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Neodegenerate on 04 September 2015
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Johnw1104 said:
mornelithe said:

That's exactly what the Judge was attempting to push them towards during the hearings.  He hammered the NFL continuously over procedural flaws, and even told them about the Pash thing.  So yeah, it's surprising, however, looking at it from the NFL's perspective, they were attempting to hold onto unlimited power that they 'thought' the CBA afforded them, and after millions of dollars in fees surrounding the case, it seemed like they just dug their heels in.

The NFL is appealing, but given the wording of the Judge's ruling, it's unlikely they're going to win.  I would also note that this case was unique, very unique.  Even though Brady won, it doesn't mean every case brought before the courts will go the same way.  I doubt the NFL will be so blase with the procedural side of this from here on out.  Plus, it was a very very unique set of circumstances, so the league still has a ton of authority under the CBA, but Berman nailed home the fact that they have to follow those procedures as laid out in the CBA and in Federal Labor Law.

 

To start I should mention that I'm a Dolphins fan, so I certainly have no love for Brady haha

To me, I think it's extremely unlikely that Tom Brady wasn't aware of tampering with the footballs. Somehow, though, the NFL succeeded in making a lifetime Dolphins fan and man who believes Brady was guilty into a Brady sympathizer. 

First, they approached this investigation with all the subtlety and responsibility of TMZ. They publicized every step of the process, violated his CBA granted rights, and mislead the public whenever possible, such as saying Brady "destroyed" his cell phone.

Second, they not only invaded his privacy, but they allowed the entire world to invade his privacy. When people began reporting on one of Brady's private emails regarding Manning, it being completely unrelated to the matter at hand, I was just floored. That this was "leaked" (i.e. further attempts to damage his reputation) is unforgivable and incredibly irresponsible, and I hoped Brady would sue the crap out of them and still hope that now. Seriously, who the hell do they think they are? This made me feel actual anger on behalf of the bane of my NFL experience; well done Goodell.

Finally, I think we should not lose sight of the fact that this all stems from slightly deflated footballs in a 45-7 rout. I feel I should copy-paste this as it seems people are acting as if he drop kicked an infant: "this all stems from slightly deflated footballs in a 45-7 rout".

The penalty for this was just ridiculous. The alleged crime is a tactic that many quarterbacks admit to having done for decades, and it's something that no one in the league is surprised by. While a violation, four games is just a hilariously over-the-top penalty when you see how the league handles other matters. For instance, while I forgot what team it was, I recall one being caught heating the footballs on the sideline. Heck, the Atlanta Hawks were pumping artificial crowd noise into their stadium, a violation with far more impact on the game, and simply received a fine.

This was, to be blunt, a witch hunt. The other teams envy the consistency of their franchise and went after them. If this had been Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, Russel Wilson etc, it'd have been a fine and we'd be done talking about it after a week or two. 

Believe me, I long for the days of my childhood where the patriots were a non factor (and we had Marino :D) more than most people, but this experience made me into a Patriots and Brady sympathizer, which makes me want to puke on a puppy (not really, I like puppies I swear O_o). A reasonable penalty was in order, but the league never showed a desire to be reasonable. The NFL was just so outrageously unfair throughout this process that any objective observer could not hope for their success.

First bold:  I agree with you here.  Even if Brady's awareness was as simple as him telling an equipment guy "keep them on the lower side I like them that way" then he was aware that they were doing something to the balls to get them how he likes them.  Awareness has never counted against a player before though.  It also doesn't mean he told them explicitly to make them less than the 12.5 limit.

Second bold: To further expand on this, slightly deflated footballs in the first half of a game that was won 45 to 7 where the Patriots only scored 17 of those 45 with the "suspect balls" and went on to score more in the second half when they were using balls well within the standards.