#DeflateGate (Court of Appeals Reinstates Suspension)

[yall hate]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property.  Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

[mahonedog88]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property. Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

And that plausible reason is?

[yall hate]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property. Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

And that plausible reason is?

A desire to avoid any "leaked" pictures that may or may not be on his device from being sold to paparazzi.  Destroying the sim card deletes any pictures.  It's simple, and smart if you're a celebrity.  His wife is one of the most famous women in the world.  Do you think there is a possibility that either he or Gisele sent compromising pictures of themselves to the other?  Doesn't it make sense to ensure that those don't get out?  how many celebrity leaks do we have to see?

edit:of course, not to mention, if he was carrying on an affair (possible).


Or the less nefarious --- maybe this very private individual didn't want pictures of his kids being hacked.  there are lots of reasons why I celebrity would opt for privacy.

[saltlover]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property. Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

And that plausible reason is?

I don't know what he was thinking, but I'll take a stab.

He got a new phone.  People do that a lot.  Phones have lots of personal data on them.  Imagine you bought a second-hand phone and figured out it was Tom Brady's -- you could probably get a lot for it from someone trying to hack Brady (or Giselle, to be frank).  You don't need the money, so selling one second hand isn't necessary, and you probably aren't under some contract where you have to return your phone.  So sometime between February and June he got a new phone and thoroughly disposed of his own one.

Do I know this to be true?  No.  Is it plausible that a celebrity such as Tom Brady would go a step or two further than most of us do when switching phones?  Yes.

[yall hate]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property. Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

And that plausible reason is?

I don't know what he was thinking, but I'll take a stab.

He got a new phone.  People do that a lot.  Phones have lots of personal data on them.  Imagine you bought a second-hand phone and figured out it was Tom Brady's -- you could probably get a lot for it from someone trying to hack Brady (or Giselle, to be frank).  You don't need the money, so selling one second hand isn't necessary, and you probably aren't under some contract where you have to return your phone.  So sometime between February and June he got a new phone and thoroughly disposed of his own one.

Do I know this to be true?  No.  Is it plausible that a celebrity such as Tom Brady would go a step or two further than most of us do when switching phones?  Yes.

Right.  And ultimately, as I mentioned initially, it doesn't matter.  This is a "sway the public opinion" fact, not a fact that is relevant to the appeal. 

[Rondo2287]

Statement from Tom Brady's agent, Don Yee:

"The Commissioner’s decision is deeply disappointing, but not surprising because the appeal process was thoroughly lacking in procedural fairness.

Most importantly, neither Tom nor the Patriots did anything wrong. And the NFL has no evidence that anything inappropriate occurred.

The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the Commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision. For example, the Wells investigative team was given over 100 days to conduct its investigation. Just days prior to the appeal hearing, we were notified that we would only have four hours to present a defense; therefore, we didn’t have enough time to examine important witnesses. Likewise, it was represented to the public that the Wells team was ‘independent’; however, when we requested documents from Wells, our request was rejected on the basis of privilege. We therefore had no idea as to what Wells found from other witnesses, nor did we know what those other witnesses said.

These are just two examples of how the Commissioner failed to ensure a fair process.

Additionally, the science in the Wells Report was junk. It has been thoroughly discredited by independent third parties.

Finally, as to the issue of cooperation, we presented the Commissioner with an unprecedented amount of electronic data, all of which is incontrovertible. I do not think that any private citizen would have agreed to provide anyone with the amount of information that Tom was willing to reveal to the Commissioner. Tom was completely transparent. All of the electronic information was ignored; we don’t know why. The extent to which Tom opened up his private life to the Commissioner will become clear in the coming days.
 The Commissioner’s decision and discipline has no precedent in all of NFL history. His decision alters the competitive balance of the upcoming season. The decision is wrong and has no basis, and it diminishes the integrity of the game.”

[mahonedog88]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property. Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

And that plausible reason is?

