Originally published by Ultimate Texans.
The NFL upheld its four-game suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for his role in the improperly inflated footballs for last season’s AFC playoff game vs. Indianapolis.
Our staff’s take on the ruling:
Backed into a corner by its mismanagement of the entire situation, it is little surprise that the NFL decided to “uphold” its ridiculous and heavy-handed four-game suspension of Tom Brady.
That Brady’s cell phone went the way of Luca Brasi didn’t help his case, but the offense – even if he were guilty, which has hardly been proven – was such a mild one that commissioner Roger Goodell should be embarrassed the league has allowed so-called Deflategate talk to dominate discussion for so long.
— Jerome Solomon
You’re a cheater, Tom Brady. You faked it on one of the world’s biggest sports stages. You lied in public view, hiding behind a podium as camera flashes popped. You’ll go down in history as someone who cheated at and manipulated the sport, just to win a game. Unless NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is orchestrating the biggest conspiracy since Richard Nixon’s glory days, your name, the Patriots’ tarnished legacy and Bill Belichick’s already scarred image are forever stained. While New England truthers keep clinging to thin air, your intentionally destroyed cellphone deflated any faint hope you still had. Tom Brady: Four-time Super Bowl winner. Tom Brady: Suspended four games at the start of the 2015 season for cheating, then lying.
— Brian T. Smith
So Tom Brady had his cellphone destroyed by his assistant knowing that Ted Wells had requested it as part of his investigation. Brady said he always destroys his cellphone when he gets a new one. Makes sense. But do you believe it considering the timing? If you do, I have a condo in Alief I’d like to sell you. If Brady goes to federal court, the judge will have subpoena power. Maybe he’ll order James McNally and John Jastremski, both indefinitely suspended by the Patriots, to turn over their cellphones. Of course, they probably had theirs destroyed, too, right?
— John McClain
There’s no longer reasonable doubt that Tom Brady messed with how some of the footballs he had flung through the air were inflated. And, no, he shouldn’t have done that. It’s cheating. It’s a fine-able offense — $25,000.
But Brady could have owned up to this misdemeanor at the outset and been, really, none the worse for it. Anybody who has ever thrown a football knows it’s easier to do when it’s squeezable. Common sense dictates more quarterbacks than not have at least contemplated trying to get away with what Brady did. Common sense also dictates that most quarterbacks, whatever their preferred PSI, couldn’t carry Brady’s jockstrap.
It’s Brady’s insulting arrogance since the accusations came down that made his rules transgression felonious and why he deserves to miss the first quarter of the coming season. From the get go, it was bad enough that he wouldn’t turn over his phone, or at least the contents, because damaging evidence was contained therein. But how could he possibly think destroying the phone would go down in the court of public opinion when people found out he’d done it, an inevitability once he filed an appeal with Roger Goodell?
Brady’s offense hardly equates to what Greg Hardy did to also get suspended four games. Domestic violence is a real crime and the punishments shouldn’t be equal. However, Brady’s uncooperative behavior gave the commissioner no choice but to rule as he did, as much we suspect he’d have personally preferred to have cut his favorite owner Robert Kraft’s franchise a little slack.
Goodell finally got one right the first time. Brady made it easy for him, too.
— Dale Robertson
And from around the country:
It wasn’t just that Tom Brady cheated. It wasn’t just that Tom Brady lied about cheating. It wasn’t just that Tom Brady covered up the fact that he cheated and lied. No, this goes even further, and explains why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell properly upheld the four-game suspension he levied on Brady.
He destroyed his phone.
The same phone he has used since November.
Destroyed it right after he met with Ted Wells and his investigators.
Does he look or sound guilty yet, New England? Or are we going to continue this fiction that he’s the Golden Boy Who Can Do No Wrong, above the fray, above it all?
— Bob Kravitz, WTHR.com
Curated by Texas Bar Today. Follow us on Twitter @texasbartoday.
from Texas Bar Today http://ift.tt/1gkg6kI
via Abogado Aly Website
No comments:
Post a Comment