The decision yesterday by the 2nd Circuit to reinstate Tom Brady’s four game suspension and to uphold Roger Goodell’s power to do anything he damn well pleases was just the latest turn in an unending case.

Interestingly, the Chief Justice of the court was the dissenting voice in the decision, coming down against Goodell and his methods. (Apparently he must be a “fan boy” too, eh, Dan Shaughnessy?)  Giants owner John Mara’s college law school classmate Judge Chin naturally voted in favor of the league.

Teams around the league are apparently coming to the realization that something like this could happen to them as well.

The Chiefs have already found this out.

I’ve seen a lot of finger-wagging towards the NFLPA on this, saying sorry, they gave Goodell this power in the last CBA…

Well if that was so clear, why did it take 16 months and two rounds of Federal court to make that point?

There may be no better example than Roger Goodell to the old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Sean McDonough to Monday Night Football?  It could happen. Mike Tirico left ESPN for NBC, and the former Red Sox voice is the leading candidate to replace him.

ESPN Mainstay Mike Tirico Leaving To Join NBC

The Celtics and Red Sox are both in Atlanta, taking on the Hawks and Braves respectively.

The Celtics are tied 2-2 in their opening round playoff series, and the Red Sox pulled out a 1-0 win last night, with a Jackie Bradley Jr home run being the difference.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

27 thoughts on “Brady Suspension Reinstated.”

  1. History will remember Roger Goodell as the man who took down the greatest of all time. Congrats, Rog.

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    1. History is going to remember this as a bizarre story that featured the most successful QB of all time and a power hungry commissioner who by his actions forced the players and owners to detooth his office in successive collective bargaining agreements. Collectively history will detail how Brady was railroaded and how bad the NFL brass looks. It is already starting with the Bleecher Report article and how people in the league now realize the Pats never did anything wrong. History with its 20/20 hindsight has a propensity to get things more right than wrong, regardless of what the revisionists try.

      The truth always comes out (just act Hillary Clinton). Its spun for a while…but then its reported correctly. This will be no different. Whether anyone is left to care when that history is finally written…that is a different story.

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      1. LTD….I guess it depends on who’s writing the history. If it’s the likes of Doyel, Kravitz, Shank, Serby, Hubbach, et al, — all of whom are taking victory laps today and saying this “proves the Patriots cheated,” after claiming that Berman’s decision 7 months ago “did not exonerate Brady” — then your scenario is unlikely to play out.

        If normal, non-trollish people get to pen the ultimate tome to this madness, then I guess there’s a chance that the truth will end up being the official history.

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        1. I look at it like the old Ted Williams vs. the “Knights of the keyboard” feud I read about as a kid. Does anyone even remember the name(s) of said knights? And so shall it be with Brady.

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        2. Tony…Oaktown has it right below. No one remembers how hated Ted Williams was by the press…today he is a god in this town. It will be the same with Brady regardless of who rights an idiotic hit piece a few hours after a moronic decision that I truly believe will be overturned by the full appellate court or by the Supremes after the Minnesota Appeals Court rules in favor of AP and then there are conflicting precedents.

          As always happens 2-3-4 years down the road someone will write the definitive objective history of deflate gate and in it the NFL front office will look like fools, the sycophant media will look like marks and the blood thirsty owners will all have changed their tunes. I am not worried about Brady’s legacy…I am just looking for the judge who will grant the stay so Brady plays this year.

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          1. I hope you’re right. Interesting point about the Pederson case. If he wins, then I guess the 2nd Circuit will have no choice but to hear Brady’s appeal before the entire court. Or SCOTUS will have to take the case, which means Brady definitely plays in 2016 as we wait for the case to come before the court.

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        3. Well – a decade later the sports world appears to still be clinging to spygate as noteworthy and even significant in the mainstream. Sadly I think that this will also be the fate of TB12 who will be saddled with at least a footnote and at worst a perceptional asterisk in many mainstream media histories.

