Inyourprime Posted May 7, 2015 Posted May 7, 2015 My boy Romo could play until he's 40. This o-line just got better with Collins coming in at just 1.65m for 3 years. Another versatile O-line player. This o-line is ridiculous. Jerruh killing it this off-season.
kgambit Posted May 8, 2015 Posted May 8, 2015 http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/long-awaited-deflate-gate-investigation-implicates-pats--tom-brady-173408354.html Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat are one and the same. How long of a suspension do you think Brady gets in addition to the fines and/or loss of draft picks they hit the team with?
Guard Dog Posted May 8, 2015 Posted May 8, 2015 Famous Jameis takes the field today for rookie mini-camp in Tampa. I'll be watching the film on their site tonight. "While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before" Thomas Sowell
Leferd Posted May 8, 2015 Posted May 8, 2015 http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/long-awaited-deflate-gate-investigation-implicates-pats--tom-brady-173408354.html Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat are one and the same. How long of a suspension do you think Brady gets in addition to the fines and/or loss of draft picks they hit the team with? That's what Vegas and at least one unnamed degenerate gambler/Obsidian boardie would like to know. http://mweb.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25176523/tom-brady-suspension-coming-vegas-books-stop-taking-pats-steelers-bets Don't know how Tagliabue is going to play this one out after the fallout from Ray Rice. Go with precedent in protecting a megastar, or overcompensate from the backlash and go all Kenesaw Mountain Landis on the guy. 2 "Things are funny...are comedic, because they mix the real with the absurd." - Buzz Aldrin."P-O-T-A-T-O-E" - Dan Quayle
Bartimaeus Posted May 9, 2015 Posted May 9, 2015 And the Jaguars' first round draft pick has already torn their ACL and is out for the season. Poor Jaguars. Quote How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart. In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.
kgambit Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 (edited) Brady gets four game suspension (lighter than I thought - I figured 6 to 8 games) Patriots lose 1st round (2016) and 4th round (2017) picks and fined 1 million $ (OUCH!) Edited May 11, 2015 by kgambit
kgambit Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Does that include preseason? No. That's 4 regular season games. He's free to participate in pre-season and off season activities..
Gfted1 Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Well that takes him out of the Dallas game, which I cant complain about... "I'm your biggest fan, Ill follow you until you love me, Papa"
Bartimaeus Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 (edited) What a joke. For purely circumstantial evidence against Tom Brady, for being a grand total of 0.5 PSI under the legal limits...what a joke. Suh gets a 1 game suspension for purposely trying to injure, possibly cripple the league MVP, Raiola gets a 1 game suspension for stomping on another player...and Tom Brady, Superbowl MVP, gets a 4 game suspension and his team the loss of a first round pick for what again? For being involved in a minor cheating scandal that they cannot even conclusively link him to? Where the recorded PSI was just ever so slightly under legal limits...where they probably weren't even *trying* to get it under legal limits? Breaking the rules is breaking the rules, yes...so why aren't players trying to cripple other players to get an advantage for their team similarly treated? I dislike the Patriots and I dislike Tom Brady, but this is absolute nonsense. Pfeh. Not a good year for football. Edited May 11, 2015 by Bartimaeus Quote How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart. In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.
Vaeliorin Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I figure that on appeal it'll get dropped to 2 games, but the draft picks are really beyond the pale, particularly given that there's no actual proof. Here I thought the NFL couldn't get any more ridiculous on the punishment front, but now I don't know that there's a bottom to this well. 1
Hurlshort Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 Pretty crazy punishment. This is the same as a pitcher throwing spitballs. It deserves maybe a one game suspension.
