Offseason 2015 - pijaca, dojave, suskanja , tracevi i ostalo

Finally and mercifully it all comes down to this. After nearly seven months of leaks, lies and rhetoric, Tom Brady and Roger Goodell will meet tomorrow in New York City for a face-to-face, federal judge moderated showdown. The goal is to reach some sort of settlement. If they can’t, they’ll try again on August 19. And if they fail on the 19th then Judge Richard Berman will flex his creamy judicial muscles and either uphold the four-game suspension or wipe the slate clean — allowing Brady to triumphantly saunter out of that giant inflatable helmet on September 10 at Gillette Stadium.

Of course — based on everything that’s transpired so far — a settlement seems as likely as Bill Belichick opening his next press conference with a strip tease. During the appeal, Brady swore under oath that he had nothing to do with what he’s alleged to have done. In that case there’s no reason for him to accept even a single game. But unfortunately for Brady, and the Pats, and justice as we know it, whether or not No. 12 had anything to do with the deflated balls — or whether those balls were intentionally deflated in the first place — is irrelevant. The Ideal Gas Law is irrelevant. Imagine Brady standing on the edge of a giant waterfall and screaming: “I didn’t deflate those balls!” As Judge Berman hollers back: “I don’t care!” The truth is that the truth doesn’t matter. It’s a separate issue. Short of a settlement, Judge Berman will rule only on whether Goodell was unlawful in the way he punished Brady. Did he break the CBA? Did he violate league custom and/or past practice (also known as the “law of shop”)?

The NFLPA claims YES on both counts. They have and will continue to argue that (even if Brady did what Goodell claims) the offense is nothing but an equipment violation and punishable by nothing more than a fine. And even then, the CBA doesn’t mention anything specific regarding punishments for ball deflation, so there was no fair warning and no precedent on which Goodell can hang his gold-encrusted, power-hungry hat. In other words, he’s out of line.

Most everyone in New England — and anyone else who wasn’t force fed paint chips as a kid — agrees with this sentiment. If not down to the word, Goodell was generally as unlawful in dealing with Brady as he was with Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and the Saints players in Bountygate, and in each of those instances the commissioner was ultimately embarrassed in court by a neutral judge. But in this case, and any court case, “down to the word” is everything. While there’s still a realistic possibility that Berman laughs in Goodell’s face and throws out the ruling, he may very well review the competing legal briefs, take a long hard look at Article 46 of the CBA, and intimate to Brady: “Listen, I respect you, I love watching you play, and if we’re being honest those dimples make me squeal — but I won’t rule in your favor. I can’t in good faith set that precedent. If you don’t settle, you’ll lose.”

In that case here are five compromises Brady might consider throwing the NFL's way:

1) I’ll sit out the full four games and Commissioner Goodell will immediately offer his resignation.

2) I’ll sit out three games and Commissioner Goodell will suspend himself six games for “repeated conduct detrimental to the league and failure to protect to the shield and inability to uphold the integrity of the game.”

3) I’ll sit out two games and Commissioner Goodell will submit to a polygraph test, broadcast live on pay per view, with all proceeds going to Best Buddies International.

4) I’ll sit out one game but will still be allowed to attend and participate in the banner raising ceremony on opening night. Commissioner Goodell will be required to attend while wearing nothing but a pink speedo and a cowboy hat.

5) I’ll reject Judge Berman's ruling and see you at the Second Circuit appeals court.

Your move, Rog.

mi smo samo za travu napastvovanje ne priznajemo, fini ljudi, hipici

Patriots 5 ali zato kvalitetno

Smako mexicanac 3 čoveka minimum

This is what one NFL team owner said when asked for his thoughts on the NFL's imbroglio with Tom Brady:

"I can't believe we are still talking about this."

