CM3 and peppers to be suspended indefinitely if they don't talk

[ThunderDan]

I don't know, the original statement from Al Jazeera is looking an awful lot like a McCarthyism, and the NFL is acting on it.

But it is an employment issue that was agreed to in contract by the NFL and NFLPA.

It sucks, don't get me wrong. I would have hoped that the NFL would have stopped this when the person recanted their story.

[Patler]

I would have hoped that the NFL would have stopped this when the person recanted their story.

I think with a minimal amount of cooperation from the players, it would have ended very quickly. Recanting alone wasn't enough to stop their inquiry, but minimal cooperation back in March/April (whenever) from the players would have been, I think. It would have quickly been forgotten.

[Guiness]

I think with a minimal amount of cooperation from the players, it would have ended very quickly. Recanting alone wasn't enough to stop their inquiry, but minimal cooperation back in March/April (whenever) from the players would have been, I think. It would have quickly been forgotten.

Really? Let's look at Brady - IMO he went well beyond 'minimal cooperation'. By all accounts, he turned over records from the telecom company with all the texts from the time in question from his personal phone. He submitted to interviews. Roger still went after him tooth and nail, and focused on one item, text messages from a destroyed phone, and hung him for that.

If I was in the shoes of these players, I would be awful nervous that co-operating could end badly because Goodell, for instance, wants them to give him the GPS tracking information from their car...

[Patler]

Really? Let's look at Brady - IMO he went well beyond 'minimal cooperation'. By all accounts, he turned over records from the telecom company with all the texts from the time in question from his personal phone. He submitted to interviews. Roger still went after him tooth and nail, and focused on one item, text messages from a destroyed phone, and hung him for that.

If I was in the shoes of these players, I would be awful nervous that co-operating could end badly because Goodell, for instance, wants them to give him the GPS tracking information from their car...

I think the cases and situations are different from the leagues perspective.

Deflategate was viewed by the league as calling into question the legitimacy and fairness of how the game is played. It involved a team that had stretched the rules in the past, if not blatantly violated them. They smelled another act of unfairness. In their mind, it demanded a resolution.

The Al Jazeera situation was another in the line of ongoing drug annoyances, but the source was more distasteful than the alleged violation. They couldn't ignore it, but they would rather that it just go away quietly. To convey the appearance of due diligence in their investigation, it would be necessary to talk to the players.

[Radagast]

Question : If you are a sub-group of NFL owners that the other owners follow and you want to hurt the NFLPA , but you want to remain out of the spotlight, what do you do ?
Answer : You get your commissioner to pounce upon an unproven story and threaten players . Weather you win or loose, the players look bad in the media as you come off as the high moral standards champion . In addition, you wave the commissioners gavel of power over the players heads and remind them who is in charge . All this pleases the owners who never saw a headline that they did not like .