Tom Brady, Jay Feeley and Bob McNair stories

Submitted by FireJimDelaneyNow on

coldnjl

September 2nd, 2015 at 8:39 AM ^

I will be shocked if he doesn't get a reprieve by judge Berman. Based on everything I have seen, you can't honestly say the NFL acted in a fair and neutral manner.

Bill in Birmingham

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:36 AM ^

If Roger Goodell were CEO of a real company, he would be fired within a year. You can think Brady was guilty as sin (I don't) and still be appalled that someone in a position of leadership would outright lie and manipulate some silly case against someone they perceive as lower on the food chain. In my experience in the corporate world, while it is not always true, more often than not, incompetent assholes at high levels do not last. And the evidence that Roger Goodell is both incompetent and an asshole is overwhelming at this point.

Maddogrdt

September 2nd, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^

"If Roger Goodell were CEO of a real company, he would be fired within a year"

With revenue values going up, expansion of coverage and market domination, he'd be rewarded the same he has as commish, raise, pats on back, and high fives from his board (nfl owners).

This guy is doing the boards/owners work, and well, you don't fire the guy making you more money.

PR is easy to overcome when you are swimming in uncle scrouge type gold piles...

4godkingandwol…

September 2nd, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^

This is simply not true. Have you soon how monetarily successful the nfl has been under goodell. Now you can make the argument he is trading off long term success for short term benefit, but that is a very difficult argument to make given the growth of the league and his realistic goal of $25b by 2025. Don't get me wrong, I'm with you, but those with interest in this wouldn't fire him for his performance.

Blueblood2991

September 2nd, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^

The issue, however, is there is no legal ground for the judge to change the ruling. The players voted to allow Goodell punishment power in the CBA. Without a doubt, the judge and everyone else involved knows Roger is full of it. 

If the judge does somehow rule in Brady's favor, it will set a new precedent in union CBA cases, and not just sports unions. That's why the judge has been pushing so hard for a settlement.

Blueblood2991

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^

If you are referring to Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, and Greg Hardy those were a little bit different because the court ruled the NFL had punished them twice because Goodell changed the Personal Conduct Policy after they had committed the crimes, but tried to punish them with the new rules.

It's possible that they could find a loophole like that for Brady.

But my OP is very much true.  MLBPA v. Steve Garvey is still the standard used. A judge can't vacate arbitration awards even if they find the factual evidence is wrong.

DMill2782

September 2nd, 2015 at 11:02 AM ^

is required to provide proper notice of punishment. Something they never did for Brady. That violates the CBA. 

The punishment also violates the CBA requirement of fairness and consistency. You can't hand down unprecedented penalties in a case where similar equipment violations received small fines or nothing at all. 

 

FireJimDelaneyNow

September 2nd, 2015 at 11:22 AM ^

However, from the Garvey II case, "It is only when the arbitrator strays from interpretation and application of the agreement and effectively 'dispenses his own brand of industrial justice' that his decision may be uneforceable."  (citing Steelworkers v. Enterprse Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593).  Then the court goes on to say the Court of Appeals after reciting these principles, their application of them was "baffling" because they rejected the arbitrator's findings and resolved the case on the merits instead of kicking it back to the abitrator to decide.  

After further review of Steelcase, I think it gets kicked on failure of the Commissioner to interpret the collective bargaining and provide notice to Brady.  Will be an interesting read of the order.  

FireJimDelaneyNow

September 2nd, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^

If it does, the NFL loses.  The dicta in Misco, says it doesn't, but lower courts are mixed whether a CBA is an employment contract.  I think Roger punting before a decision was rendered on Bountygate by the federal court to the former commissioner, but not now shows this is a long term fight now. 

FireJimDelaneyNow

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^

I agree, except for the fact there was no impartial referee.  If there was an impartial referee, abritration decisions rarely get overturned.  Assuming it does get overturned, the NFL will either appeal and ask for a stay of the judge's order allowing Brady to play or drop it.  I'm guessing the former will be the NFL's course and then Brady and the NFL will be arguing whether irreparabe harm will occur to Brady if the order is stayed or monetary damages will suffice to compensate Brady if successful.

