t*****t
发帖数: 97 | 1 http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roger-goodell-s-manipulation-of-to
Roger Goodell's manipulation of Tom Brady's testimony leaves NFL on slippery
slope
At this point it's fair to say the NFL was immediately convinced the New
England Patriots deflated footballs in the AFC championship game and then
worked backward with great diligence and, at times, great duplicity to
conclude it as true.
The NFL mostly failed, although that doesn't guarantee the Patriots are
innocent. New England very well might have deflated the footballs. There was
, and there remains, plenty of suspicious acts that demand questioning after
a guy nicknamed the Deflator took the footballs into the bathroom just
before kickoff. It's just the league has never proven its case.
[]
No matter where you stand on the guilt or innocence of Tom Brady, et al, the
actions of the league office grow more disconcerting and indefensible by
the day, especially after Thursday's release of testimony and documents from
Brady's appeal of his four-game suspension.
There is a laundry list of concerns here, starting with the fact no one in
the league office knew footballs could naturally deflate. This ignorance lit
the fuse of a scandal that is still burning. The NFL was prone to wrongly
conclude that any measurement under 12.5 pounds per square inch was an act
of cheating.
From there, pretty much every single action, conclusion or determination was
designed to find a path to that original belief of guilt.
View gallery
.With the flaws in the Deflategate investigation, can teams, players and
fans still trust Roger Goodell? (AP)
With the flaws in the Deflategate investigation, can teams, players and fans
still trust Roger Goodell? (AP)
But this is about focusing on one curiously inconsistent point because going
over all of them would take an entire book.
So let's look at Roger Goodell's conclusion that conversations between Brady
and Patriots staffer John Jastremski after the news of the scandal broke
are proof that Jastremski was running a cheating operation and Brady either
knew about it, tried to cover it up or both.
Goodell and his investigator, Ted Wells, were obsessed with the fact Brady
and Jastremski had not texted or spoken on the phone for six months until
the morning after the AFC championship game, when news hit the league was
investigating the Patriots' footballs.
Then the two started communicating, numerous times over the next few days,
including a face-to-face meeting in the quarterbacks room in Gillette
Stadium.
To the NFL, this was proof of guilt.
That alone was dubious. Why would Brady and Jastremski be automatically
guilty for talking after they were suddenly in the middle of a massive
scandal and media firestorm?
With the presumption of innocence, or even impartiality, their actions are
quite understandable.
Once accused of playing with under-inflated footballs, of course Brady would
want to find out what the heck was going on and talk to Jastremski. And of
course Jastremski would want to profess his innocence – especially if he
was really innocent – or theorize with Brady about how such a thing could
occur.
It would have been far more incriminating if Brady and Jastremski never
spoke.
Both Wells and Goodell, for instance, saw no issue in Patriots coach Bill
Belichick, upon hearing the news, going to Brady and asking if he knew
anything about the footballs. It's completely natural. So not with Brady?
Furthermore, after the first conversation between Brady and Jastremski, all
other communication came under false pretenses. By late Monday morning the
NFL had wrongly told the Patriots that their footballs were deflated as low
as 10.1 psi – which put the organization on its heels because it was such a
significant reduction.
Hearing such data from the league office would certainly cause Brady and
Jastremski to revisit the situation. Let's say Jastremski said early Monday
morning he didn't do it, doubted anyone did and couldn't even believe this
occurred – something both Brady and Jastremski said occurred.
Then the NFL put out the false 10.1 psi number. Of course Brady would call
back and say, "Well, this is what the NFL found, something must have
happened. What's the story?"
Then later, ESPN, citing league sources, reported that 11 of the 12 Patriots
footballs were two pounds or more below the league standard. It was also
completely wrong but no one in New England knew that at the time so this
looked terrible. Again, Brady would reasonably want to ask more questions.
The NFL instead said the daily discussions were proof of guilt.
View gallery
.Tom Brady passes during an NFL football training camp on Aug. 1. (AP)
Tom Brady passes during an NFL football training camp on Aug. 1. (AP)
So the league created fake duress for Brady via false evidence and then
found him guilty for reacting to it in an understandable fashion. This is a
rather aggressive interrogation tactic generally reserved for murder
investigations, terrorist questionings and "Law & Order" reruns. It isn't
how anyone would normally expect the league office to act when trying to
determine the inflation levels of footballs.
Brady, in his testimony, said the reports – again, erroneously made up,
possibly leaked and never corrected by the NFL – framed their discussions.
Here's one answer when asked about what was discussed during one
conversation, why it was discussed and why he was even talking to Jastremski.
"[Jastremski] was the person that prepared the footballs and like I said,
the initial report was that none of the Colts' balls were deflated, but the
Patriots', all the Patriots' balls were," Brady testified. "So I was trying
to figure out what happened. [It] was certainly my concern [to attempt] to
figure out, you know, what could be – possibly could have happened to those
balls."
Does this seem reasonable? Or proof of overwhelming guilt?
Actually, don't bother answering because it gets far worse for the league
office.
Goodell manages to not just ignore that as reasonable but in making his
decision completely misrepresents Brady's appeal testimony.
When Goodell released his 20-page appeal denial, the NFL was under the
impression that all testimony and documents would remain sealed. Brady's
lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, wanted it available for fans to read. The NFL got
its way. However, a federal judge ruled nothing should be under seal and
suddenly it all came out.
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So now we can see the contrast in how Goodell characterized Brady's
testimony and the actual testimony. Here is how Goodell saw it, and, in the
process, characterized what Brady said he and Jastremski discussed.
