Brady suspended 4 games

[CoMoHusker]

Roger Goodell having the words "integrity" come from his mouth are just about as comical as this entire topic. The NFL brass is ignorant but not stupid. Goodell and the league wouldn't even rule until the report was released and they used the court of public opinion to help make such a decision. What a joke. Goodell wants to appear to come down hard but he knew Brady would appeal the four game suspension and I think all Goodell wants to see is two games. This lets Brady play against the Cowboys. Let's face it, the league benefits a lot more if Brady is playing in Big D week 5. I would be shocked if the suspension is not at least cut in half.

I also would hate to be the Colts in week 6. Bill and Tom will be looking to hang 60 on them and the Pats will be playing with a chip on their shoulder the entire year.

And the entire Brady not handing his cell phone over is a joke. In a day where Grand Jury testimony is leaked next day, there's a better than not chance that anything racy Brady had on his cell phone would land on TMZ! Like someone else said in the thread, why do they need his phone anyway? If he did send incriminating texts or emails would he have not deleted them? If he sent them wouldn't the two other guys have them on their phones? Makes very little sense to me and seems like Brady not complying with this was the grounds for the four games.

[Greg Ambrosius]

This should be wild! Goodell chooses himself to hear the Brady appeal. This is now Must See TV.

I'm sure the NFLPA really loves this.

The next CBA is sure to be a dogfight over Roger's power.

[The Franchise]

Here is the rebuttal from the Patriots team of lawyers

http://wellsreportcontext.com/

This is long-winded, but worth the read......

Rule 2 goes on to state that the footballs shall remain “under the supervision of the referee until they are delivered to the football attendant just prior to the start of the game.” (pg. 32). The report concludes that “football attendant” refers to the ball boys. Nowhere in the report, however, is there any discussion about whether the referee or other League officials failed to properly maintain this supervision, which one would have expected to have been particularly vigilant in the wake of the Colts expressed concerns. The report acknowledges that game officials specifically allowed Mr. McNally to take the game footballs from the dressing room of the Officials’ Locker Room (where the referee was) into the separate sitting room (pg. 55). No one told Mr. McNally that he could not then proceed to the field with the footballs. When the NFC Championship Game ended abruptly in overtime and Mr. McNally started from the back of the sitting room towards the door to the hallway, he walked by numerous League officials in the sitting room. As the report states (pg. 55), the sitting room was crowded with “NFL personnel, game officials and others gathered there to watch the conclusion of the NFC Championship Game on television.” Mr. McNally had to navigate this crowd of officials to make it through the sitting room with two large bags of footballs on his shoulders. Mr. McNally, a physically big man, hoisted two large bags of footballs and lumbered past all these League officials and out the door of the Officials’ Locker Room. As is clear from the report, no one objected; no one told him to stop; no one requested that he wait to be accompanied by a League official; no one told him that a League official had to carry the footballs to the field. After he walked past all of these League officials and out the door of the Officials’ Locker Room to the hallway, he then walked past James Daniel, an NFL official and one of the people who had been alerted to the Colts psi concerns pre-game (pg. 45). Mr. Daniel, as seen on the security video, looked at Mr. McNally carrying the bags of footballs toward the field unaccompanied by any League or game official, and made no objection to Mr. McNally continuing unaccompanied to the field. In short, if officials lost track of the location of game footballs, it was not because Mr. McNally stealthily removed them. (Omitted from the investigation were interviews with all those League officials whom Mr. McNally walked past with the bags of footballs on his shoulders.) Even after halftime, when obvious attention was being paid to game footballs and psi issues by League and game officials, who took control of the footballs at halftime, the security video shows Mr. McNally, with no objection, taking the footballs from the Officials’ Locker Room back to the field totally unaccompanied by any League or Game official. Mr. McNally’s removal of the footballs from the Officials’ Locker Room before the game began was simply not unauthorized, unknown, unusual, or in violation of some protocol or instruction. The report nonetheless portrays Mr. McNally’s departure from the Officials’ Locker Room before the game as a step in secretly taking the footballs for nefarious reasons.

[Tom Kessenich]

I didn't read the whole thing but what I did read from the Patriots tore the Wells Report to shreds. Far too many people are focusing on what they apparently are trying to say about the Deflator guy and losing weight and ignoring the numerous factual errors the Wells Report appears to have made. There's certainly reason to believe the NFL had a verdict in mind and then Wells worked backwords to fit whatever evidence he could so that the verdict would be reached and ignored any evidence that would contradict that result.