BlueCube

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:40 AM ^

lattitude it gives Godell to decide the case and what appeals are in place. The only thing I can see the judge saying is Goodell went so far beyond fair, that it wasn't remotely close to what the union agreed to. I'd say this may be doubtful.

The other thing I can see Berman doing is siding with the NFL but at the same time blast the NFL to the extent they look like idiots and essentially force the NFL to relook at the situation with an independent person to save face. In this scenario, I don't see any way Goodell  survives and rightfully so. I think he is done.

If Brady does lose, I think Brady goes after him personally for the harm it's done to him personally and professionally. I think this is far from over and unless the result is the judge blasting Goodell but siding with the NFL, Brady will be playing until this is resolved.

MgoBlueprint

September 2nd, 2015 at 8:51 AM ^

Goodell does whatever the hell he wants. Hopefully the nflpa limits his power during the next cba, because the owners sure as hell won't. Everything that goes up must come down. Goodells mafia approach is going to cause more damage to the league going forward. I really believe that the league is on the backside of their peak because of their lack of transparency, consistently, and flexibility




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BlueCube

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:42 AM ^

there will be a long strike whenever this agreement comes up again and possibly a walkout before. I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk about it now. Every player is at risk to retribution by Goodell for any reason if this is successful. I'm shocked the players are not lined up supporting Brady.

Leaders And Best

September 2nd, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^

Not defending Goodell, but almost every league does this when it comes to discipline. When you look back to how baseball came up with their Biogenesis suspensions for Braun & A-Rod or the NBA suspensions for the Malice in the Palace, every league just makes up whatever punishment feels right to them. David Stern was exceptional at this.

MgoBlueprint

September 2nd, 2015 at 10:45 AM ^

Baseball is a different beast because of its anti-trust exemption. A lot of this stuff is over my head in terms of legality and whatnot. I'd imagine that if if the federal judge overturns yhe leagues decision it could be the beginning of a slippery slope that leads to to some serious changes. That's my hope atleast. There's enough bad press with football between the ncaa and nfl that judges may tip the scales away from the ncaa and nfl going forward. As far as the NFL is concerned I think a large part of their power came from having the owners under their thumb after the al Davis suit and the relatively recent spike in popularity and revenue.




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HarbaughorBust

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:04 AM ^

This is all a distraction so the media isn't focusing on 2 things that could criple the NFL. 

1.  Concussions

2. Domestic Violence Epidemic.  

 

Domestic Violence is an afterthought due to deflategate.   Roger is smarter than we want to give him credit for.

BlueCube

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:47 AM ^

the NFL will still look bad. It may help with the publicity short term but they are foolish if they think this is anything but a short term thing. Furthermore, if they are seen as bullies for beating up on Brady unfairly, it only adds fuel to the claims the NFL would do anything to cover up evidence of brain damage and not be straight forward or would at a minimum ignore possible evidence of long term damage. That won't help in court.

bacon

September 2nd, 2015 at 2:03 PM ^

I think this could effect the concussion issue greatly. One of the biggest problems for the NFLPA is that they're not united enough to stand up to the league and they get run over in negotiations. The deflategate ruling could do something the NFLPA can't do, shift the balance of power towards the players. Just a little, but it's so one sided, the players will get railroaded in the concussion debate if nothing changes. It's possible this gives them a point to negotiate from with the league.

FireJimDelaneyNow

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:07 AM ^

Feely was Jet's kicker, no culpability or investigationof him.

Brett Favre was Jets QB and refused to turnover cellphone in sexting probe, fined $50K.

If it were the Jets invovled, probably a non-issue.

Number 7

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:18 AM ^

My bet is that Judge Berman scolds the NFL for its case against Brady -- perhaps serving to exonerate him in the court of public opinion -- but declines to overturn the punishments. In related news, Goddell decides not to attend the NFL opening night in Foxborough, for some reason.