Alas, we still are. And the conversation will ratchet up again Wednesday, when Brady and Commissioner Roger Goodell both make command appearances before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman. Berman will attempt to get the league and the NFL Players Association to settle this dispute, which arose out of underinflated footballs used nearly seven months ago, has consumed conversation since, could keep Brady off the field for the first month of the season and has devolved into a messy fight that, almost everyone agrees, is not making anybody on any side look good.
How did we get here?

Two weeks ago, Goodell upheld Brady's four-game suspension for what the league believes was his involvement in having the footballs underinflated in the AFC Championship Game, rejecting Brady's appeal. Brady and the NFLPA then sued the league. Though Brady and company filed in Minneapolis, which is presumed to be more player-friendly, the suit will be handled in New York, which is presumably more management-friendly. Why? Because the NFL, with the advantage of knowing when the appeal would be decided, moved quickly to ask the district court there to certify Goodell's authority to suspend Brady, essentially beating the union to the courthouse.
What happens Wednesday?

Berman will first try to get the two sides to settle, and you can expect him to be aggressive about it. Consider that on Tuesday, Berman asked the sides to engage in good-faith settlement talks prior to Wednesday's settlement conference. He will meet with the parties in the robing room at 10:30 a.m. ET before the 11 a.m. conference, to hear where they are.

It appears, for now, that Berman himself will try to negotiate the peace, rather than appointing a magistrate to handle it. In conversations following Goodell's decision to uphold the four-game suspension, several team owners have expressed frustration that the case has taken so long. But while several would be happy to see a settlement bring the issue to an end, none are optimistic that a settlement can be reached. All believe the gap between Brady and the league is simply too wide to be bridged, unless one side moves significantly -- and nobody expects that.

Berman likely will bring the parties -- Goodell, Brady and their respective coteries of lawyers -- together in a group, to ask them to make some opening remarks. That portion is expected to be open to the media and the public. But then the doors will close, the outside world will be excluded and the real work will begin. Berman probably will meet with them together and separately, hoping to find some common ground and -- perhaps most importantly -- remove some of the emotion from a case that has been at full boil for months. Keeping the media and public out is a move designed to facilitate candid conversation; the parties can certainly say things in private that they would not say in public. NFL Media legal analyst Gabe Feldman does not expect this to be over quickly. He expects Berman to keep the parties there for several hours in an attempt to get closer to a deal.

If a settlement is to be reached, it could happen at any time. There is a second settlement conference scheduled for next Wednesday -- and if the two sides meet for that conference, it's a signal that they are at least talking, and that there is hope a deal could be worked out. However, if they fail to reach an agreement on Aug. 19, there would be a question as to whether they could have oral arguments in time for Berman to still make his decision by Sept. 4. A better indicator that there might be progress is if another settlement conference is scheduled between Aug. 12 and Aug. 19. If there is no progress, that Aug. 19 meeting will be used for the union and league to present oral arguments in the case to Berman.
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What happens if settlement talks fail?

Berman has said that if there is no settlement, he will decide the case by Sept. 4. That, not coincidentally, is the first day of the first practice week of the regular season for the Patriots, who, as the defending champions, open on Thursday, Sept. 10. So Sept. 4 is the first day that Brady would have to be away from the team if his suspension stands. Keep this in mind: Even if the settlement talks fail, the sides could still settle, even after Berman hears oral arguments.
What is Berman deciding?

Not Brady's guilt or innocence or whether he thinks the four-game penalty is too harsh or too light. He is rendering an opinion on the process. Can Goodell suspend for failure to cooperate? Can he suspend for tampering with equipment? Was he an impartial arbitrator in the appeal? In briefs filed late last week, the players' union attacked the fairness of the proceedings and the lack of notice that a player could be suspended for the transgressions that the league believes Brady was involved in. The league's response was that the commissioner's powers to discipline come from the collective bargaining agreement. There are other interesting nuggets in there: The league said, for instance, that the independence of Ted Wells' investigation -- which it had long touted -- is irrelevant because it is not required by the CBA.

