Brady 4 Game Suspension Upheld

[pbmax]

He has presented the NFL with his email collection. Text messages were traced to receiving phone numbers and Brady supplied the identities (or was prepared to). 28 individuals among those receiving text messages were associated with football.

http://deadspin.com/the-full-story-o...one-1722190784

As for the emails Wells originally requested, Brady had more luck in finding these. On June 3 his forensic examiner catalogued all 5,317 emails Brady sent or received between Sept. 1, 2014 and March 1, 2015. These emails were searched for the following terms:

k-ball, kball, gage, air-pump, airpump, needle, pin, PSI, pounds per square inch, 12.5, bladder, McNally, Bird, 1 pound, 1 lb, one pound, one lb, 2 pound, 2 lb, two pound, two lb, gaug* [the * means that all variations of “gaug” were included, such as gauge, gauging, gauged etc.], pump*, inflat*, deflat*, (game OR kick*) ball ~2 [this means Brady’s emails were searched to see whether the words “game” or “kick*” were found within two words of “ball”], (prep* OR rub*) AND (ball OR football) ~10, (investigat* OR meet* OR discuss* OR question) AND (championship OR Jan* 18 OR 1/18), investigat* AND (ball OR football OR Ind* OR Colts) ~10, (equilib* OR atmosphere* OR climat* OR environment* OR test* OR experiment) AND (ball OR football) ~10
All the emails that came up in those searches were submitted as evidence in the ongoing suit, and we are still working our way through all of them (you can get a taste here). But from the forensic examiner’s report it seems like none of them were particularly relevant. For instance, the word bladder was found twice, both times referring to the human body, and the only time “one pound” was used was when discussing eating protein. A bunch of finance emails are included, as Brady discussed the economic concepts of deflation or inflation with others.

The phone messages records recovered matched the one's reported by the Wells Report except for 3 additional messages not highlighted.

Of course, Wells wasn’t solely looking for Brady’s communication with Jastremski and McNally, but also whether he had used a variety of deflation-related terms with anybody else. And as pointed out in the NFL’s questioning of Brady, there are also three texts exchanged with Jastremski on February 7 that do not appear in the Wells Report:

Q. Let’s look back at NFL Exhibit 96, the letter from Mr. Yee to Commissioner Goodell. And I’m directing your attention to page 3 of the letter in the middle of the page. After Number 2, Jastremski, toward the end of that paragraph, it says, “The phone bills also show three text message exchanges on February 7, 2015 between 8:21 p.m. and 8:33 p.m. These occurred after the Super Bowl and were not mentioned or referenced in the Wells report.”

Elsewhere, it was reported by his agent that the 28 people contacted by text beyond the three known Patriots employees were known to them and they submitted those records to the League prior to or during the appeal. Goodell responded that "is simply not practical".

[sharpe1027]

That Brady tried to correct for it after-the-fact, says more about his recognition of the possible consequences (mitigation attempt) than it does about the original act.

[pbmax]

That Brady tried to correct for it after-the-fact, says more about his recognition of the possible consequences (mitigation attempt) than it does about the original act.

Yes and in the complicated world of CBA and Federal Law, that is what you get when you change the rules of the game midstream with no notice. This is Roger reaping what he has sowed by acting by fiat and press release. Stradley's quote I put in here yesterday said it better, but he rules by over-reacting and then trying to cover his ass. Its entirely PR and personality driven.

We have not even gone back over the fact that the violation that Brady was judged to have committed was in a policy never given to the players. And there is no precedent for this kind of action for tampering with game equipment, not to mention failure to turn over phone records now being worth some portion of 4 games.

Tagliabue had this guy's number with the Bountygate disaster when he was appointed arbitrator. Goodell rules capriciously, reacting to the worst possible version of events rather than remaining dispassionate and investigating. He doesn't work with teams and players to stop the behavior first. He just wants to level the hammer.

Its shortsighted and has earned him 8 months of bad press.

[sharpe1027]

Yes and in the complicated world of CBA and Federal Law, that is what you get when you change the rules of the game midstream with no notice. This is Roger reaping what he has sowed by acting by fiat and press release. Stradley's quote I put in here yesterday said it better, but he rules by over-reacting and then trying to cover his ass. Its entirely PR and personality driven.

We have not even gone back over the fact that the violation that Brady was judged to have committed was in a policy never given to the players. And there is no precedent for this kind of action for tampering with game equipment, not to mention failure to turn over phone records now being worth some portion of 4 games.

Tagliabue had this guy's number with the Bountygate disaster when he was appointed arbitrator. Goodell rules capriciously, reacting to the worst possible version of events rather than remaining dispassionate and investigating. He doesn't work with teams and players to stop the behavior first. He just wants to level the hammer.

Its shortsighted and has earned him 8 months of bad press.

Now we are getting somewhere. Yes, Goodell's approach is short-sighted (or just plain blind). Yes, maybe Brady will get off on a legality issue.

But, the evidence is still there to suggest that the balls were tampered with and Brady was encouraging it.

[mraynrand]

Now we are getting somewhere. Yes, Goodell's approach is short-sighted (or just plain blind). Yes, maybe Brady will get off on a legality issue.

But, the evidence is still there to suggest that the balls were tampered with and Brady was encouraging it.

This is what I think. And the history of cheating by the Patsies also weighs into it.

Being commish is different than being in a court. You are kinda judge and jury. You have to protect the integrity of the game, but you don't have to make snap judgments to do it.

The Nancy Grace comparison PB mentioned a while back is apt. And I confess, I slipped into it a bit in this case. Too much hyperventilating. It sure looks like the patsies were gaming the system, but a little caution and reflection could have helped Roger see it as a smaller issue, that a lot of teams engage in, and he could have issued a slap on the wrist 25K fine with a general promise to review the process and perhaps even allow a small leeway for QB preference.

[pbmax]

...

But, the evidence is still there to suggest that the balls were tampered with and Brady was encouraging it.

I agree that those text messages look like something that is not above board. More than likely, the Pats had tried to develop some system for "correcting" wrongly inflated balls. Remember those text messages refer to Brady being incensed about a 16 PSI beachball? The refs found some of the Pats balls lower than 12.5 and over-corrected.

And let's think about this logically. If the goal is to get the balls as low as possible, then this situation of ref correction is extraordinarily likely to happen. Rodgers described the same situation in reverse, that he would ask the equipment guys to get as close to 13.5 without going over. Because if you get out of spec, you have lost control over the eventual pressure of the ball as the refs will correct it.

This is something that competent administrators would work through. If there is something amiss, what is the corrective measure? I doubt the answer to this question in the manual is to make it 2.5 PSI above the legal limit. BTW, this is a sign of exactly how unimportant the NFL saw this issue until the Ravens and Colts came bellyaching to a former Jets official in the League office. This is why a patient and non-maximalist approach should always be preferred. Prior to the game the only people that cared about this were QBs and 3 officials that were pissed at the Patriots handing them their hat for over a decade now. Goodell, reacting like bad news is a mallet to his patellar tendon, was now chasing leaked false info. And that info was about an issue that did not affect the outcome of the game. It just pissed off three opponents.

I maintain the next likeliest scenario is that this was ALL about pre-inspection ball prep. You have to be careful to go low as you can without raising a red flag with the refs. That limits what you can do pre-game.

Third most likely, as no other ref has reported the game balls went missing before a game, is that the events of this playoff game were an anomaly. So if the Patriots text messages (from earlier in the season) are an indication of an illegal scheme, it most likely happened on the sideline, not during transport while the refs were there.