Goodell Says Deflategate Ruling May Come Next Week

[BigKen]

Not to be a nitpicker, BigKen, but isn't the judge's name Berman? I certainly agree that the NFL is pulling out all the stops to leak anything they can to the media, in direct violation of a court order, to put TB in the worst possible light. There is much about this that is political. The NFL is demonizing their target much like national politicians do before a big election. By the time they are through, the Patriot (and TB) haters will think their target is responsible for every bad thing that ever happened in the world, all the way back to the Great Flood.

Never be watching Seinfeld when trying to post.....aarrrgggghhhhh

 

[BigKen]

The NFL and NFLPA remain at odds in the Deflategate mess that currently has Patriots quarterback Tom Brady serving a four-game suspension. Both sides have filed lawsuits, and on Wednesday they'll meet with U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who said Tuesday that, in the meantime, he wants the two sides to continue to work toward a resolution.

"In anticipation of tomorrow's conference, counsel and the parties are requested to engage in further good faith settlement efforts today,” Berman wrote in a brief order Tuesday morning. “I will meet briefly with counsel and the parties tomorrow morning at 10:30 (in the robing room) for an update on your discussions.”

 

[BigKen]

Things are certainly looking better for the Brady team. Judge Berman questioned the NFL for almost an hour and a half. He questioned Kessler for less than 30 minutes.

He continually asked the NFL for their evidence on a number of questions. He asked for direct evidence that Brady either knew or directed anything to do with deflating the balls. The NFL said that texts in the Wells report indicate that Brady knew. The Judge then demanded actual evidence that outright had Brady either directing or instructing, that ended with "there is none".

They're reporting that the attorneys for both sides are going to meet with Berman for a potential settlement discussion this afternoon.....hopefully some one will confirm.....

 

[Yankee Traveler]

Things are certainly looking better for the Brady team. Judge Berman questioned the NFL for almost an hour and a half. He questioned Kessler for less than 30 minutes.

He continually asked the NFL for their evidence on a number of questions. He asked for direct evidence that Brady either knew or directed anything to do with deflating the balls. The NFL said that texts in the Wells report indicate that Brady knew. The Judge then demanded actual evidence that outright had Brady either directing or instructing, that ended with "there is none".

They're reporting that the attorneys for both sides are going to meet with Berman for a potential settlement discussion this afternoon.....hopefully some one will confirm.....

Good news. Not suprising to non haters though.

 

[BigKen]

All indications are that Berman wants this thing done and over. He's got the attorneys from both sides meeting under his watchful eye.

It appears that all Brady will accept is a fine with no admission of guilt and the NFL must admit that the Wells report was not 100% correct.....other than that.......he'll go to trial.

NFL might be willing to go to trial....at least Goodell might be willing to go to trial. If he loses, he can say he tried his hardest and didn't give in. Couldn't control a judge or fury. Then again more than one owner might not be willing to spend $25-$50M to lose a case in court so Goodell can walk away with scratches and no real blood letting. At least one will certainly protest and say he ain't gonna pony up any money.

 

[realityball]

I'm checking what the pink hats are saying and here's a good one from USA Today:

"You don’t have to agree with either side to realize that both sides should have figured this out long ago. Brady’s reputation is besmirched forever. People will forget and gloss over Deflategate, but it will always be with him, an incident that will make the first or second paragraph of his football obituary. The stink never goes away. Because of his hubris, Brady insisted on fighting the NFL which, whether right or wrong, is a bad look from a guy who’s hoisted its championship trophy four times. He could have let it go months ago and we’d be talking about Geno Smith’s jaw right now instead of some silly controversy from back in January."
Tom Brady just ruined what was left of his Golden Boy image | For The Win

Brady is called a cheat and a liar and then is criticized for denying it whether "right or wrong." Why would he be different than anyone else? Brady should have gone Ikemefuna Enemkpali on Goodell's jaw last January and that also would have ended this BS "silly controversy."

 

[Southieinnc]

The freakin arrogance of some of these writers. I can't imagine taking a 4 game as the writer suggests. Flawed logic.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

Blatant Hater.

Low sloping forehead I'm willing to bet.

 

[Rex Racer]

Not to be a nitpicker, BigKen, but isn't the judge's name Berman? I certainly agree that the NFL is pulling out all the stops to leak anything they can to the media, in direct violation of a court order, to put TB in the worst possible light. There is much about this that is political. The NFL is demonizing their target much like national politicians do before a big election. By the time they are through, the Patriot (and TB) haters will think their target is responsible for every bad thing that ever happened in the world, all the way back to the Great Flood.

Tom Brady is not responsible for the drought conditions that led to the Midwestern dustbowl.

Bill Belichick is

 

[CreepCreep2014]

I think today was brought to light what all Patriot fans knew: There was no evidence he did anything!

Even the judge does not care about the text messages, he wants actually proof. Well, there is none. Let the haters and morons have the text messages, they need them to sleep at night. I still have no clue how this is going to end. IMO because of the CBA, the suspension stands. Now, will the judge come out and say that he is obligated to uphold the NFL ruling, but then mention how its wrong and there is no proof that TB did anything and the NFL went overboard? He seems like that type of guy. I still don't see either side backing down. At this point I hope TB does not either. It's nothing or 4 games for TB. Just my 2 cents...

 

[BigKen]

Berman says to settle it. He knows Brady is ready, willing and able to go to trial. Berman said yesterday that it could take more than 2 years to get this resolved through the typical court process, longer if the attorneys decide to drag it out. Some Midwestern law professor estimated that drawn out court case would take three years and cost the NFL $50M-$75M and Brady $20M.