Berman will be making a straight up-or-down decision. He either upholds the commissioner's power, which would allow the four-game suspension to stand, or he will side with the union, and the entire suspension will be vacated. What he won't do: decide something in between those two options.
And then this will finally be over?

Probably not. If Brady loses at the district court, he will appeal, and his lawyers almost certainly will ask the circuit court to stay the district court's decision. That would allow Brady to practice and play until the circuit court rules. If the league loses at the district-court level and Berman vacates the suspension, the NFL likely will hold a new arbitration hearing. This is the same thing Judge David Doty ordered in the Adrian Peterson case.

Feldman doubts that the league would seek a stay to keep Brady off the field during the appeal. Judges will grant stays if there is a chance of irreparable harm -- Brady can easily claim harm if he has to serve what would be, at that point, an unwarranted suspension. But the league would have a tougher time arguing how it would be harmed if, should it ultimately prevail, Brady were to end up serving his suspension later in the season than at the beginning. Finally, even an appeal by Brady to the circuit court would not preclude the sides settling at any point before the circuit court rules.

By Judy Battista

a jes vise smaraju s njim 16 utakmica suspenzije i patriotse u drugu ligu ajde vise

doživotni ban i uzeti mu prstenje.

NFL now saying there will be no settlement unless Tom Brady accepts findings of the Wells report, sources tell ESPN's @mortreport.

lol

pazi ti Morta. posto je napravio ovaj belaj jos se oglasava

Roger Goodell and Tom Brady are scheduled to meet Wednesday for a mediation session in federal court in Manhattan.

Brady should take the opportunity to make the first settlement offer: a zero-game suspension, no fine, full exoneration and a public apology from the commissioner for completely misrepresenting Brady's under oath testimony and then somehow using it to declare Brady untrustworthy.

Goodell won't go for that, of course. That's the point. If the actions of the league office from the start have told us anything, it's that the NFL isn't going to go for any deal, so why pretend otherwise?

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Tom Brady is taking his case to federal court on Wednesday. (AP)

The good part of this getting to federal court is that it is no longer about whether or not the footballs were deflated at the AFC championship game and, if they were, whether Brady knew about it.

Everyone can believe whatever it is they choose.

This is now all about how the case has pulled the curtain back on the NFL's disciplinary process. The more light that gets into the crevices of the procedure and the practices used to prop it up, the better.

Even if you suspect Brady is as guilty as sin there is no denying the NFL had a profoundly weak case here.

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football: Sign up and join a league todayl]

The proof is that the NFL felt compelled to state Brady said the exact opposite of what he actually said, not correct false media stories, hire a non-independent/independent investigator, ignore overwhelming scientific conclusions and even change the verdict after the verdict was rendered – in May, the NFL claimed it was "more probable than not" that Brady was "generally aware" of the deflation; in the July appeal decision, Goodell significantly upped that and despite a lack of additional evidence suddenly claimed Brady "approved of, consented to, and provided inducements and rewards in support of a scheme."

If this was a fair and strong investigation, then none of that is needed. If Ted Wells did a good job, then he could've stood on his own. Instead you have a case that can be perhaps best defined by bookend media reports, each false and each extremely prejudicial to Brady and the Patriots.

The first came in January via ESPN that 11 of 12 footballs were deflated by more than 2 pounds per square inch, which turned a curiosity into a tidal wave of controversy. The last came in July, via NFL.com, that Brady and the NFLPA sought to have a transcript of his appeals hearing sealed, which was "interpreted by those on the league side as an attempt to keep the destruction of the cellphone from ever becoming public, because Brady's representatives surely knew how dubious that decision would look."

It was like Brady was trying to cover up a cover-up and thus was a no-good, guilty, low-life.

The actual measurements of the footballs proved the "11 of 12 story" to be thoroughly wrong. Meanwhile, thanks to the federal court, a release of the appeals transcript revealed that during the appeal, NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey Kessler specifically sought to have the transcript released publicly in an effort at "transparency." The NFL rebuffed his request.

