OT: Goodell continues to make a fool of himself
August 12th, 2015 at 2:00 AM ^
BV is asking the question and Roger is "answering" below
August 12th, 2015 at 2:24 AM ^
Almost every person involved in this debacle has handled himself poorly, including Tom Brady.
August 12th, 2015 at 2:41 AM ^
HOW DARE YOU?
August 12th, 2015 at 3:05 AM ^
Here's a simple breakdown of the facts leading into this morning's hearing.
http://www.deflategatefacts.com/blog/2015/8/11/5-false-claims
August 12th, 2015 at 7:31 AM ^
Would like to know the "other side" - but still, that's one hell of a breakdown. Good read.
I hope ESPN and Mortensen have to publicize an official retraction if they haven't done so alreayd.
August 12th, 2015 at 7:49 AM ^
Well, he didn't surrender his cell phone to the NFL, so clearly he's guilty.
/s
August 12th, 2015 at 9:44 AM ^
Neither Wells nor the NFL ever asked for the phone. They simply requested to view electronic records responsive to the investigation and even offered to let Brady's team screen them first. Not only did Brady refuse to cooperate, he had his assisstant destroy them.
Now cue someone providing the deflategate link that directly contradicts Wells' and Brady's own testimony.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:07 AM ^
The information was provided as proven by court filings. Brady provided them with everything they asked for.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:17 AM ^
That is simply not true. What Brady provided was messages between March and April of 2014 and messages between May and November of 2014, none of which cover the relevant time period. Wells was adamant that the refusal to provide information strongly influenced his report, stating "I think that was one of the most ill-advised decisions I have ever seen because it hurt how I viewed his credibility." Brady also admits to destroying his first cell phone:
Q: "And when you provided it to your assisstant, did you provide it to your assisstant for the purpose of it being disposed of?"
A: "Yes."
And when did he get his new phone? March 6th - the same day he was interviewed by Wells. That is quite a coincidence.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^
and that they had all phone records from other Patriot employees. What do you think he was doing? Texting incriminating information to himself?
Besides the fact that there is no proof the balls were intentionally underinflated anyway.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^
Of course Wells said they didn't need his physical cell phone. Why would they? What they wanted were the records themselves, and by the time Brady finally agreed to provide them at the appeal, they couldn't be retrieved. Why? Because they had been destroyed. By Brady himself.
Do you truly believe it to be a coincidence the Brady got a new cell phone the same day he was interviewed by Wells?
August 12th, 2015 at 11:05 AM ^
Wells had the records he was asking for, and never told Brady otherwise. To claim after-the-fact that Brady had made an ill-advised decision is simply a smear.
Of course, the timing Brady's new phone wasn't a coincidence. What of it? He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by allowing his old phone to become an issue in the appeal (when it had never ben an issue prior to that). Destroying his old phone made sure that the NFL couldn't access and leak any of the irrelevant but embarassing stuff he had on the phone. Nothing that the NFL actually considred relevant was destroyed with Brady's phone; all of the information they wanted was available via other sources.
Of course, Goodell declared access to that information to be too difficult, because he wasn't actually interested (nor, apparently, was Wells) in the actual content of those messages.
August 12th, 2015 at 11:29 AM ^
"Wells had the records he was asking for, and never told Brady otherwise."
Not accordng to Wells. Are you seriously arguing that Brady and his team fully cooperated with all requests for information? I didn't even realize people were still disputing this.
"Destroying his old phone made sure that the NFL couldn't access and leak any of the irrelevant but embarassing stuff he had on the phone."
Huh? The league offered to have Brady's agents screen all the information on the phone to ensure that only responsive messages were released. The notion that Brady destroyed that particular phone to protect his private information is absurd given the fact that he gave the forensic examiner two other cell phones to inspect.
"Nothing that the NFL actually considred relevant was destroyed with Brady's phone; all of the information they wanted was available via other sources."
The NFL was not only concerned with messages between Brady, McNally, and Jastremski. They wanted to know if Brady has communicated with anyone else regarding the incident. Even if your point here were true, it does nothing to mitigate Brady's lack of cooperation.
My original statement was that Brady handled himself poorly. Regardless of what information was or was not on that phone, destorying it was a suspicious and stupid move that hurt him badly both with Wells and the media. It should not have been done.
August 12th, 2015 at 9:11 PM ^
I agree that Brady was being only minimally cooperative; instead of given them data, he told Wells where he could get it (Wells failed to do so - seems to me aguy getting paid a coupla mil should have jumped through a hoop or two to mmake his case if he was even minimally interested in making a case). As far as Brady's agents turning over "responsive information," what was responsive? Wells didn't even know.
Brady did handle himself poorly, at least compared to how I hope I would have behaved. I think he let his dsgust with the whole process color his actions, and I think his agents told him what line he could walk to say "fuck you" without getting into trouble. But Wells and Goodal (and Goodall's goons) behaved far, far worse. They didn' even make a decent pretense of hiding the fact that they were only interested in evidence that supported their pre-determined conclusions.
