#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[cornwalls@6]

Expecting Berman to deliver some scathing manifesto that buries the league, and exonerates TB of any wrong doing was always a fantasy. This is a complete win. An impartial, non-interested party has ruled completely in his favor, he will start week 1, very likely play all 19 games this year, and stands, if I understand legal types correctly, a very good chance of prevailing in the appeal as well. This is a 42-0 blow out.

 

[BannedbyNYYFans.com]

https://twitter.com/jerrythornton1/status/639494739797110787
 
Heart to heart: Those draft picks aren't coming back. But they're in a happier place, with other picks & a nice tree to run around

 

[joe dokes]

I think something important gets lost in the "process only" analysis/fallback. The whole point of having fair processes is to ensure as much as possible that the result is "right."  No one is guaranteed a perfect trial, just a fair one.  So the result in court isn't always "right" as compared to the mythical DVR of everyplace at everytime that showed what "really happened," but due process tries to get there.
 
But the whole premise of an opinion like Berman's related to process is that the process is so flawed that you can't trust the result. So, in the strictest sense, no, its not an "exoneration" of Brady......but neither would an "honest" Goodell opinion be an exoneration.  It would only have said, "The NFL hasn't proven that anything happened."  At no time has Brady tried, or been tasked with "proving his innocence." (a virtual impossibility anyway).

 

[Erik Hanson's Hook]

Thanks, Internet!
 
(animated GIF behind spoiler)
 

Spoiler

 
four pages behind but I'm fucking dying 

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

I think I'm gonna watch the AFCCG tonight.  I think it's still on my DVR.

 

[Red Averages]

Needs a "Berman GO!" Image right before it with Berman running onto the field in Butler's jersey.

 

[GlenMorangie]

.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

"Alex from Andover" absolutely destroyed Felger & Mazz on the radio just now. Alex is obviously a lawyer. Mazz was sputtering and backtracking and admitting he most of the opinions he's offered on DFG have been dead-wrong. Felger is like, "but not all th balls were .1 PSI under.... some were more."

 
Sounded like someone here from the specific .1 - .2 PSI under comment. Plus he didn't sound like a moron. Great phone too.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

Fuck you, Robert. Notice he blames it all on the lawyers?

https://twitter.com/jerrythornton1/status/639494739797110787
 
Heart to heart: Those draft picks aren't coming back. But they're in a happier place, with other picks & a nice tree to run around

And we're back full circle. So happy to have a ridiculous suspension overturned, but the biggest damage is done. First round pick: gone. In 20 years people will point to the draft pick as guilt. Roger may have fumbled the entire investigation, but the draft pick is a dagger - both short and long term - for Patriots fans.

 

[Marciano490]

The Second Circuit judges from Connecticut are terrific people--Chris Droney, Jose Cabranes, and Susan Carney--and if on the panel I can't see why they'd
disagree with Berman. So unless the New York judges are weird, I don't see reason to worry--my amateur take, knowing only 3/13.

You're forgetting the most important one...

 

[jimbobim]

Love WEEI replaying the All I do is win after the announcement. 

 

[BigJimEd]

This was about a best case scenario yet still not very surprising. We didn't know what Berman would rule but anyone that truly followed this with any sort of detail knew this was a realistic possibility. Great news.

Picks aren't coming back butt I hope and expect Kraft is and had been working the other owners to quietly let this drop and not push the appeal. This was a bad case for the league to take a stand.

 

[Auger34]

Fuck you, Robert. Notice he blames it all on the lawyers?


And we're back full circle. So happy to have a ridiculous suspension overturned, but the biggest damage is done. First round pick: gone. In 20 years people will point to the draft pick as guilt. Roger may have fumbled the entire investigation, but the draft pick is a dagger - both short and long term - for Patriots fans.

Completely agree on the Kraft point. I don't know what Goodell did/has done/has said to him but Kraft (somehow, someway) thinks none of this is Goodell's fault.
He either knows a lot more than any of us or is completely naive

 

[Otis Foster]

 
four pages behind but I'm fucking dying 

 

Understated, yet permeating throughout the decision, are almost a dozen not-so-subtle references to the "independence" of either the Wells investigation, or the Paul, Weiss, et al. law firm itself.  The word "independence" and/or its variant "independent" appear in quotes all over the place.  A lot was made of Judge Berman's use of 'air quotes' around the word independent during the hearing, but maybe it was more significant than anyone gave it credit for.  Clearly, the judge felt that the investigation was biased from the outset: 
 
Pg 3: "On January 23, 2015, the NFL publicly announced that it had retained Theodore V. Wells Jr. and his law firm to conduct an 'independent' investigation.
 
Pg 5: "On May 6th, 2015, the findings of the Pash/Wells 'independent' Investigation were made public."
 
