AND AFTER ALL THAT, PATRIOTS ARE STILL WORLD CHAMPS!
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OFSOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MAY 12,2015) — The NFL’s punishment for “Deflategate” has the markings of a pre-ordained conclusion. The league investigated for four months, and the best it could come up with was “probably.” For any other team, this “issue” wouldn’t have even made the local news. Of course, since it involved the dynastic New England Patriots, whose success has defied the league’s obsession with parity for 14 years, the league played to the cheap seats.
The excessive penalty over an unproven incident will be appealed, said Tom Brady‘s agent, Tom Yee. There will be a good chance that the penalty will be overturned. If not, here’s the scenario: Jimmy Garropolo, Brady’s understudy, goes 4-0. It goes so well, that it’s 2001 all over again. Garropolo turns Brady into the World’s Greatest Backup QB, and the Patriots go on to win another four Super Bowls and have the next Franchise QB.
In 2001, it was The Hit That Changed NFL History. That’s what the league itself calls it. At the end of the season’s second game, with the Patriots losing 10-3 to the New York Jets, Mo Lewis took QB Drew Bledsoe out of bounds with a savage hit. It knocked Bledsoe out of the game. In came Brady. Four rings and countless wins and plaudits later, we know how the story turned out. The Patriots have been the NFL’s winningest team since that time.
Oh, It’s Just Another of Them There ‘Co-ink-it-dents’
So, was the punishment of Brady and the team pre-ordained. There is “a greater probability that it was that way that that it wasn’t,” and the NFL “was likely generally aware” that it was a Done Deal. That’s enough “proof” to make it so, using the league’s own standards. The best evidence is the four-game suspension. Why not three, or five, or seven?
“Coincidentally,” if the suspension sticks, Brady will be eligible to come back against none other than the Indianapolis Clots on Oct. 16. Think the league didn’t have that in mind for the ratings the game will draw? Nah! When the Patriots wrap up the Colts 42-14 that night, the Clots will go crying to Mr. Goodell about New England’s unfair use of sunspots and subterranean waters.
Here for your pleasure are three of the more interesting takes to be found elsewhere:
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From YAHOO Sports!
Brady denied any wrongdoing in January, during a long news conference. During it, he said, “I have no knowledge of anything.” A little more than a week later at the Super Bowl, he had one of the great performances of all time, bringing the Patriots back in a nearly-perfect fourth quarter to knock off the Seattle Seahawks. It was his fourth Super Bowl title. He was named Super Bowl MVP.
The issue with punishing Brady is it is all based on conjecture. There’s not even really circumstantial evidence; there’s really no evidence of Brady’s direct participation in any scheme put forth in Wells’ report. The report implicates Brady basically because it says he had to have known, not because they had any proof that he did know or stated to either McNally or Jastremski that he wanted balls deflated after inspection. The report simply doesn’t find him guilty.
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And here is the statement of Tom Yee, Brady’s agent:
“The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis. In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever. There is no evidence that Tom directed footballs be set at pressures below the allowable limits. In fact, the evidence shows Tom clearly emphasized that footballs be set at pressures within the rules.
“Tom also cooperated with the investigation and answered every question presented to him. The Wells Report presents significant evidence, however, that the NFL lacks standards or protocols with respect to its handling of footballs prior to games; this is not the fault of Tom or the Patriots. The report also presents significant evidence the NFL participated with the Colts in some type of pre-AFC Championship Game planning regarding the footballs. This fact may raise serious questions about the integrity of the games we view on Sundays.
“We will appeal, and if the hearing officer is completely independent and neutral, I am very confident the Wells Report will be exposed as an incredibly frail exercise in fact-finding and logic. The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside, and a former federal judge has found the commissioner has abused his discretion in the past, so this outcome does not surprise me. Sadly, today’s decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don’t count as much as the games played on Park Avenue.”