August 12th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
The whole "he destroyed his phone so he must be guilty" line is pathetic and weak minded. Maybe he had naked pictures of his wife on his phone? Maybe he had naked pictures of someone other than his wife on his phone? Maybe he had text messages talking about how big of a piece of shit Roger Goodell is on his phone? There's are planty of reasons a man like Tom Brady wouldn't want the world seeing all of his intimate details (because you know they'd get out), and many of them are something other than deflated footballs.
If my wife says "I think you'd cheating on my, let me look through your phone" I'm saying no even though I'm not cheating. She'll find something in there worth getting pissed about. "OK, I see you're not cheating, but are you really on YouPorn that many times a day?"
August 12th, 2015 at 11:38 AM ^
"The whole 'he destroyed his phone so he must be guilty' line is pathetic and weak minded."
I agree. That's why I never said he destroyed his phone so he must be guilty. The rest of your argument is based on the premise that somehow, the contents of Brady's phone would have been exposed to the world, a statement for which you have offered no evidence.
August 12th, 2015 at 12:19 PM ^
If you genuinely believe that juicy embarassing information (assuming it exists) wouldn't have gotten out somehow, I have a bridge in brooklyn to sell you. Obviously Roger Goodell wouldn't have gone on ESPN holding up Brady's phone and going "look! naked pictures!", but if you don't think TMZ or some other rag would have conveniently had a copy come into their inbox, you're crazy.
August 12th, 2015 at 7:50 AM ^
read the facts and are going to rely on the NFL propoganda to reach your conclusions. Are you aware of this fact regarding Exponent which is the company who handled the "scientific" aspects of the Wells report.
FACT: NFL Hired a Company Known for Skewing Results. Exponent, the scientific consulting firm retained and cited by the Wells investigators, has a reputation as a company that “skews results to benefit its clients.” [Los Angeles Times, 02/18/2010] In fact, “Exponent once argued for Big Tobacco that secondhand smoke does not lead to cancer, which we now know is false.” [CBS Boston, 05/6/2015]
The facts are the NFL suspended Brady based on manufactured evidence included in the Wells Report and when that was of course proven false and refuted by Brady in the appeal they said the suspension was for not cooperating even though Brady was never given a chance to refute the claims he was not cooperating and even though Wells has admitted he was never told he wasn't cooperating or that he was in danger of being suspended for non cooperation.
As I said yesterday, it's unbelievable how shady the NFL is regarding this situation and what they have done to a popular star's reputation to cover up a witch hunt.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:01 AM ^
You seem to be arguing that the league handled itself poorly. Per my comment above, I agree.
August 12th, 2015 at 4:02 AM ^
Can't wait to see this unfold. /popcorn
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August 12th, 2015 at 4:15 AM ^
It probably wasn't in the best interest for him to answer the question anyway. I guess the flip side of the argument is why agree to the interview at all, though...
August 12th, 2015 at 4:59 AM ^
Read this: http://www.deflategatefacts.com/blog/2015/8/11/5-false-claims
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August 12th, 2015 at 4:11 AM ^
I have no doubt that Brady and Belichick conspired to deflate the football, no matter how ridiculous this whole thing has been. The only thing that annoys me is that Brady gets suspended for 25% of the season, while Belichick gets off with nothing and Kraft has to shell out twenty bucks.
August 12th, 2015 at 4:36 AM ^
August 12th, 2015 at 8:54 AM ^
Just the other day, for instance, Junior Seau's daughter was denied the opportunity to speak at his HoF induction, despite one of his last requests being for her to do so.
That's truly disgusting, and feels even more so given the fact that they wouldn't even consider bending some some paltry rule so she could give her speech. What's also sad is this not being a story to get much of any media spotlight. But if Deglategate, God-willing, backfires enough on Goodell to get his sad soul the fuck fired, the world would be better off for it.
August 12th, 2015 at 7:05 AM ^
And I have no doubt that they didn't so conspire. The entire scenario of precisely deflating 12 footballs in a tiny bathroom in 58 seconds doesn't pass even the first smell test.
August 12th, 2015 at 8:33 AM ^
the facts laid out in the link above clearly show that 11 of the 12 balls had negligible pressure loss and most likely came from normal loss due to the cold conditions? The whole NFL claim that all these balls were signifcantly below required pressure IS COMPLETELY FALSE.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:34 AM ^
1. That natural pressure drops according to the temp difference between where the balls where inflated and the colder outdoor (and rainy) conditions explains a vast majority, if not possibly all, of the pressure drop in the balls. So we're talking no more than 0.3 psi below the threshold even if Brady in fact cheated.
2. The Wells report, based on a wild ass guess, directly contradicted the ref's own recollection that he used the logo gauge. This is, you know, kind of important, since measurement difference are more than enough to account for the rest of the measure pressure drop.
