BRADY WINS

[BigBlueNation]

This case has really brought out the Brady haters. There was nothing in place with the CBA to discipline anybody who tampers with footballs, no procedures whatsoever. The NFL said Brady was guilty by association. They penalized a player with zero proof he did anything. The assumption is he knew about it, he has said all along he didn't and he would fight it. When it went to Fed. Court, it gets looked at totally differently. If a player knows another play is using PED's, should he be suspended. too? It was wrong to suspend Brady, it went on too long, common sense prevailed.

[CoMoHusker]

I just don't understand the obsession with the "Brady destroyed his cell phone so he must be guilty" concept. First off, who saves months worth of text messages on their phone to begin with. During the investigation, Brady and his lawyer provided cell phone records and were very compliant in providing names to all the numbers that were listed. What exactly were they going to do with his cell phone? It was actually stated by Wells that Brady was never asked to provide the phone.

Bottom line, Roger Goodell is a clown. This entire saga did nothing but shed negative light over him and the NFL. Now, they are sitting there once again with egg all over their face. There was already a precedent set of administering fines for doctoring game equipment. If they felt that was the case, exercise that same procedure and move on. Instead, they try to win a case in court without any substantial evidence or having a proper procedure in place that would warrant the absurd suspension that Brady was dealt to begin with.

Bring on the regular season where hopefully that pulls the focus from this seven month circus act.

[Tom Kessenich]

Tom.... if Brady really did no wrongdoing, then why did he destroy his cell phone?

Because he's a celebrity with high-profile contacts and information and probably some nude pics of his really hot wife. One of the top lawyers in Hollywood was interviewed and he said he tells all his clients to destroy their phones when they're done using them. He said it's common practice in Hollywood.

[afv]

Tom.... if Brady really did no wrongdoing, then why did he destroy his cell phone?

Because he's a celebrity with high-profile contacts and information and probably some nude pics of his really hot wife. One of the top lawyers in Hollywood was interviewed and he said he tells all his clients to destroy their phones when they're done using them. He said it's common practice in Hollywood.

I'm hardly a conspiracy theorist, or a tech expert, and I've probably watched one too many episodes of Homeland BUT....I believe ALL texts messages on all carriers ever sent are retrievable if you ask hard enough. GPS, web history, etc. can all get pulled from the carrier. Focusing on the hardware, ie the cellphone, seems silly.

[KenGill]

OK. Some good points from the other side. As I said before I've not followed the case very closely. Maybe the NFL overplayed their hand here.

Not a Brady hater. But it seems to me that when almost all of the footballs on your team are the wrong weight, while your opponent's footballs are all within the legal limits, that something was done. Bill Belichick has been in the league since 1975. You can't tell me that he doesn't know the procedures for getting a football to the right level of pressure. And you can't tell me that any low level employee would have done anything on their own without the knowledge & orders of Brady, Belichick, or both.

[TR]

Brady may have got out of his suspensin because of technicality but he may still miss 4 games when it matters the most...game 14 vs Bernard Pollard...karma

[Greg Ambrosius]

OK. Some good points from the other side. As I said before I've not followed the case very closely. Maybe the NFL overplayed their hand here.

Not a Brady hater. But it seems to me that when almost all of the footballs on your team are the wrong weight, while your opponent's footballs are all within the legal limits, that something was done. Bill Belichick has been in the league since 1975. You can't tell me that he doesn't know the procedures for getting a football to the right level of pressure. And you can't tell me that any low level employee would have done anything on their own with the knowledge & orders of Brady, Belichick, or both.

You are stating that "almost all of the footballs on your team are the wrong weight" which is not accurate. That's the report that Chris Mortenson filed stating that 11 of 12 footballs were 2 psi lighter than required, when in fact it was only 1 of 12. He got that from an NFL source and he has been chastised about it. Mortenson created this story and he hasn't corrected the mistakes in his report that someone from the NFL fed him. The whole Mortenson saga is puzzling and has some people believing what he reported when even the Wells Report disagreed with it. Don't believe everything you read or hear from ESPN's reporters.

[KenGill]

OK. Some good points from the other side. As I said before I've not followed the case very closely. Maybe the NFL overplayed their hand here.

Not a Brady hater. But it seems to me that when almost all of the footballs on your team are the wrong weight, while your opponent's footballs are all within the legal limits, that something was done. Bill Belichick has been in the league since 1975. You can't tell me that he doesn't know the procedures for getting a football to the right level of pressure. And you can't tell me that any low level employee would have done anything on their own with the knowledge & orders of Brady, Belichick, or both.

You are stating that "almost all of the footballs on your team are the wrong weight" which is not accurate. That's the report that Chris Mortenson filed stating that 11 of 12 footballs were 2 psi lighter than required, when in fact it was only 1 of 12. He got that from an NFL source and he has been chastised about it. Mortenson created this story and he hasn't corrected the mistakes in his report that someone from the NFL fed him. The whole Mortenson saga is puzzling and has some people believing what he reported when even the Wells Report disagreed with it. Don't believe everything you read or hear from ESPN's reporters.

The value of information. No - I did not know that it was only 1 of 12 footballs. I had heard on WFAN many months ago that it was 11 of 12 footballs that were wrong PSI. And really had stopped following the story other than when I saw that Brady had destroyed his cell phone. Let's play some football!

[Old School]

So I guess the ball guys can come out of hiding now? Unless Tommy paid them off big time I expect their “tell all” book to come out soon

[Jim Wiseheart]

Just to be clear - 11 of 12 footballs were under-inflated. 1 football was under-inflated by more than 2 pounds. There were 2 readings for each football. If you average the 22 readings for these 11 footballs, it is 11.3 PSI. The legal range per NFL rules is 12.5 to 13.5 PSI. So, on average the 11 balls that failed were 1.2 pounds or about 10% under-inflated. 8 of the 11 were more than one pound low (averaging the two readings). Based on this information, the statement made in an earlier post "almost all of the footballs on your team are the wrong weight" is an accurate one.

Mortensen said 11 of the 12 game balls "were inflated significantly below the NFL's requirements." He added that the "footballs were inflated 2 pounds per square inch below what's required by NFL regulations." The 2nd comment was not true. He should have said one football instead of "footballs". The 1st comment is open to interpretation as to what is "significant". If you believe a pound is significant, then he should have said 8 of 11.

To me it seems very, very likely that the balls were manipulated. The question is did Tom Brady authorize or know about it? I agree there is not enough proof that he did, but I find it highly, highly unlikely that the equipment guys would do this without his authorization or knowledge. Do I think he's guilty? - Yes. Do I think there was enough proof? - No. Do I think the 4 game penalty was too harsh? - Yes. Do I wish there was more proof and an appropriate penalty vs. him getting off completely - Definite Yes. In the interest of full disclosure - I'm a Colts fan, but I try to stay objective on this topic.