          We here in NE will be keepers of the larger truth but any attempt to contextualize /balance this will get us treated like those who remind us that Barry Bonds never failed a test and that the DoJ dropped the charges or that Roger went under oath and did not get convicted.

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          1. Yup, and I guarantee that the initial reports of BB’s induction to the Hall of Fame, however many years from now, will include mentions of Spygate, Deflategate, and other (Van Natta-type) allegations of cheating within the first two paragraphs.

            Never, ever forget that a lot of the animus towards the Patriots, aside from their consistent winning, derives from the media’s abject, unrequited hatred of Belichick. That’s what drove the whole “Spygate is a major scandal” tenor of the coverage 9 years ago, for sure. He was officially “exonerated” by the Wells/Pash report in the Deflategate thing, but Spygate keeps coming up all the time whenever the reasons for the NFL’s harsh treatment of Brady and the team over this non-incident are mentioned. Moron Tanguay said something yesterday about Brady being forced to “pay for the Patriots’ sins.” What those sins are, exactly, other than Van Natta’s baseless accusations, Tomase’s made up Walkthrough story, and the grotesquely overblown camera-placement issue, are very hard to identify and name, of course. BUT, the media’s meme will always be that BB “pushes the envelope” more than anyone else, and……Spygate (for which, inexplicably, a lot of people think the Patriots were not punished severely enough, even though the punishment was insanely harsh.)

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  2. God do I hate Shank. You know what I’m sick of him getting credit for, showing up the next day after he rips someone. BFD! So let me get this straight he rips someone and then I’m supposed to say isn’t he brave for showing up in the locker room the next day? Why? What is he in danger of being attacked by the “rippie”? I would think that’s Dan’s wet dream, being punched in the face by Big Papi so he could sue for millions and get all kinds of exposure. Guess what, that kind of stuff doesn’t happen. As much as I’m sure the athletes would love to tear into him they don’t. So he gets no friggin’ credit in my book. It’s been brought up a few times lately on Minihane’s podcast, mostly by former Globe people ironically. As if to say well you may not like what he says but you have to give him credit. No I don’t. Nothing is going to happen to him, he should not be concerned for his safety one bit. And he’s not a beat writer either so he doesn’t have to worry about getting frozen out by the team. There are zero consequences for him so no I don’t have to give him credit at all. F him and that stupid theory.

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    1. That was an epic rant…..and totally spot on. Big thumps up from me. You’re right, Shank deserves ZERO credit for “showing up” the next day. How many athletes in history — and there have been some serious psychopaths that have played professional sports down through the years — have actually taken a swing at a media member? In my lifetime, I can remember two incidents: Raymond Clayborn V. Will McDonough back in the 70s, and Jim Everett lunging over the desk at Jim Rome (who had it coming) on TV back in the early 90s. Dennis Rodman, a true whacko, never did it. Heck, even the murderers and accessories to murder in recent NFL history never took a swing at a media guy. Carl Everett, to his everlasting credit, gave shank the “CHB” moniker, but he never took a swing at him (and Carl had a few screws loose upstairs, for sure). But damn, that Shank, he’s the bravest troll in town, right?

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  3. The odd, bitter stance of so much of Boston media turned me off years ago. Don’t know how you guys do it. They have the willful ignorance of young children. Which they use instead of any real insight. It’s too frustrating.

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    1. Yes, because that’s just what we need: Congressional/DC involvement in what has already been nothing but a complete farce from Day 1. How about Brady just files the $1B defamation suit along with the requisite Discovery motions? THAT will get the NFL’s butts moving in the right direction on this; and, if it doesn’t, it just proves how truly tone deaf they (Goodell and the owners who backed this sham) really are, and they’ll deserve whatever monetary smackdown — not to mention public airing of their dirty, deceitful laundry — they get.

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      1. I’m one of the people who would normally say, “This is what they waste time/resources on?”

        But didn’t this get Specter a meeting with Goodell?

        Very, very sad.

        However, if this prompts at least a release of the data..