Pg 12 (footnote 12, quoting Goodell): "I have expressed my appreciation to Mr. Wells and his colleagues for their thorough and independent work." (emphasis Judge Berman)
 
Pg 15: "...regarding Paul Weiss's dual and seemingly inconsistent roles as 'independent' investigator and counsel to the NFL." (emphasis in original)
 
Pg 19: The Court may also vacate an arbitral award 'where there was evident partiality..."
 
Pg 25: "...Commissioner Goodell may be said to have 'dispense[d] his own brand of industrial justice.'"
 
Pg 35: "Denied the opportunity to examine Pash at arbitral hearing, Brady was prejudiced.  He was foreclosed from exploring, among other things, whether the Pash/Wells Investigation was truly 'independent," and how and why the NFL's General Counsel came to edit a supposedly independent investigation report." "As co-lead investigator and senior executive with the NFL, Pash was in the best position to testify about the NFL's degree of involvement in, and potential shaping of, a heralded 'independent' investigation."  (emphasis mine)  
 
Pg 36: "The Court notes that the Paul Weiss role in this case seems to have 'changed' from 'independent' investigators to NFL's retained counsel at the arbitral hearing."
 
Pg 37: "Compounding Brady's prejudice is the fact that, as noted, Paul Weiss acted as both alleged 'independent' counsel during the investigation and also (perhaps inconsistently) as retained counsel to the NFL during the arbitration."
 
 
More than anything, I'm just glad that a neutral party was able to see this sham of an investigation for what it was.

 
This obviously galled Berman. The reference to the 'heralded independent investigation' is as strong as you could hope for. RG was hoisted on his own petard.
 
As per the other thread, I have a hard time figuring out how Wells got himself into this situation. Did he advise against this and RG overruled them? We know for a fact how imperious RG is, so this is a possibility. The associates in my firm immediately picked that up; you just can't square the two roles.
 
And why did they let Pash have input? Did they forget they were 'independent'?
 
Mysteries abound.

 

[Jimbodandy]

Fuck you, Robert. Notice he blames it all on the lawyers?


And we're back full circle. So happy to have a ridiculous suspension overturned, but the biggest damage is done. First round pick: gone. In 20 years people will point to the draft pick as guilt. Roger may have fumbled the entire investigation, but the draft pick is a dagger - both short and long term - for Patriots fans.

 
I hate to keep saying this, but didn't the team lose a first round pick seven years ago and go to two SBs since then, winning one?  Dagger to the forearm perhaps, but not a death penalty by any means.

 

[joe dokes]

Kraft continues to take the high road and let others spike the ball. Not sure whether I would do the same (or be able to). But I wont knock him for it. Humility in the face of Roger Goodell is pretty effective, IMO.

 

[Stitch01]

Im just looking at the draft pick as a competitive balance handicap, like the league moving the Pats up to a higher level of Madden after clowning everyone for 15 years and planning to troll deserving other team fans about it if the Pats raise a banner in '16 and '17. Not fair, but whatever, have to let this shit go at some point its eight months over possibly deflated footballs in a 45-7 game.

 

[Fred in Lynn]

I think the answer to those that say that the judge ruled on the law rather than on the facts is that if the NFL had any real facts they wouldn't have had to be so stupid in regards to the law.

I don't think a greater understanding of the facts would have helped them any more than a third tit helps a bull. They're incompetent as overseers and prosecutors of a set of (football) laws. I am not surprised. More facts would have only accidentally decreased their chances of screwing up. This is not a phenomenon exclusive to the NFL. Doing that job effectively is a skill, and it requires not someone who has necessarily played the game or been close to the game, but someone who has experience and skill about working with a system of laws.

 

[Shelterdog]

 
 
 
As per the other thread, I have a hard time figuring out how Wells got himself into this situation.

 
Your legal experience is hurting you here by making you overthink it.
 
The answer is $$$$$.

 

[Devizier]

Tom Ley from Deadspin:

 
Ley is a native New Yorker, right?

 

[JayMags71]

Completely agree on the Kraft point. I don't know what Goodell did/has done/has said to him but Kraft (somehow, someway) thinks none of this is Goodell's fault.
He either knows a lot more than any of us or is completely naive

Or c.) In Private, off the record, and out of earshot of Goodell and the 30 other owners, he still places the blame with Goodell. However refuses to say so publicly, as it would hurt his standing within the league.

 

[Steve Dillard]

“I just want it to be over with one way or the other,” John Mara, co-owner of the New York Giants, told WFAN. “We’re all tired of hearing about it.”
 

 
OK John, you have the ability.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

 
I hate to keep saying this, but didn't the team lose a first round pick seven years ago and go to two SBs since then, winning one?  Dagger to the forearm perhaps, but not a death penalty by any means.