A desire to avoid any "leaked" pictures that may or may not be on his device from being sold to paparazzi.  Destroying the sim card deletes any pictures.  It's simple, and smart if you're a celebrity.  His wife is one of the most famous women in the world.  Do you think there is a possibility that either he or Gisele sent compromising pictures of themselves to the other?  Doesn't it make sense to ensure that those don't get out?  how many celebrity leaks do we have to see?

edit:of course, not to mention, if he was carrying on an affair (possible).


Or the less nefarious --- maybe this very private individual didn't want pictures of his kids being hacked.  there are lots of reasons why I celebrity would opt for privacy.

All the points are you're making are good ones...they're certainly plausible, just as plausible that Brady was hiding something with this investigation by doing it.  There's no way around the fact that Brady willfully destroying his phone on the day or the few days leading up to the investigation is a terrible look...just like the team claiming the "deflator" texts were in regards to weight loss.

Again, I agree it's totally plausible that you could be right.  But you also have to admit that it's also totally plausible he was trying to hide something.  He knew his phone was going to be asked for...and instead of just saying no and keeping it in his pocket, he had it destroyed.  The league has no other choice but to think there's something fishy about that.

[Donoghus]

If this thing actually goes the distance in court, its gonna get really nasty.

[nickagneta]

I thought I saw it mentioned that Brady was using his phone for 4 months before destroying it. So he not to recently bought the phone. Well, phones, for celebrities cost nothing and yet and can very damaging if the celebrity values his and his family's privacy. This is just a guess but I would think celebs get new phones and destroy the old phones very often, simply for privacy reasons.

Of course, knowing this, the NFL could have leaked the destroyed phone issue just to [dang] Brady some more in the court of public opinion.

[PhoSita]

Of course, knowing this, the NFL could have leaked the destroyed phone issue just to [dang] Brady some more in the court of public opinion.

But that doesn't sound like the NFL at all!

[BballTim]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property. Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

And that plausible reason is?

A desire to avoid any "leaked" pictures that may or may not be on his device from being sold to paparazzi.  Destroying the sim card deletes any pictures.  It's simple, and smart if you're a celebrity.  His wife is one of the most famous women in the world.  Do you think there is a possibility that either he or Gisele sent compromising pictures of themselves to the other?  Doesn't it make sense to ensure that those don't get out?  how many celebrity leaks do we have to see?

edit:of course, not to mention, if he was carrying on an affair (possible).


Or the less nefarious --- maybe this very private individual didn't want pictures of his kids being hacked.  there are lots of reasons why I celebrity would opt for privacy.

  According to the news report I saw, Brady said that whenever he gets a new phone he has the old one destroyed, although he could offer no explanation about why the phone he'd used before that one was never destroyed. Also, while it's reasonable to assume that he destroys old phones (I think it's extremely unlikely that he'd bother to sell his old cell phones) the timing of the phone's destruction looks pretty bad. "Pure coincidence" would be a pretty hard sell at this point in time.

[Donoghus]

Of course, knowing this, the NFL could have leaked the destroyed phone issue just to [dang] Brady some more in the court of public opinion.

Oh, no doubt.  This league office is all about image and PR.  Nearly every thing they do is with public perception in mind.

[BballTim]

And now this..

Scott Soshnick
?@soshnick
BREAKING: @NFL asks federal court to confirm Tom Brady suspension. Complaint filed in Manhattan #sportsbiz #NFL #preemptivestrike

This means the NFL is asking for a ruling before Brady can even file an appeal? Is this just flexing muscles?

Probably choosing courts.  I believe the NFLPA normally files in Minneapolis, where they've had success with a judge or two.

Agreed.  NY court more likely to confirm arbitration finding than MN or MA court.  NFLPA or Brady can still file in one of those courts, but will get consolidated into a single action. Leave it for the litigators to decide which court will get to hear it.

I'm not convinced anymore this even goes to court.  The fact that Brady destroyed his phone GREATLY damages his chances of winning in court.  He very well may end up missing 4 games.

I see this popping up a fair amount -- and it is completely wrong and misguided.  Tom Brady (and every nfl player) has no obligation to maintain private property.  In fact, it is against NO rule to destroy personal property.  Add in that there is a very plausible reason why he would do this. 