So, actually, Brady wasn't trying to hide his actions.



Even if the Pats are guilty, this should've been treated as more misdemeanor than felony.

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Roger Goodell (AP)

Roger Goodell (AP)
Consider, as ProFootballTalk.com pointed out, the penalty for a player who is caught with "stick 'em" on his gloves. This practice would be employed to gain extra grip on the ball, fairly akin to deflating a ball. Under the collective bargaining agreement, a guilty player would be fined $8,681.

That's it, eight grand.

Get caught a second time and it's $17,363.

Because no one ever cared about the inflation levels of footballs, there is no specific punishment for being "generally aware" of a possibly underinflated football.

Thus Goodell was allowed to jump from an $8,681 fine all the way to declaring Brady guilty of "conduct detrimental to the integrity of … the game of professional football" which meant a quarter of the season suspension (plus hitting the Patriots for a million bucks and a first- and fourth-round draft pick).

Really? After eight months and no concrete proof there was no middle ground there?



The longer this continues, the greater the chance more testimony or emails or documents emerge. That's the hope; at least for anyone who realizes the NFL's conduct in this matter is way more interesting than what the Deflator did in the bathroom.

The league certainly won all the early public-relation wars. Brady and the Patriots were put through a meat grinder, in part because they were far too naïve and trusting. They couldn't imagine that pleas to correct false stories wouldn't be answered (Goodell, on Wednesday, somehow blamed Wells for this). They couldn't envision Wells telling Brady he didn't need his cell phone and then Goodell punishing Brady for not giving Wells his cell phone. They couldn't foresee a lot of stuff.

"This was never about what was fair and just," Kraft said. "I was wrong to put my faith in the league."

Fans were fed the most sensational stuff, regardless of truth or context, and, naturally, they believed it. Sorting through what are now approximately 1,000 pages of reports, testimony, documents and scientific exhibits is complicated and consuming.

Here's guessing very few of the talking heads on cable television read all of this stuff. Actually, let's be honest and say not a single one did. Maybe one or two guys tried, unless you really can envision your favorite outraged ex-player staying up late pouring through the footnotes with a highlighter.

So, of course, the simple stuff was going to be seized on and repeated.

Only, eventually, because Brady has kept fighting, the cracks have become impossible to ignore. His appeal was a goldmine. Goodell brazenly misrepresenting testimony? A verdict being rewritten? False, anti-Brady stories still mysteriously finding their way to publication?

If a settlement is reached, if Brady, for the good of the Patriots' season, agrees to a game or two suspension, then this grinds to a conclusion and additional information may never emerge.

So here's hoping Tom Brady does no mediating on Wednesday.

Here's hoping he takes a hard line, takes it to the wall, takes it to federal court and then a civil one via a defamation charge, because no matter where you stand on guilt or innocence, after all these months, we're finally getting to the real stuff.

We're finally getting to the good stuff.

ovaj je tvrdog stava. mislim da sam istog misljenja. ovo se nece zavrsiti sa ovim. sledi gradjanska parnica a tada cemo sve saznati.

1. Why does Goodell want all this power, anyway?

I found myself somewhat staggered, like when I get kicked in the head in muay thai, after reading something from Richie Incognito and, gulp, agreeing with him.

It was when Incognito said this, about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, to Newsday's Bob Glauber:

I just think it's bogus, the whole system in how it's set up with Roger and the complete, absolute power he has.

He has so much power and he hires independent investigators who come in and are obviously not independent. They come in with an agenda and they come in looking to find facts to back up their argument. All the facts are slanted in their favor.

And then this:

I think with Roger, with so much power, just keeps fumbling over independent investigations and making everything public.

I think it just needs to be a more concise system. Roger can't be the judge, jury and executioner on this thing. I understand league discipline.

Incognito may be a bully and a bigot (warning: link contains NSFW language), but on this he is probably right.