Having a HoF QB in the middle of his career is a much different 5-year forecast then where we sit now, no?

 

[Otis Foster]

 
$$$$$.

 
Maybe. But their annual volume dwarfs the collective GDPs of the Balkan states.
 
You can take on shady clients, but be careful not to get spatter all over your new suit.

 

[PedroSpecialK]

 
"Well then we'll appeal!"

 

[PedroKsBambino]

 
 
This obviously galled Berman. The reference to the 'heralded independent investigation' is as strong as you could hope for. RG was hoisted on his own petard.
 
As per the other thread, I have a hard time figuring out how Wells got himself into this situation. Did he advise against this and RG overruled them? We know for a fact how imperious RG is, so this is a possibility. The associates in my firm immediately picked that up; you just can't square the two roles.
 
And why did they let Pash have input? Did they forget they were 'independent'?
 
Mysteries abound.

 
If I were guessing, Wells took the case either because he wanted to, or because PW's work on concussion case made them eager to give NFL a high-profile lead guy here (since he did the Miami case expect it is the former).
 
He delegated a lot of it to Reisner, who has a documented history of rabidly pursuing someone even outside the bounds of good judgment.
 
Wells either lost control of Reisner, felt like he had to come out where NFL wanted, or (least likely, imo) actually believed this pile of crap constituted a credible case of guilt.   I'd guess Reisner piloted the Exponent piece of garbage, may have come up with the 'more probable than not' baloney, and advocated for the positioning of the report that we saw.  It might have been something else, but a look at Wells' career and Reisner's (and the relative knowledge they showed during the hearing) suggests to me it is Reisner, not Wells, who drove the boat on this.
 
So then the report comes out, and people start attacking Wells.  He defends himself, and gets indignant about the criticism and perhaps also about Brady not turning over his phone.  Now we have the hearing, and Wells/Reisner/PW realize that they are the only ones who believe any of this, so they play a large role in the hearing.    And that is the conflict (or at least pseudo-conflict).   But at that point, they were the believers, and I can imagine that Covington simply didn't want to go there (and they needed Levy to play 'judge' anyway)
 
Somewhere in there, Pash is pushing on Wells/others at PW too.   I think he had input because he dictated the answer, just as RG wanted him to do.   They didn't care about independence and didn't expect to get caught on that part.
Just a theory.

 

[leftfieldlegacy]

With Berman referring to the Wells report as the Wells-Nash report and Berman's use of quotation marks around "independent", Wells really comes off looking like a stooge for the NFL. I haven't heard any of the TV analysts focusing on him yet, but that can't be too far down the pike. 
 
What is Wells' next play here regarding damage control?
 
How much credibility has he lost within the legal community?

 

[BusRaker]

Well I was wrong in each and every part of this process:

I thought the Wells report would exonerate Brady.
I thought he would simply be fined.
I expected the suspension to be dropped after Kraft didn't contest the draft picks being taken during the appeal
I expected Berman to uphold the suspension due to the NFLPA agreeing to let the commissioner to be omnipotent

I now pick the Pats to lose each and every game this season.

Thank me later ...

 

[snowmanny]

He was exonerated. If I"m having a conversation about this idiocy with a handful of friends and family or any of you then I will recognize the nuances of the events including the legal case and the legal grounds on which Berman made his findings.  To anybody else on the planet I am going to refer to this as The Exoneration.  Most others don't know anything except "cheaters" and, now, "technicality" so they don't deserve to get a reasoned response from me (which they have no interest in anyway) nor do they deserve to get a rise out of me. So all they will get is that "the Judge exonerated Brady," and for a little spice I will add "and the Patriots."

 

[joe dokes]

 
What is Wells' next play here regarding damage control?
 
How much credibility has he lost within the legal community
 

 
1.  No "damage control."  He tried that once. (his only real misstep, IMO)
 
2. None.  He had an incompetent idiot as a client. Everyone understands that.

 

[nighthob]

Aren't they still requiring home teams to provide game balls? Why they wouldn't completely take that out of the hands of teams and bulk up the specifications and QC testing is beyond me.

 
No, prior to the Manning rule the home teams were responsible for the balls that were used in game. It was part of the home field advantage. The change that the Manning rule brought was that each team supplied its own balls which, in theory, leveled the playing field.

 

[Otis Foster]

Per Mikey:
 
https://twitter.com/MikeReiss
 
Mike Reiss ‏@MikeReiss  32m32 minutes ago
Looks like @Patriots have changed their Twitter avatar; it is now a picture of Tom Brady, arms in air, celebrating with Lombardi Trophy.
 
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
 
Especially with the narrow-eyed Jonathan Kraft on the case.

 

[Jimbodandy]

Having a HoF QB in the middle of his career is a much different 5-year forecast then where we sit now, no?