[JETS SB]

OMG. However minor the rule may be, its undisputed fact that they these two Pats employees (whether coordinated by Brady or not), secretly let air out of the footballs. Amazing how the Patriots post a site of disputes so incredibly long and impossible to read without putting a gun to your head, but when asked to simply help in the investigation, they refuse. If you did nothing wrong, why not prove it during the investigation? Why all of this AFTER your punishment is handed to you? Sure, its excessive and petty, but the Pats did not help themselves by not cooperating. Many to blame in this fiasco, but please stop with the picking apart of the individual ball air pressures and claims of a sting. THEY BROKE THE RULES. AGAIN!!!!!! Brady might be not have been part of it, but if he had nothing to hide, why not hand over your phone (which would have been handled by Brady's reps/attorneys and only texts regarding ball air pressure would have been reviewed)?

We are focusing so much on how idiotic the NFL is. We all know this. But that doesn't avoid the fact that this team has put themselves in this situation numerous times.

[RiFF]

[quote="JETS SB"]but please stop with the picking apart of the individual ball air pressures /quote]

Yeah, why confuse this supposedly terrible injustice to the NFL and its fans of deflated footballs with facts of what the actual psi of the balls were.

[Tom Kessenich]

The Patriots' rebuttal made it clear they did cooperate. It was when the league asked for more interviews with the two guys they refused, deeming it excessive which is understandable. According to Yee, Brady also spent a full day answering questions so he also cooperated. The Wells Report strongly implied the Patriots and Brady were not cooperating when it seems clear they were up to a point.

[The Franchise]

OMG. However minor the rule may be, its undisputed fact that they these two Pats employees (whether coordinated by Brady or not), secretly let air out of the footballs. Amazing how the Patriots post a site of disputes so incredibly long and impossible to read without putting a gun to your head, but when asked to simply help in the investigation, they refuse. If you did nothing wrong, why not prove it during the investigation? Why all of this AFTER your punishment is handed to you? Sure, its excessive and petty, but the Pats did not help themselves by not cooperating. Many to blame in this fiasco, but please stop with the picking apart of the individual ball air pressures and claims of a sting. THEY BROKE THE RULES. AGAIN!!!!!! Brady might be not have been part of it, but if he had nothing to hide, why not hand over your phone (which would have been handled by Brady's reps/attorneys and only texts regarding ball air pressure would have been reviewed)?

We are focusing so much on how idiotic the NFL is. We all know this. But that doesn't avoid the fact that this team has put themselves in this situation numerous times.

Alan, that's the problem...... If you don't read the Wells report and then the Patriots rebuttal you can't get a true picture of transpired. Your response is typical of a non-Pats or in this case a Patriots hater that did not read any of the details and just ran with whatever some talking head at ESPN had to say. I'll admit I'm biased on this being a Pats fan, but I'm not naive to just say they are innocent without looking at the facts. When I look at the actual facts the Wells report is pure garbage. Lot's of assumptions, guess work and manipulation.

1. The Wells report would have you believe that McNally secretly snuck into the officials locker room and took the bag of footballs.... Not the case at all.
2. The report would have you believe that the Patriots did not cooperate..... Again not the case...... As far as the whole Brady cell phone. I'm not handing my cell over to anyone unless they have a badge and warrant so i don't blame him there.

3. The NFL process of checking the footballs before each game is a total cluster f%#@. But the Wells report made the determination that one particular gauge was used even though the ref can't recall

[JETS SB]

Lets forget about the Wells report and just tell me one thing... Do you think the Patriots broke the rules or not?

[RiFF]

Lets forget about the Wells report and just tell me one thing... Do you think the Patriots broke the rules or not?

If you want to believe Trey Wingo and the other talking heads at ESPN who are always attempting to create controversey to pump ratings....absolutely. If you read the Wells report then I believe there is substantial doubt any wrong doing occurred. At least related to this particular incident. Or if Curly and Larry attempted to circumvent the rules, they did a piss poor job of it.

Having said that, I also believe that every team in the league is probably doing something every season that at least borders on stepping over the line, intentionally or not. Personally, I believe artificially pumping up the noise in the stadium is every bit if not more damning then letting a little air out of a football...assuming NE or other teams are doing it. The problem is, if a team steps over the line and still sucks, nobody cares. It's only when a team is successful that borderline ethics come into play...at least to the average fan.
But it still amazes me how the talking heads and other analysts at ESPN portrayed this, before, and EVEN AFTER the Wells report was released.