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And this one, from YAHOO! Sports
Shutdown Corner
That’s the only way to figure the miscues the NFL made with its unprecedented and overdone punishments for the New England Patriots in deflating footballs (an issue, as we’ll see, the league never cared about before). The NFL screwed up this punishment, going for the standing ovation from a mostly Patriots-hating public (all good teams are hated, and the Patriots surely rub people the wrong way) instead of doing what was right. Here are five reasons the NFL got the punishment so, so wrong: The NFL did not care much about football tampering, until it fit its agenda How do I know the NFL didn’t care about ball tampering before? Well, there are two cases in which it did practically nothing, seeing them as the misdemeanors they were. Many people have brought these situations up in previous days, including ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss. They are perfect examples of the NFL’s hypocrisy when it came to the Patriots. Last season, the Carolina Panthers and Minnesota Vikings were caught, on a cold day, using sideline heaters to warm up footballs. That’s against the rules. You can argue that it’s not the same level as deflating footballs in a bathroom, but it has the same effect: something outside of the rules to make the football easier to grip and catch. The Panthers and Vikings were … warned. That’s it. Now, even if you don’t think it’s the same level crime, it is at least similar in nature, and the difference between no punishment at all and what the Patriots got shows the NFL wanted to make an example out of New England. The NFL was pandering to the crowd, whether that was Pats-hating fans of 31 Pats-hating owners. Also, in 2012 the San Diego Chargers used towels with an adhesive substance on their game balls and didn’t give them up to the NFL immediately when ordered to do so. If you think the Panthers-Vikings thing was just some honest mistake, it’s a lot harder to convince anyone that there was no intent by the Chargers to gain an advantage. And the Chargers’ punishment? A $20,000 fine. That’s it. The NFL recently started caring about game ball manipulation, about the time of last season’s AFC championship game apparently. Heck, the league didn’t even immediately act when the Indianapolis Colts told the NFL the day before that game that they were concerned about the Patriots deflating game balls. Doesn’t sound like a league that was too concerned about the issue, does it? I don’t believe there was necessarily a sting, I just think the league didn’t care about the issue. Until it saw which way the public wind was blowing, that is. The precedents are so out of line with the Patriots’ discipline, it’s hard to reconcile in a way that makes any sense. The argument that Spygate mattered doesn’t hold up in Brady’s suspension (Getty Images) If you want to say the Patriots’ part of the suspension ($1 million fine and two lost draft picks) is harsh because of Spygate, the videotaping scandal, I won’t waste much time arguing. But when it comes to Brady’s suspension, it’s wrong to throw the two controversies together. Brady was on the Patriots when they were videotaping signals. If there was a benefit to be had from it, he benefited. But he was not a part of the Patriots’ wrongdoing in that scandal. Brady wasn’t punished. He wasn’t implicated in any wrongdoing. Spygate was on Bill Belichick. Not Brady. Punishing Brady extra because the team was involved in Spygate is just looking for a convenient excuse. It doesn’t hold up in reality. The Patriots as an organization were not found to be responsible for wrongdoing If we’re going solely on Ted Wells’ report in the Patriots’ punishment, then let’s see what the Patriots as an organization did wrong. This passage comes after the report says that assistant equipment manager John Jastremski and officials locker room attendant Jim McNally probably conspired to deflate game balls and Brady probably knew something was going on: “We do not believe that the evidence establishes that any other Patriots personnel participated in or had knowledge of the violation of the Playing Rules or the deliberate effort to circumvent the rules described in this Report. In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated.” So, no wrongdoing equals a $1 million fine and two lost draft picks? Huh. It seems the NFL used the Wells report when it was convenient and ignored it when it wasn’t. The NFL saying the Patriots and Brady didn’t cooperate is not accurate In the second paragraph of the NFL’s statement on the punishment, it says “the failure to cooperate in the subsequent investigation” was a reason for the harsh penalty. Again, this is the NFL using an easily digestible phrase that people can parrot but doesn’t hold up if you have read the report. In fact, the line “the Patriots provided substantial cooperation throughout the investigation” appears in Wells’ report. Page 23, if you’re interested. The Patriots did cooperate. They turned over text message records of employees, security tapes, secured interviews with dozens of their employees. “The failure to cooperate” is the NFL’s pandering at its worst. The “failure to cooperate” is this: The Patriots say McNally was made available for four interviews but the investigators were turned down when a fifth interview was requested. Brady met with investigators, answered all their questions, but refused to provide text messages and emails. That’s it. That’s the extent of “failure to cooperate.” There are no other examples of any lack of Patriots cooperation in the report. And the way the NFL embarrassed Jastremski with the long story about the ball he had autographed after Brady reached 50,000 yards in his career, something that had no point in the report other than to show up Jastremski, I can’t say Brady did the wrong thing. If you want to see how the NFL was pandering to get a visceral reaction from fans while being less than forthright, the “failure to cooperate” reach is it. There’s no evidence of Brady’s wrongdoing I’m not talking about old quarterbacks saying what Brady should have known or the Wells report’s many “probablys” by connecting dots. I’m talking about evidence that Brady had any say in deflating footballs. Evidence. Not conjecture. Facts. Here’s the entire Wells Report. Read it through. Find the evidence (not Wells’ opinion, but evidence) that Brady was explicitly involved in Jastremski and McNally probably conspiring to deflate footballs. Hit me up on Twitter @YahooSchwab with that evidence if you want. I asked for it last week. Still haven’t had anyone find any. If you want to roll your eyes and say that Brady kept his hands clean like a football Tony Soprano, fine. If you want to judge him based on connecting a million dots, that’s your right. But if the NFL is going to take four games from Brady without pay (about $2 million) and permanently damage the reputation of one of the greatest players in NFL history, I want more than someone saying “Well he had to have known!” I would like to see some evidence. Facts. Not conjecture or an opinion. Evidence. There simply is none. And there was also no excuse for the NFL screwing up this punishment so badly, either.Five reasons why the NFL got the deflate-gate punishment dead wrong
Meanwhile, we Patriots fans will enjoy Three Games to Glory, the three DVD set just issued with every play of the playoffs Super Bowl win. We remain content in the knowledge that from now until at least the first Sunday in February, The New England Patriots are lording it as Super Bowl champs.