The federal court isn't going to deal with that kind of nonsense.  It is irrelevant to the actual issues of the case (whether Goodell was justified in assigning discipline procedures to Troy Vincent (he wasn't); whether Goodell was a neutral arbiter (he's not); whether the NFL accurately measured the balls at halftime (the fact that they don't know what gauge was used suggests a problem with that procedure); and the failure to account for the ideal gas law are all issues that will be taken up in Federal Court.  Not whether Tom Brady routinely (or not) destroys his personal property.

  You'd have to wonder how long the case would take and when it would start. I'm not sure it would benefit the Pats to have the suspension take place near the end of the season or during the playoffs.

[kozlodoev]

Here is a rundown of what may happen in federal court:

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/07/27/tom-brady-nflpa-deflategate-suspension-federal-court

[colincb]

The statement from the league...

“On or shortly before March 6, the day that Tom Brady met with independent investigator Ted Wells and his colleagues, Brady directed that the cell phone he had used for the prior four months be destroyed,” the league statement read. “He did so even though he was aware that the investigators had requested access to text messages and other electronic information that had been stored on that phone. ?During the four months that the cell phone was in use, Brady had exchanged nearly 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device. The destruction of the cell phone was not disclosed until June 18, almost four months after the investigators had first sought electronic information from Brady.”


This is really hurts Brady in my opinion...again, what he actually did isn't that big of a deal in terms of on the field help in winning games, but the optics of this are NOT good for Brady.  For me this shows me that Brady had to choose the lesser of two evils...he obviously felt that getting heat for destroying his phone wouldn't be as bad as getting heat for what was actually on the phone

I'm not turning over my PRIVATE cell phone just so that some league investigator can take a peak at some selective messages.

Sorry, but I'd do the same whether I was guilty or not, doubly so if I was a celebrity / public figure.

We'll see them in Federal court, things should get interesting.

Yeah... there's a number of reasons I'd destroy my cell phone rather than let it be analyzed by a third party.  None of these reasons are related to deflating footballs.

Brady supposedly texts a lot. I can easily imagine that there are texts he'd rather not get leaked and the the NFL's promise that his texts wouldn't get leaked is laughable. Besides, they had an air tight investigative report and the employees phones.

This is all back-pedaling because the Wells Report is so blatantly flawed that it looks like a frame job and credible researchers are calling them on it. Forget the science, the first thing you do in a statistical study is look at the completeness and accuracy of the data and you never, ever use the data from one source in a selective manner as they did with the chief referee. The guys who did the report aren't stupid, but hacks they are. They were told what conclusion to reach. It wasn't the first time that the firm put out a report like this that requires a informed reader to suspend belief.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/18/business/la-fi-toyota-exponent18-2010feb18

When some of the world's best-known companies faced disputes over secondhand smoke, toxic waste in the jungle and asbestos, they all turned to the same source for a staunch defense: Exponent Inc.

Now that same engineering and consulting firm has been hired by Toyota Motor Corp. as it seeks to fend off claims that sudden acceleration in its vehicles could be caused by problems in its electronic throttle systems.

A 56-page report that Menlo Park, Calif.-based Exponent sent to Congress on Feb. 9 found that the system behaved as intended and that Exponent was "unable to induce . . . unintended acceleration or behavior that might be a precursor to such an event."

But Exponent's research has come under fire from critics, including engineers, attorneys and academics who say the company tends to deliver to clients the reports they need to mount a public defense.

"If I were Toyota, I wouldn't have picked somebody like Exponent to do analysis," said Stanton Glantz, a cardiologist at UC San Francisco who runs a database on the tobacco industry that contains thousands of pages of Exponent research arguing, among other things, that secondhand smoke does not cause cancer. "I would have picked a firm with more of a reputation of neutrality."

Mike Gaulke, executive chairman of Exponent and an employee of the company since 1992, called critiques that it produced only favorable research a "cheap shot."

"Do we tell our clients a lot of what they don't want to hear? Absolutely," Gaulke said.

He said the firm often comes up with results that don't favor clients, although he couldn't provide specific examples.