Tom Brady Taps Out of Deflategate and Other Trash Talk
Just posted a few minutes ago on Tom Brady’s Facebook page:
Frankly, I am stunned. From the jump, Brady seemed to be a guy that would fight to the bitter end because he truly believed he was innocent and that the conduct of Roger Goodell and the NFL was dishonest and oppressive. And, frankly, every bit of research and evaluation of the case indicates that is exactly the case. My early analysis, which I still believe holds up nearly 100% is here. I touched significantly on why the Deflategate litigation was critical not just to Tom Brady, but to all organized labor operating ind a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That is quite so, and the NFLPA has already indicated they may – may – continue on as a union to litigate this issue. We shall see, though they will be weakened without Brady being involved.
Having said that I am completely stunned Brady has tapped out, there are cognizable reasons for it. His best shot of success was with his petition for wn banc review in the 2nd Circuit, but that was denied Wednesday morning. To go further, Brady would have to file a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court and seek to obtain a stay of his suspension while the cert petition was processed. That would have been a tall order. The first stop would have beed the 2nd Circuit itself, which just dumped him, and then with Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the assigned Circuit Justice for the 2nd Circuit, and lastly to the full SCOTUS (which is not even in session currently).
I have a couple of sports law attorney friends I have found along the Deflategate way that thought Brady had a shot at a stay, maybe even odds as good as 50%. I thought that was probably entirely too optimistic, and not we will never know as the NFLPA does not have any need for a stay without Brady’s suspension hanging in the mix.
Just spitballing here, but I am going to guess that Bill Belichick, Bob Kraft and the interests of the team were the deciding factor for Brady, and not the thin odds. You see, even if Brady had been granted a stay, unless the Supremes granted cert, there is a real chance that the four game suspension rears its ugly head again at the end of the season and/or even the playoffs. If the Patriots are going to lose Tom Brady, it is far better that it be in the first four games, most of which they may have a decent shot at winning even without Brady, than have it be at the end of the year or playoffs. Nathaniel Grow at Sports Law Blog has a good discussion of the timing issue it Brady had actually obtained a a stay. So, dollar to donuts, this was not just the deciding factor, but the only real factor. Money was never an issue.
Just so you know, the Pats open here in Arizona against the Cardinals on Sunday Night Football on NBC, and then are at home in Foxborough against the the Dolphins, Texans and Bills. They can win some, if not most, of those games with Jimmy G at QB.
So, there you go, Deflategate comes to an ignominious end, at least as to Tom Brady. But there are other sports issues in the air, not to mention a boatload of politics and other matters. So feel free to use this thread as an open forum.
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Don’t care what you say, he will always be a cheating cheater in my book. Granted, Belichick is a bigger cheater by about four orders of magnitude, but Brady is tarred by his presence.
NOOOOOO!!
By the way, good to see the Gators get to the CWS finals. Oh wait, that was an Arizona school! Gots to gets a little trash in while you still have the radical streak!
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Yeah, Congrats to the Forkers for a great postseason.
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Wait. My bad. It was that OTHER school from Arizona that played so well.
BOOM!
Believe what u want o believe and continue to ignore facts or research the actual raw data
In fairness to Jim, he just hates the Pats. He has an extremely educated mind in science and understands that part of it I am pretty sure.
Fairness and hate in the same sentence?
Great read, thanks bmaz.
1. Legally, can you advise as to how influential a precedent will the Second Circuit decision be, in regard to the labor law, arbitration, etc. issues? Is this type of thing (one side being the arbitrator and acting with total disregard of the rules) common, or commonly litigated? If not, then the decision isn’t that big a deal other than as to the particular parties involved?
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2. There is a whole piss pot full of injustice coming down every day on people a lot more helpless than Tom Brady. Why do people take so much interest in this guy’s travails? Just because he’s a celebrity? I tried to stay involved early on but gave up; you try to keep up with enough of the other blogs and articles and columns about all the bad things happening and you get so frustrated, that tuning in to this one seems a waste of the limited time available for such matters.
1) Sure
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2) This affects any and every union member of any trade or occupation operating under a collective bargaining agreement. It is WAY bigger than Brady, and a heinously deleterious decision.
I was not that surprised. I think the timing – will a stay be in place in time for the season, will the case be decided before the end of the season, etc. – and the possibility of a bad precedent getting even more ingrained by virtue of the Supremes either splitting 4-4 (“affirmed by an equally divided court”) or one of the usual-liberals getting a bit in their teeth over them damned union members and crossing over to follow Clement’s dulcet tones was enough for TB12 to decide it was time to pull the plug on the case. And the distraction factor surely weighed in.
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The 2d Cir. was wrong, no doubt. King Roger the Clown … well, I stand with James Harrison and wouldn’t piss on him to put out the flames if he were on fire.
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But this way, the Patsies get to give Garop the certainty of starting 4 games and to see what he can do.
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Now, so long as either Biebs or Silverback Harrison is on the dais to take the Lombardi from King Roger’s cloven hooves, all will be well. Of this I have no doubt – there will be some “error” by an official at a critical moment which will move the result away from the Stillers or Patsies winning it all. Bet on it.
Was not fear of bad precedent. That decision sitting in the 2nd Circuit is pretty bad already. Anyway, the NFLPA seems inclined to continue for that exact reason. Brady is just taking the suspension.
What would be the value of litigating this now as opposed to negotiating this in the next CBA?
Long time till the next CBA and getting leverage and legal arguments out on the record for leverage looking forward to the next negotiations, which will be bloody.
The union should be telling players to start saving up a year’s salary, right now, to survive a lockout.
They really should. It is shaping up to be a bloodbath.
Coup in Turkey? Nothing new there: “The chief of staff of the military has not spoken yet and traditionally with Turkish coups you would expect the head of the military to be on TV taking command.” Are we all that predictable? Perhaps it’s the unpredictable ones who move the world forward in one way or another, for good or for bad.
The Chief of Staff appears to have been left out of the picture and, indeed, was one of the people the coup plotters appear to have wanted to neutralize. Erdogan was on vacation outside Ankara. And it was Friday night about 10-11pm when it kicked off.
I’m thinking you are stunned because you are one of those few people who actually go out and fight for right. Something like this comes along, and you are incensed.*
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*”And I hollered over t’ Ethel, I said, “Don’t Look, Ethel!” But it’s too late, she’d already been incensed.” –Ray Stevens
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxUfg3uCBbg
Figured this was where it was going the other day when I read that Brady had negotiated his salary way down this year. That puts a severe limit on what the 4 game suspension costs him. Who knows, the Pats may figure out how to sweeten the pot come late October.
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F**k Goodell and the horse he rode in on. OTOH, with the Pats it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch, but I’d much rather see them strung up fair and square. This sucked, dunno how it avoided being tried using Boyle’s Law.
The Fuck-U word wins the day –unprecedented, unjust and unreasonable
RIP Nate Thurmond. My elementary school was adjacent a city park. At recess one day the boys spotted Nate having a picnic with a young woman and ran over and surrounded him. I and the other kids ran over to see what all the hubub was about. Classmate informed me he played for the Warriors.
I always remember the look on Nate’s face as he went from peaceful picnic to surrounded by dozens of little kids. A reaction that may have had something to do with my impression his companion was perhaps not his significant other.
One hell of a great NBA center though.
When Nate was with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 75-77, he was, well, adored. Cleveland saluted him as a man who had done well at what he had set out to do, and so revered him in his (then) old age. A tremendous amount of respect for a nice guy and a good man. I can only hope that I will end up that way.
He came from Ohio from birth, didn’t he?