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sadeto

September 2nd, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^

Yes, because preserving the power of arbitration (and keeping it out of the courts) is much more important than picking apart the nasty details of any individual arbitration case. 

But I do think there is the possibility of a Bountygate ruling - kicking it back to the NFL arbitration process with a requirement for a new final arbitrator. 

Everyone Murders

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^

It's hard for me to look at this objectively, since I have a pro-Brady bias, and a much stronger anti-Goodell bias.  I try to put those aside as I evaluate this.

On one side, you have a history of the law cutting professional sports leagues all sorts of slack (Sherman Act?  Not for you, guys!)  And from Comm. Landis to the present the commissioners of the leagues have been given tremendous deference.  Plus, there is a strong public policy in favor of upholding arbitrator's decisions (I'm not sure if the Federal Arbitration Act applie here because sports leagues are treated so oddly).

On the other side, it seems that the NFL's process is inherently and demonstrably arbitrary (Feely gets no punishment for a similar infraction, and Aaron Rodgers admits he likes to over-inflate his balls, with no action taken).  Brady's due process has been to have a crap-science report prepared on behalf of the NFL, by the NFL's outside firm, serve as the basis for a petulant Goodell issuing an excessive punishment.  Brady's appeal is then heard by ... Goodell.  (This still blows my mind.)  And Brady further gets pilloried for destroying a mobile phone even though the NFL has no right under the CBA to demand it.  This has not been a fair ride for Brady whatsoever. 

It appears to be a very hard case from a legal perspective.  It's plain to see why both sides are fighting - the NFL because this is a wonderful media issue for them given the NFL's clumsy handling of other, actually serious, issues.  (Domestic violence, brain trauma, PEDs, etc.).  And Brady is fighting it because he can afford to, and he is hoping to flip public opinion against the league on this.  And because "Marcellus Wallace - ehhrr, Tom Brady only likes to get fucked by Mrs. Brady".  And neither side is the obvious winner.

I usually have a good idea of how a case will turn out.  Here, I have no idea.   

charblue.

September 2nd, 2015 at 11:01 AM ^

but I think it bears repeating that the NFL has gone after the Patriots and Brady in particular because of past indiscretions and because they are the league's defending Super Bowl champions.

Beyond that, there is a PR need to make a case for the public that the game isn't rigged, and they expected the Patriots and Brady to just go along even though a four game suspension is ridiculous. 

Expecting Kraft to not complain and go along with the fine imposed clearly makes sense. The fact that he didn't come around to Brady's defense until after Brady decided to fight the suspension also makes sense, given that he is part of the private board of directors. There is a reason no corporate ownership is allowed in the NFL outside of a grandfathered situation in Green Bay. And that is because you can always control people through different forms of leverage. 

The fact is the players union fought the NFL without success in the last bargaining round over Goodell's status as both league commissioner and role as final hearing officer of player challenged league actions . In no other legal setting, would this dual role be accepted. Obviously we have checks and balances in government to avoid this very issue. 

And again, this was something the player's union tried to eliminate in the last CBA negotiations. What has become clear is that Goodell and the NFL isn't very good at this particular job. And it has managed to turn a seeming innocuous story into a stupid legal fight with the league's best known player and team since the Super Bowl ended. 

Now, if this was just a way of creating more NFL coverage during seasonal downtime, then  hat's off to the league for doing so. 

Just because you're paid well working for a cartel-run league, however, doesn't mean you should bend over and accept whatever punishment the commissioner decides when his group hasn't even made the case for the punishment. What's more, this all seems like decoration for giving it to the Pats for past discretions that weren't previously adjudicated, which is also unfair but in keeping with how cartels work. 

 

Bill in Birmingham

September 2nd, 2015 at 9:45 AM ^

Early last year during the ludicrous rumblngs about Brady being washed up, speculation came up about where he could go. Consensus: Houston Texans. Great defense, can't go anywhere with the quarterbacking. Brady and the coach are close. If Belichick ever were to decide it was time to rebuild the team, Brady might one day go to another team. Wonder what Bill O'Brien is thinking about his boss right now.......