A few things:

I am not one of these people who believes Goodell is evil or incompetent or a Sith Lord. I think he's a good man who is missing the optics of what's happening in his sport now.

I don't believe Ted Wells goes into an investigation trying to rig the game and dictate the outcome, but it's easy to understand why some would think that.

I don't believe that when Goodell serves as arbitrator he purposely rigs the system and automatically backs his rulings, but it's easy to understand why some would think that.

Most of all, I wonder why Goodell wants this type of power, because it sets him up to be the bad guy. Constantly.

Goodell thinks the power is required because the NFL needs someone who looks out for the league first, above all else. I think Goodell sincerely believes he does that.

The problem, again, is the optics. It just looks, well, weird when the punisher is also the appeals dude.

In fairness to Goodell, in the history of major sports, commissioners have almost always been the final arbiters. That's the traditional power structure. The difference now is that—partly due to the media attention, partly due to the arrogance of some players and partly, I believe, due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)—there are more crises in the NFL.

This requires a more delicate handling of these issues than Goodell can provide.

Goodell was asked by reporters at the owners' meetings if it was still important to him to have the final say on discipline issues.

"I think first off, it's important to the ownership," he said. "The ownership instills in the commissioner, and we negotiated that with the union...the authority of the commissioner to protect the integrity of the game...that's my job. That's my responsibility. I take it seriously. The ownership knows that. We have rules in place to protect the integrity of the game and all 32 teams. And we enforce those."

What's needed is a group of people who, mandated by the CBA, have the power to punish (or not to punish).

Hand the power over to a judge agreed upon by the union and Goodell. Or a council composed of ex-players and ex-team officials. Give them a budget and investigative team, and they get final say on appeals. It's pretty simple, actually.

Then the process would have the appearance of total fairness.

Again, I don't think Goodell is unfair, but the process does make it look that way.

And it all goes back to a central question:

Why would he want that power?

izgleda komesar i svita oko njega danas dobila po dupetu. gospodin Kesler odradio posao.

Svakako ce uzeti apanazu baz obzira na ishod

Pozdrav g.sn Zvaljo

Posle prvog dana zasluzili. Komesar, Vinset, Vels ispali budalw

Sad ce brat Z.

Kako ono bi kad sude crnu guju jer je upuco goluba pismonosu pa mu nadju advokata koji je branio nekog  lika optuzeniog za ubistvo pa kaze: tuce svjedoka je vidjelo kako ga kasapi nozem i urla umri svinjo a na kraju ne samo da je oslobodjen nego je i rodbina optuzenog morala da mu plati hem.ciscenje krvavog odjela.
Tako i ovdje, mogo je citav stadion da gleda TB licno kako gura srafciger u loptu, ovaj bi ga odvjetnik oslobodio i pritom optuzio komesara da defletiso lopte. Uz fancy lawyera puca ti ona stvar, pogotovo kad si nevin ko ja do svoje tridesete

mislim da ga nije upuco, nego pojeo, bili gladni u rovu

Formalno pravno, upuco ga pa onda pojeo

citam da je sudija dobro upoznat sa gradivom. u fazonu rece da kada je video kako je Brejdi igrao u drugom poluvremenu sa punim loptama rece da bi u buduce trebalo da sam pazi i da je greota sto su bile izduvane u prvom.

inace ne znam da li su lopte bile dobre ili nisu ali hocu da ovo govno komesarsko vise nema prava da bude i sudija i tuzitelj. naravno i da one glavonje od vlasnika malo pogledaju da li neki procenti idu komesaru i ekipi od tih masnih ugovora. Brejdi ne bi trebalo da stane do gradjanske parnice ako nije umesan ali ako jeste bolje da se pogne. vise sam sklon da nije ali da vidimo.

To uopste i ne dolazi u pitanje, hocu pikove nazad, i kraftovo milionce usput

i ja se nadam da ce pikovi biti vraceni. milionče neka zadrže za užinu.