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“Isn’t it a pity? How we take each other’s love and cause each other pain, forgetting to give back. Isn’t it a pity?” — George Harrison, “Isn’t It a Pity?” from the album All Things Must Pass, (1971).
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
“Bianchi To Submit 2016 Pittsfield Budget By End of Month”
The mayor is suggesting a 1.9 percent increase in city operating expenses and a 3.5 percent increase to the schools. In total, the budget raises the city side by $1.4 million and the school by some $1.9 million for about a $3.4 million increase in total spending.
http://www.iberkshires.com/story/49146/Bianchi-To-Submit-2016-Pittsfield-Budget-By-End-of-Month.html
A $3.4 million tax increase could by a lot of footballs!
Jonathan, you deflated the word buy to by.
As a punishment you should be banished from the city of Pittsfield for a period of 14 years and live in exile to New Hampshire. In addition you should not be able to gain employment whithin the city of Pittsfield for the remainder of your natural life.
If anybody in Pittsfield asks you to donate money, tell them you don’t work for the school department and therefore have very little money. Tell them to see the school department people instead as they have money to burn, taxpayer money that is.
How can you call the Pats dynastic? They won their first Super Bowl in 10 years…aided by the dumbest call on an offensive play by any coach ever…they are 4-4 in Super Bowls…Pittsburgh 6-2…Dallas 5-3…SF 5-1
Don’t forget Green Bay… 4 and 1 in Super Bowls and 13 overall championships – they, not the Patriots, are the Yankees of the NFL.
This reply is both for BULL and MR. X. The Patriots are the current dynasty of the NFL. That is beyond question. The claim that they are the Greatest Dynasty of All Time refers to The Super Bowl Era, which began in 1966. ESPN, the NFL, and other sports organizations rate teams in the Super Bowl era by a scoring system: A team gets 10 points for a Super Bowl win … 7 points for a Super Bowl appearance … 5 points for a Conference Championship [some systems count a SB appearance and a Conference Championship as the same and allow either 5 to 7 points, but just one not two] … 3 points for a division championship, and one point for each team win. By that measure, the Patriots are the NFL’s greatest dynasty of the Super Bowl era. The division titles and the regular season wins put the team past both Pittsburgh and Green Bay. That’s using objective measurement, unlike The Wells Report and unlike the assessments of Bull and Mr. X, which rely on subjective opinion. Sorry fellas.
You contradict yourself my friend – All Time and Super Bowl Era are not and cannot be the same. All Time is All Time, by definition not limited to a space of time between 1966 and now.
And in the Super Bowl Era, wins are the measure of greatness, not appearances. With all due lack of respect to your two sources for determining this measure – ESPN and the NFL, who are joined at the hip to begin with – the final tally for the Super Bowl Era to date for New England is 4 and 4, which is a .500 average. Green Bay is 4 and 1, which is an .800 average. It’s called the Super Bowl Era, Dan, not the Playoffs/Conference Championship/Super Bowl Appearance Era.
Thank you BULL for your attempt to distort the record. But by all factual measures, the all-time best team in The Super Bowl Era is the New England Patriots. I don’t say this. ESPN and the NFL says this, with the statistics and data. Even as for your Boron-free attempt to use pretzel logic, what would you rather have for, say, the Miami Dolphins: five trips to the Super Bowl or a record eight? With four of them wins. By the way, what is the Dolphins all-time Super Bowl mark?
MR. X
See my reply to BULL.
Enough! No mas…move along, there’s nothing to see here.
I’m confused! A few weeks ago, our school supt. announced a decrease in the school budget and listed various reductions including staff.
In spite of these so called reductions, the school budget is going up 3.5%?
There is no confusion here.
The school system is a cash cow.
They have pointed out that the budget is way below the proposition 2.5 threshold that they could tax you on.
No matter how much money they throw at the school system, it will never be enough to satisfy the greedy bastards.