"The sharp contrast between the almost complete absence of communications
through the AFC championship game undermines any suggestion during the three
days following the AFC championship game that the communications addressed
ONLY [emphasis added] preparation of footballs for the Super Bowl rather
than the tampering allegations and their anticipated responses to inquiries
about the tampering," Goodell wrote.
Only? Wait, Brady and Jastremski ONLY discussed the preparation of the
footballs for the Super Bowl?
That certainly could undermine things. It would be incredibly suspicious,
incriminating even, if Brady claimed that in the midst of this growing
scandal, he and Jastremski spoke repeatedly but ONLY about preparing
footballs for the Super Bowl. No one would believe that.
Which is perhaps why Goodell wrote it as such.
Like many things from the NFL in this scandal, it's completely incorrect (
and actually contradicted within other portions and footnotes of Goodell's
own ruling, not to mention the Wells Report). With the release of the
transcript, though, the commissioner's claims have misrepresented the
evidence.
View gallery
.The Patriots' fight with the NFL got a lot nastier with the release of Tom
Brady's emails. (AP)
The Patriots' fight with the NFL got a lot nastier with the release of Tom
Brady's emails. (AP)
While it is true Brady didn't offer any specifics of those discussions, it
is also true that when being questioned under oath people are coached to
never be too specific. Goodell and his team of lawyers fully understand this
and even a modicum of fairness would require sympathy to the circumstance.
Besides, Brady was specific enough – certainly specific enough that it's a
complete lie to claim he said he and Jastremski ONLY discussed preparing the
footballs for the Super Bowl. Brady repeatedly answered the opposite. Here
are a couple of examples to go with the one above:
"I don't remember exactly what we discussed," Brady said. "But like I said,
there was two things that were happening. One was the allegations which we
were facing and the second was getting ready for the Super Bowl, which both
of those have never happened before [Jastremski wasn't in charge of the
footballs at prior Super Bowls, and there was no scandal brewing]. So me
talking to him about those things that were unprecedented, you know, he was
the person that I would be communicating with."
And:
"I don't remember exactly what we talked about," Brady said. "But like I
said, there were two things happening simultaneously and I really wanted
John focused other than what he needed to get accomplished with the
footballs, so I was trying to make sure that he was good and that, you know,
he felt responsible for, you know, the attacks. And I was trying to make
sure that he was composed so that he could do his job over the course of the
next two weeks."
Brady also testified that he directly asked Jastremski if he deflated the
footballs or knew anything about it – Jastremski said no every single time.
Jastremski told the Wells investigators the same thing. Brady also
explained, often repeatedly, that he wanted to make sure Jastremski was
mentally focused on the Super Bowl when 100 footballs need to be prepared,
among other tasks. He also said he texted and spoke to him to make him feel
better as the world collapsed around him.
While preparing for the Super Bowl was a primary concern – is that
surprising? – Brady couldn't have been more clear that other topics were
broached, including the scandal, and that they didn't ONLY discuss football
prep for the Seattle game.
All of this was said under oath directly in front of Roger Goodell.
Forget guilt and innocence, is there any reasonable way that Roger Goodell
could hear all of that – spend five weeks reviewing the evidence, including
the transcript and despite being surrounded by high-priced attorneys and
public-relations consultants – and then still write that Brady ONLY
discussed preparing footballs for the Super Bowl and as such is untruthful
and guilty?
Is that a fair and accurate portrayal of what Brady testified? Is that even
remotely reasonable? Or is it just an attempt to make Brady appear guilty
and thus continue months of conduct that appear designed to justify the
original suspicion.
Perhaps more importantly, how does anyone in the NFL – owner, coach, player
or fan – possibly trust the league office to investigate and rule on
anything ever again? | A**d
发帖数: 13310 | 2 Ted Wells, “independent” investigator in name only
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/08/06/ted-wells-indep
slippery
was
after
【在 t*****t 的大作中提到】
: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roger-goodell-s-manipulation-of-to
: Roger Goodell's manipulation of Tom Brady's testimony leaves NFL on slippery
: slope
: At this point it's fair to say the NFL was immediately convinced the New
: England Patriots deflated footballs in the AFC championship game and then
: worked backward with great diligence and, at times, great duplicity to
: conclude it as true.
: The NFL mostly failed, although that doesn't guarantee the Patriots are
: innocent. New England very well might have deflated the footballs. There was
: , and there remains, plenty of suspicious acts that demand questioning after
| l****o
发帖数: 942 | 3 对黑子来说，这些都不重要。作弊已经是事实了。其他的都基于这个事实。
联盟罚牌子：牌子作弊了，牌子丢人可笑不要脸。
联盟不罚牌子：联盟是牌子亲爹故意毁掉证据，牌子丢人可笑不要脸。
反正正反都有的说，欧耶！ | R*3
发帖数: 11814 | 4 我都冬眠一个休赛期了， 还没吵/炒完。 勒了个去。
slippery
was
after
【在 t*****t 的大作中提到】
: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roger-goodell-s-manipulation-of-to
: Roger Goodell's manipulation of Tom Brady's testimony leaves NFL on slippery
: slope
: At this point it's fair to say the NFL was immediately convinced the New
: England Patriots deflated footballs in the AFC championship game and then
: worked backward with great diligence and, at times, great duplicity to
: conclude it as true.
: The NFL mostly failed, although that doesn't guarantee the Patriots are
: innocent. New England very well might have deflated the footballs. There was
: , and there remains, plenty of suspicious acts that demand questioning after
|
|
