mornelithe on 03 September 2015
| Arkaign said: I'm glad that got overturned. Whether NE keeps strong this year or falters, it is never good for there to be a gigantic excuse for anything like missing your most important player for a quarter of the season. At the same time, the ruling is kind of shady, and spells major problems for discipline in the NFL if they allow this to stand : Essentially what the judge said on this is that because there wasn't a specific penalty/rule for punishment for the specific offense alleged in this situation, that the NFL had no authority to dole out anything on the matter. In essence, it's like if one of your kids got drunk, stole your car and then wrecked it, but if you had no rule that you had established before about that, then you couldn't ground them. So I expect the league to take this to the district level on appeals, and there will be massive ramifications far beyond Brady/NE on this fiasco. I just hope the appeals go into the next offseason and don't screw with NE/Brady during this season. |
Conversley, what the NFL was arguing is they could punish anyone for anything without evidence. I understand your confusion, but remember, penalties are actually iterated in the CBA (and the team handbook). The max penalty for a 1st infraction as iterated in the league rules is less than a 10K fine. Here's the other thing that I think people forget. This ruling would have impact on every CBA out there. It would be a legal precedent, dropping the bar to near ground level for what is required. That has implications far beyond the NFL, the Patriots, Tom brady etc...
