittle flecked sports announcers.
This was always a ridiculous case. The NFL actually allows individual teams to control their own footballs before and during a game and anyone’s surprised that a team takes advantage of that? In fact, it seems to be expected that footballs will be prepared to suit each QB. New England won the Superbowl by a huge margin. The state of the football had as much to do with the final score as a butterfly flapping its wings in China.
I agree. It’s not clear that anyone did anything wrong, as has been clearly shown by McIntyre. Beyond that, assuming that there was some ball tampering, there is no direct evidence linking Brady to anything! Beyond that, the NFL was wildly dishonest about whether Brady cooperated. Beyond that, even assuming Brady did something wrong, 4 games was wildly disproportionate for under-inflated balls! In the NHL, an illegal stick is a 2-minute penalty, not a suspension for 1/3 of the season!
…[The judge] vacated Goodell’s decision, in part, because it was “premised upon several significant legal deficiencies, including (A) inadequate notice to Brady of both his potential discipline (four-game suspension) and his alleged misconduct; (B) denial of the opportunity for Brady to examine one of two lead investigators, namely NFL Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jeff Pash; and (C) denial of equal access to investigative files, including witness interview notes.”
Any British Columbia arbitrator (the only province I can discuss with some bit of authority) would have similarly found for the union over management, but that doesn’t make me question the morals of every Canadian.
There are some in both countries about whose morals I have no doubt, far worse examples than fiends flattening footballs.
He was cleared to play because a real judge says there was no evidence he knew. I accepted the nfl decision even though I thought it stunk; this means i can certainly accept this one.
Cheer up, you’ve always got the CFL..
“I wonder if the NFL can use the legal system to charge the him with destroying evidence?”
Lance, this isn’t a criminal proceeding.
The league has set a previous precedent for ball tampering.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13563723/jay-feely-tells-us-district-court-judge-richard-m-berman-new-york-jets-2009-k-ball-incident
You may hate the Patriots like most of us and want to see them get the worst penalty possible. This however was ridiculous.
laces out , laces out
realistically this means sfa in the great scheme of plate tectonics.
“Does anyone in the US have any morals? Are the examples of the political class, the sports class, the famous class indicative of Americans in general?”
Well, before we start speculating about the extent of the moral void among our Yankee neighbours, maybe it’s time for a bit of introspection. There is no better example of a place where morals matter not at all to its population than Ontario – which re-elected a proven serial liar twice and then, after he slithered down the hawser of what should have been a doomed ship, elected one of his chief rats as Premier.
The NFL is been run by a bunch of old Grannies who want sports to fit a Social construct.
IF the Ball pressure is that important have GOODELL himself handle the process (holdup the game to check the ball before every play).. It was nonsense before Brady and it is still nonsense….
Reduce the NFL female staff by 75% and PLAY Man-ball
CHEATRIOTS!
I hope they’re booed and heckled everywhere they go.
This would not have happened with Kurt Warner or Tim Teebow.
I’ma kinda confused here, is there something wrong with lance’s ballz???
“Somehow I’ll go with the judge over all the spittle flecked sports announcers.”
Brady will sue the NFL and all the ESPN Dough Boys will retire. They thought they could destroy Brady’s character with Bull Shit… Hear two owners pushed this! This is not over by a long shot…Two teams up for auction?
BTW: I hate New England, but they win because they are well coached…
I’m with Brady on this one. Not enough evidence, didn’t stick to prescribed punishments etc. The commish doesn’t get to ad lib this stuff, he has a union and a contract to deal with. That’s why the courts are involved, because he went too far on too little.
If you’re married to a supermodel you prolly don’t want anyone gawking at your text messages.