Be glad its only 3.5%. Bend over and take it. Or move out of Pittsfield. City department heads know better than to own property in Pittsfield.
Taxes will never stop increasing in Pittsfield.
Fixing the roads and providing basic services for Pittsfield residents does not generate cash. The school system does.
Its an economic engine.
The new high school economic engine the people were denied a vote on will generate tons of cash for a select few.
Its for “the children”.
Money is like heroin to the school money changers. They will get it one way or another and stealing from the public is just so goddamn easy.
Every pass completion Tom Brodie has ever thrown is suspect.
What gets me is nothing has been said about his dad who played for the forty miners. Now he played the game like it was supposed to be played!
The school budget doesn’t surprise me at all unfortunately. Wasn’t it last year that the council denied the large increase the school committee asked for? Now the council will probably allow the increase because they cut them last year. Plus the council just approved that new school.
Seems like the council is on a spending spree!
TAMMY et al
Here’s the school budget scam in a nutshell.
1.) Superintendent wants to squeeze as much money as possible out of taxpayers, so he goes in with a high number. He knows the school committee will rubber stamp the request. So say he wants $3 million more. He asks for $6 million.
2.) After some fake “give and take” the number is reduced to $4 million (a million more than he wants). At that point, the superintendent, the school committee, and even council and mayor talk of how the school department is being cut 33%, when it’s actually being boosted by $4 million.
3.) When the budget is passed, all the crooks in on the crooked scheme say they are making a sacrifice and imply that taxpayers are cheating “The Children.”
4.) All the while they have bled taxpayers dry again for more millions that people can’t afford and that the school system will waste on rewarding failure.
In his letter to the Patriots, Vincent said ” we cannot be certain when this began. Evidence suggests that Jan 18 was not the only time..”
Cheaters win which is why they do it. The Patriots won it all. A four game suspension and a couple of draft choices is a small price to pay.
Yes. “We cannot be certain.” In other words, there’s no evidence, just as there was ultimately no factual evidence in the Wells Report. The severity of the penalty means a certain appeal and a likely win in the appeal.
Any game Tom Brodie played in and won should be forfeited
What gets me is all the baseball player infractions for the last 70 years and Pauly Rose aka Mr. Hustle pays a price of not getting to the Hall of Fame for a minor infraction.
Minor infraction? In whose eyes? Betting on the game is one of the biggest infractions MLB has in its rules. Rose for many years denied he did it, then admitted it, but only in a book, and even then claims he ‘only bet on other teams.’ He was, and is, a gambling addict – he almost certainly bet on his own team, or against them if he knew he had a weak lineup on any given day.
What about Michael Jordan and the real reason he went to baseball? Rumor has it he was gambling on the Bulls!!
Bill Durham is correct, however Rose should be judged on the Hall as a player and not what he did as manager of the Cardinals.
Rose managed the Cincinnati Reds.
I agree. Judge Rose by his actions as a ball player. If the Hall of Fame required altar boys and angels, right few old timers would be inside the hallowed halls, including The Babe. Rose deserves the Hall.
I think everyone who attended a Brady tainted game should be given their money back with appropriate interest. I never had the pleasure but I do pay big bucks for cable TV and I feel entitled to a proportionate percentage of that money back. Can anyone help me with the math on this?
I just feel so violated by the whole thing. It’s awful. I mean the guy let a pound a a half of air out of a football and he expects life to just go on as if nothing ever happened? Really?
Oh, the horror! The horror!
Instead of a refund, how about a poster of his wife Gisele in a Bikini and signed by Brady.
Tony Larusso and Red Shaendinst both trained the Cardinals and Rose managed the Reds.
Correct. LaRussa and Schoendienst both manages the Cards, 40 years apart.
How old is Vin Scully? He’s still announcing.
Did anyone quiz the backup quarterback? If I am Brady s backup and it looks like I ain’t gonna play until he loses his passing arm in a subway accident I might consider letting the air out of a few footballs and hope somebody else got suspended.
Backup is Jimmy Garoppolo, highly regarded. He looked great in limited action in ’15.In six games, he had a passer rating of 101.2. He’s got a QB’s prototypical build (6-2, 225) and he’s more handsome than Tom Brady. THE PLANET asked the women for that rating!
I know you mentioned Dan that the Eagle was on the block. Did you know it sold? Maybe athe Eagle doesn’t know either cuz I don’t believe they’ve mentioned anything either, but It appears the deal with Apollo closed a week or two ago. Although I can’t find any official announcement. Still looking for a third source for confirmation.
I haven’t heard anything official or unofficial on it. If I do, I’ll let you know. The Apollo deal, the last time we reported on it, looked solid, and I haven’t heard of anything rumblings of the deal running into snags, for what that’s worth.