        (I don’t think they logged any or not with regularity)

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        1. I am fairly certain the NFL stopped logging PSI data after the very first cool weather game played in October. I imagine their reaction to the results went something like this “Crap! Science is real!”

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      2. If you want to get the NFL to do something, this is how you do it. The NFL is exempt from several areas of antitrust law by virtue of the Sports Broadcasting Act, which exists at the whim of Congress. Get some movers and shakers on the Hill pissed off enough to start changing that law, and bam — a trillion dollars of net enterprise value disappears overnight. That’s the only thing that will cower these gutless a-holes into doing something against their will.

        Of course they have so many senators and reps in their pockets that it’s unlikely to ever happen, but they’ll pay much more attention to Shaheen than they will to Bob Kraft’s mea culpa website.

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        1. Totally disagree Dave. They only thing…absolute only thing that will make the NFL stand up and take notice would be if fans stopped watching. Congress could take away the anti trust exemption and these captains of industry would adjust. They could hold hearings, threaten indictments, stand on their heads and hold their breath until they are blue in the face…heck they could give up their free cushy tickets and special parking passes to home team games and still nothing will happen. Stop the flow of money, have the ratings drop…then they will take notice…and even then it will take 30 years for inertia before they move.

          The NFL is what it is…Gladiators and Lions legalized for the modern day masses. If it did not exist it would have to be invented or so goes the famous phrase. I have vented much about the NFL and its treatment of the Pats and their fans over the past several years but I am old enough (when I was young I was dumb) to realize how the world works. I have several friends who like me have given up their tickets over the past few years to spend more time with their families. Now Sunday will no longer be as must watch as it has been in the past. Good job NFL you have converted me from a rabid fan spending $3000+ a year on tickets, in stadium purchases and merchandising to one who will watch only a Pats game if I am home and my daughter is not dancing or doing gymnastics (older daughter goes to college next fall). I will spend ZERO dollars on merchandising. I will probably drop ESPN and the cable tier that has the NFL Network. I will not play fantasy football and aside from this board will not be nearly as involved in on line chat about the team as I have been in the past. Again congratulations NFL…you have made me apathetic!

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    3. UGH! Just what we need…a Republican senator asking the senate to look into a labor dispute from the side of labor. The optics on that are upside down. It does no one any good. Its bad enough this case is in the courts (because the NFL has no responsible adults anywhere in management or ownership) congress should not be involved. There are better things for the government to do…like govern.

      As a political aside. I am a pretty dyed in the wool conservative republican. Senator Shaheen has a very tough battle this fall. This type of grandstanding is exactly what the Trump supporters are complaining about…An establishment type using Federal power to grandstand. This was a stupid thing to do. Focus on what’s important and stay out of the frivolous. This is not that complicated.

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      2. I am putting aside all my feelings about the government not staying in their lane and am rooting for the Senate to hammer the NFL on this and on concussions. Nothing would make my day more than watching Goodell and company squirm at a hearing.

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        1. That would be rich. Goodell’s father was a senator. There have been whispers in the past about him running for higher office (which is comical, but guys like this are arrogant and delusional). Getting knocked down a peg or two by congress will really bother him.

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  5. Gatorade doing a “#DearPeyton” campaign. One of the clips is of Mort.

    When there was nothing but speculation in the media surrounding Peyton Manning’s retirement, it was journalist and longtime Manning family friend Chris Mortensen whom Peyton entrusted to break the story.

    Media members as friends, yeah.

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    1. I went back to look at Mortensen’s treatment of the Manning-HGH story. Not surprisingly, he was very skeptical of those reports and believed Manning was completely credible.

      If only Brady had a buddy like that in the media.

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  7. What is the value/purpose/intention of cutting & pasting a tweet? And adding no content/context around it? Isn’t a board where the members contribute thought around a topic?

    What’s next, a tweet of the Old Man of the Mountain’s face on a milk carton? #lame

    Francesca and his callers talking today about Myles Jack and how the Giants should/should not take him his sports radio gold.

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