Enoch Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 (edited) Yeah, that's pretty crazy. I mean, I get that they see deliberately messing with the officials as a more serious type of transgression than many of the precedents cited, but it really feels like they went overboard to avoid being seen as "going easy" on the defending champion and its celebrity MVP. Edited May 12, 2015 by Enoch
Leferd Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 Well, if this isn't proof that Paul Tagliabue hates Bill Simmons, I don't know what is. "Things are funny...are comedic, because they mix the real with the absurd." - Buzz Aldrin."P-O-T-A-T-O-E" - Dan Quayle
Leferd Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 Tagliabue?? I've lost it. Goodell, Goodell, Goodell. "Things are funny...are comedic, because they mix the real with the absurd." - Buzz Aldrin."P-O-T-A-T-O-E" - Dan Quayle
Keyrock Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 If nothing else, this makes for some hilarious pictures and headlines 1 RFK Jr 2024 "Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive." - Bill Hicks
Enoch Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) After thinking about it some more, I've come around to the opinion that the penalties against the Patriots are pretty supportable. Ultimately, this is a cartel cracking down on one of its members for harboring possible violators of cartel rules and obfuscating the cartel's investigation into the same. There's no legitimate reason for the Pats to interfere with the investigation, and the consequences for such are a matter to be determined under the private agreement between Kraft and the owners of the other 31 teams. The penalty against Brady, though, I'm less certain of. It's not clear to me that a League investigator has the right to demand data from a player's personal cell phone under the present CBA. To the extend that that is a significant element of the wrongdoing that he is being punished for, I expect that the NFLPA will have a strong argument in the appeals process. Edited May 13, 2015 by Enoch
Bartimaeus Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) How did the Patriots organization interfere with the investigation? Only in two areas did the Patriots not "cooperate": McNally, one of the two employees involved in the scandal, was tired of interviews and refused to give a fifth interview, and Tom Brady did not give up his phone. In every other way, the Patriots have cooperated fully as far as I'm aware, including freely giving up the phones and texts between the two employees responsible. I'm of the opposite mind as you: I don't think there should be any punishment against the Patriots organization itself, but I would've been more or less accepting of a 2 game suspension for Brady for being strongly circumstantially linked to the scandal, for lying, and for not cooperating. Edited May 13, 2015 by Bartimaeus Quote How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart. In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.
Enoch Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) Repeat interviews are a common technique in large investigations like this. If the employee had refused to be interviewed and been fired by the team for his failure to cooperate, that'd be a different matter. Instead, what we see is the team taking the employee's side against the League. In the eyes of the other owners, the Pats had no legitimate reason to do so-- doesn't matter if it's the 1st, 5th, or 50th interview. Also, Kraft's generally defiant approach is probably what forced the League to bring in a very expensive law firm to perform the investigation. Not exactly the kind of thing likely to endear yourself to your fellow cartel partners. As for Brady, he has rights under the CBA that teams don't. Business cartels can smack down non-compliant member businesses all they want, within the terms of the private contract between them. (And assuming, of course, that they stay within the scope of their statutory protection from antitrust law.) But when they mess with the bargained-for rights of a unionized employee, there is additional scrutiny required. Edited May 13, 2015 by Enoch
Bartimaeus Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) Fired him for refusing another face-to-face interview? (He offered to do a phone interview, but the NFL declined.) Yeah...no. We'll have to agree to disagree. Firing him for being involved in the scandal at all I would've understood...but we don't know how much of the their texts Patriots leadership actually saw before handing over their phones to the NFL, so I won't pass judgement in that regard. Edited May 13, 2015 by Bartimaeus Quote How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart. In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.
kgambit Posted May 14, 2015 Posted May 14, 2015 Fired him for refusing another face-to-face interview? (He offered to do a phone interview, but the NFL declined.) Yeah...no. We'll have to agree to disagree. Firing him for being involved in the scandal at all I would've understood...but we don't know how much of the their texts Patriots leadership actually saw before handing over their phones to the NFL, so I won't pass judgement in that regard. Has McNally actually been fired or just suspended? Last I read he and Jastremski had been suspended indefinitely by the Patriots without pay, but their reinstatement is at the discretion of league exec VP Troy Vincent.
Bartimaeus Posted May 14, 2015 Posted May 14, 2015 (edited) I don't think they actually were fire, which is surprising to me, given how businesses tend to fire in situations like these and ask questions later. I'm also not perfectly clear on whether the Patriots actually decided to suspend them, or if the NFL enforced it - they say the Patriots did it, but then say it's up to the NFL as to whether they could ever be reinstated in the future...which implies that it's the NFL's doing. (Also, in case it wasn't clear, I was balking at the idea of firing him for not doing a fifth interview, not actually saying he was fired. Not sure how clear that was in my previous post, now that I reread it. ) Edited May 14, 2015 by Bartimaeus Quote How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart. In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.
Enoch Posted May 14, 2015 Posted May 14, 2015 If a team is fully cooperating with a League investigation, a request for an interview of a team employee is functionally equivalent to that employee's boss asking him to step into his office for a chat. An employee who refuses that request has to know that they're running the risk of getting canned.
Volourn Posted May 15, 2015 Posted May 15, 2015 The NFL is evil. Plain adn simple. Really. This sort of nonsense would be stopped if they took it to an actual court. There is no doubt that the NFL contract law between the league and its teams/players/employers would likely run afoul of many labor laws in NA. But, it has to be pushed back against in a court of law. So many civil rights are violated by the NFL 9and other professional leagues) because of their cartels and people letting them get away with it by not pushing back. DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.
kgambit Posted May 15, 2015 Posted May 15, 2015 Goodell has the option to assign a neutral arbiter or hear the suspension appeal himself. He opted for the latter. Suspension is going to stand.
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