I wonder if all 32 owners really want to spend $75M of their money to defend a stupid case like this?

 

[BigKen]

According to Lou Merloni of WEEI, attorneys for the NFL, NFLPA and Tom Brady are meeting in his chamber as I type. They were called in by Judge Berman after yesterday's afternoon session ended in a deadlock.

There are rumors and rumors of rumors that a settlement is close..........

 

[realityball]

According to Lou Merloni of WEEI, attorneys for the NFL, NFLPA and Tom Brady are meeting in his chamber as I type. They were called in by Judge Berman after yesterday's afternoon session ended in a deadlock.

There are rumors and rumors of rumors that a settlement is close..........

That would answer whether Brady is playing tonite ...

 

[BigKen]

According to reports this past weekend on CSNNE Judge Berman had the attorneys for all sides in his chambers nearly all day on Friday. Surprisingly, nothing has leaked. It appears that Berman has put these guys on notice that he won't tolerate being part of any crap in the media.

Michael McCann, law professor and legal analyst of deflategate since it's birth made some pretty interesting statements. HE believes that Goodell has instructed the NFL attorneys not to flinch from the four game suspension and it's pretty much known that Brady will not accept even a game.

He says that Wednesday Berman will demand a settlement from both sides. This where the attorneys will start to sweat. They know if they piss off Berman he can hold them all in contempt for not presenting a settlement position. If the NFL holds fast to the four game suspension and Brady offers to pay a fine, McCann says it's 80% - 20% that Brady will get a fine and the suspension will be revoked. If the NFL offers to cut the suspension to two games and Brady is offering a fine, it's 90%-10% that Berman will side with the NFL and Brady will get two games. He says that this will either be settled by a fine or Brady's team will request an injunction on the suspension and the trial will begin. McCann says these are not important issues to Appeals Courts and the first hearing won't be until late 2016 or early 2017. He doesn't think the trial will start until early 2018 and even then he says iy's not 100% that it will even get started. He thinks that by the time this reaches a conclusion that Brady will in line for nomination to the Hall of Fame. If everything falls the way he thinks it could, it will cost the NFL more than $100M to defend in court. He laughed and said that 20 lawyers will be working 50 hours a week at $500 an hour or roughly a million a week........for a suspension that will never happen.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

In the end, only the attorney's come out ahead. Which is what the attorney's have been recommending all along.
Give us money until you don't have any money to give, then we can settle up on what we are owed.

 

[TxHeat]

Please read this post carefully.

Over the weekend, Sports Commentator Gary Tanguay of CSNE was arguing with Kirk Minihane of WEEI about Deflategate. Tanguay believes that there was something going on whether with Brady's involvement or not, but he believes that Brady knew that the balls we were being reset to 12.5 PSI and that the ball attendants got sloppy. Minihane doesn't think Brady had any involvement at all with te balls. Scene is set.

Tanguay comes out and says that there is a possibility that Brady was paying these guys under the table and he was directing them to make sure the balls were not overinflated beyond his liking. Minihane basically calls him an asshole.

Jump forward to Monday morning. In direct defiance to Federal Court Judge Kramer's specific order not to "leak" information.....a leak from an NFL source....................""TOM BRADY MAY HAVE PAID THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS BALL ATTENDANTS OR AT THE VERY LEAST DIRECTED THEM TO DEFLATE THE BALLS"".

So now we have some asshole in the NFL Offices watching CSNE Early Edition and a part time commentator's remarks are now fact???

If Kramer doesn't throw the book at the NFL on just this one incident, then this hearing is a scam!!!!!

Tanguay is a major douche. I wouldn't give anything he says an ounce of credibility. Someone should bust his balls!

 

[NWPATSFAN]

This needs to be on daytime tv. By far the best soap opera currently airing. Man please let this get over with soon

 

[BigKen]

All of a sudden Tanguay is off the air both TV and radio. Me wonders if the local sponsors started threatening the station with pull outs. They don't want to be associated with anything negative to do with Brady. Sponsoring Tanguay could sure turn your car dealership into a ghost town. Let's see, do we keep Tanguay on Early Edition or do we keep Herb Chambers and his 37 auto dealerships.........eenie, meenie, minnee, mo

 

[TP76]

All of a sudden Tanguay is off the air both TV and radio

Don't miss him one bit... just another clown making a living being a contrarian.

 

[ohiopatsfan]

The latest rumor I heard (what will ESPN do for news coverage once Deflategate is over?) is that Brady's team was willing to accept a reduced number of games as a suspension solely on the charge of failing to cooperate, as long as he does not have to admit to being guilty of knowingly deflating footballs. Goodell has reportedly instructed his team that Brady must validate all the information contained in the Wells Report as a precursor to any negotiations on reducing or eliminating suspended games, which is a nonstarter and was only added after forced negotiations began. After the way Goody handled Kraft, I wouldn't trust him to say it was wet in the middle of a rainstorm. Just like in politics, "you do this for me, and I'll do that for you". How many times, especially recently, does the second half of that statement never get done? The truth is that nothing has been accomplished in negotiations and Berman, who must be getting really ticked off, will need to rule from the bench. My prediction? The judge will rule that TB serves a token suspension (probably 1 game) and will not have to admit any guilt in ball deflation. If he is still adamant, Goodell might actually take this matter to an appeals court. At that point, I wonder how far the rest of the owners will let him go on spending their money on a "crusade" that is becoming more ridiculous by the day. You better believe the NFLPA will want to revisit the CBA at the earliest possible moment to clip Goodell's wings.