August 12th, 2015 at 4:54 AM ^
August 12th, 2015 at 5:54 AM ^
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August 12th, 2015 at 8:14 AM ^
If you look at a list of all the articles he has written, he has been critical of Brady at times such as when it came out that he destroyed his phone. Subsequent to him doing those articles he has come across evidence that shows Brady has done nothing wrong. The evidence isn't contrary opinions. It's from documents submitted to court like transcripts and emails. They are submitting correct information to the court, but misrepresenting facts to the press to make Brady and the Patriots look bad.
Wetzel's columns should be a required read before posting negative comments. I was someone who felt that Brady probably did something although the whole, deflating of 12 footballs in the bathroom in less than a minute and putting them back in the bag would be a hilarious video if it existed.
Wetzel's columns show the evidence that says the NFL is throwing Brady under the bus because Goodell is looking like an incompetent fool. I hope Brady takes him down.
August 12th, 2015 at 9:06 AM ^
August 12th, 2015 at 6:45 AM ^
that this guy makes $40MM annually. Wonder whether Kraft's effort to dump this knucklehead is gaining any traction. Yes, yes -- I know about all the money the owners make. Just doesn't seem that Goodell does much to move that needle over their next best non-idiot alternative.
August 12th, 2015 at 9:30 AM ^
jaw and all the money he gave up over $600. Goodell is much worse. He not only participated in a fabricated story to begin with but doubled down on it when he had a chance to throw Well's under the bus for preparing a flawed report.
August 12th, 2015 at 7:07 AM ^
That’s a lot of words, none of which directly answer the question. It’s obvious that the league doesn’t want to answer the question, because there is no good answer. But that doesn’t excuse the chronic failure to address the situation directly, or to investigate the leak that became a report that turned a curiosity into a hashtag.
It was a lot of words that did nothing indeed, and at this point, I think the only way this question or one similar to it gets answered is if someone like Judge Berman asks it, gets a non-answer, and then tells Goodell where he might spend the night if he fails to answer it. Part of me almost wants to see the league try non-answers in front of a federal judge just to see what happens. Popcorn, you understand.
August 12th, 2015 at 7:37 AM ^
Of terrible, nonsensical, heinous things, but by far it's this kind of nonsense that makes me shake my head and wonder how people can get so wrapped up in the nFL.
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August 12th, 2015 at 7:48 AM ^
August 12th, 2015 at 7:58 AM ^
Dude's basically getting one big-ass free lunch, and Milton Friedman would be fucking. pissed. off.
August 12th, 2015 at 8:01 AM ^
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August 12th, 2015 at 8:03 AM ^
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August 12th, 2015 at 8:06 AM ^
I'm finding it ironic that the thing that might cost Goodell his job is the mishandling of a "scandal" over ball inflation pressure and not his mishandling of actual scandals over players abusing women
August 12th, 2015 at 8:12 AM ^
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August 12th, 2015 at 11:18 AM ^
No Chance! That's what you got!
August 12th, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^
are going to wake up and realize how damaging Goodell is to the league brand. Just because the NFL is making a lot of money now doesn't mean it's a good reason to keep this incompetent boob as commissioner. I just can't fathom why he has purposely pursued this effort to torpedo one of the league's biggest icons, and then continued to do so even after the curtain was being pulled away from his botched investigation and witch hunt. I could have seen maybe going after the Patriots as a team (since many of the other NFL owners don't care for them). But Brady? With basically zero evidence? It's borderline insane. I hope Goodell is terminated after this is over. It's the only way real justice could be served at this point.
August 12th, 2015 at 9:48 AM ^
Roger, this is for you....
August 12th, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^
Sorry for all caps, but why is anyone still discussing this non-issue, this trivial occurence? Even if Brady is "guilty" the "offense" is NOTHING. Even in the rule book it is a 25k fine. It's like a baseball team letting their infield grass grow too long. Therefore neither Goodell nor Brady's behavior matters. More ink and bile has been spilled on this stupid discussion, and yes I'm aware I'm adding to it so bye...
August 12th, 2015 at 10:32 AM ^
I understand your point with regard to the specific accusations against TB/NEP, but it seems to me that it *does* matter (very much so) when you look at the bigger picture.
Specifically, when you look at the modus operandi of Goodell, Vincent, Wells, Kensil et al. with regard to this "independent" investigation (and others preceding it: Saints, Dolphins, & Rice, in particular), it shows a pattern of (a) willlful misreprensation (or ignorance) of very relevant facts/data, (b) pre-determination of outcome and - with that pre-determination - behaving as a prosecuting attorney rather than conducting a truly unbiased, non-preducidial fact finding investigation, (c) using a strategy of false, misleading, and provocative media leaks to falsely shape the perception of the facts in the public eye, and (d) unwillingness to make public full transcripts of testimony and relevant league documents.
This whole situation is quite enlightening. And despite RG's repeated statements to the contrary, his office and processes are neither transparent nor independent nor ethical. If no settlement is reached, it will be most interesting to see what the discovery process uncovers.
August 12th, 2015 at 10:38 AM ^
It really is absurd how much time and money has been spent on this. I'm starting to think this guy is right.
http://www.richardcassaro.com/the-sports-conspiracy-americans-mass-cont…