 
Absolutely, and it sucks to be without that pick.  But that pick could also be a jag or on IR before week 1.  No guarantees with low first round picks.  It's not like they had to declare one of their starting tackles a free agent.  It's a hit, but not a catastrophe.

 

[Obscure Name]

https://twitter.com/FeitsBarstool/status/639485241481166848

 

[Al Zarilla]

I think I'm gonna watch the AFCCG tonight.  I think it's still on my DVR.

That's right! And the Ravens game and about 4 SB vids. Watch them with no negative feelings whatsoever anymore.

 

[Fred in Lynn]

 
No, prior to the Manning rule the home teams were responsible for the balls that were used in game. It was part of the home field advantage. The change that the Manning rule brought was that each team supplied its own balls which, in theory, leveled the playing field.

I guess I am confused, nay baffled, at the reasons why the NFL wouldn't contract that work out to a third party who that performs air testing, i.e., just take it out of the teams' and NFL's hands altogether. The NFL just had their toddler creamed from playing in the street unsupervised and their answer to correct it seems to be letting the toddler play in the street unsupervised.

 

[Brand Name]

Delicious tears, salty as the Atlantic, from this Giants fan I saw on a non-sports board: 
 

 
 
Violate the "substance abuse policy": 4 games.

Cheat in a playoff game and destroy your evidence: Nothing.

This makes me sick.

 

[Old Fart Tree]

Holy shit.

Patriots media team is just trolling now.

It's real and it's fantastic

 

[Valek123]

Hypothetically of course but imagine Kraft was going to attempt to get the pick punishment reduced, wouldn't this require Kraft being able to say that given the evidence provided at the time by the NFL(lawyers) that he made the decision based upon incorrect information?  Continuing to allow some distancing between the NFL lawyers and Goodell in statements potentially could be read as an attempt to find a bridge to allow some kind of reduction in penalty given the outcome of the court case.
 
This is almost certainly 100% crap as I'm just attempting to find a reason for the distance in the statement(I agree with you completely btw, that a FU to Goodell was needed).  I'm not arguing its merit's just that an alternate narrative might be out there.
 

Fuck you, Robert. Notice he blames it all on the lawyers?

 

[Shelterdog]

 
If I were guessing, Wells took the case either because he wanted to, or because PW's work on concussion case made them eager to give NFL a high-profile lead guy here (since he did the Miami case expect it is the former).

 
I'd add that the conventional wisdom is that a firm really can't turn down a high-price, hard assignment like this when they get the chance.  What are you going to do, say no I don't like this assignment, it's too fucking hard? Do you want to say "Harvard-trained senior executive, your strategy here is stupid.  Settle this for like 25k and a seventh round pick and be done with it?" Do you really want to let some very, very skilled competitor move in and handle a complex and important case for the client?

 

[CaptainLaddie]

Do yourself a favor: don't listen to NFL radio or Fantasy Sports radio on XM.  Every call is about how the Patriots are cheatingly cheating cheaters.

 

[weeba]

Well timed:  http://deadspin.com/why-your-team-sucks-2015-indianapolis-colts-1728020622
 

 
Your team: the Indianapolis Colts. Oh, did I say Colts? Because I meant Snitches.
Your 2014 record: 11-5. Lost the AFC title game. LET’S HANG A BANNER!

 

[E5 Yaz]

Speaking of banners, Reiss made the point this morning on ESPN that the Pats were considering not unveiling the SB banner on opening night if Brady weren't with the team. That would have been a sweet optic, but this is better

 

[Al Zarilla]

It's real and it's fantastic

Spectacular too.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL2PicT9Kng

 

[E5 Yaz]

https://twitter.com/davidortiz/status/639478827673067520
 
Ortiz: We got our QB back

 

[Al Zarilla]

https://twitter.com/davidortiz/status/639478827673067520
 
Ortiz: We got our QB back

This thread is getting better all the time.

 

[SumnerH]

It's real and it's fantastic

"spectacular".

 

[I miss FJM]

 
I hereby formally grant you the copyrights.

Can I have them too (y'know, for the t-shirt)?

 

[MillarTime]

Well timed:  http://deadspin.com/why-your-team-sucks-2015-indianapolis-colts-1728020622
 

 

 
 
It’s this team’s fault that we had to spend all summer hearing about PSI levels. If there is ANY justice, they will lose 13 games and Irsay will be caught slipping greenies and Clomid to the defensive backfield. You assholes.

 

[ifmanis5]

Speaking of banners, Reiss made the point this morning on ESPN that the Pats were considering not unveiling the SB banner on opening night if Brady weren't with the team. That would have been a sweet optic, but this is better

Thursday night will be the ultimate FU night in sports history. I'd expect most non-Pats fans to not even be able to watch it.