By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015) — It has never been a better time to be a New England Patriots fan. Everyone is happy. Those who envy the team’s unparalleled success in an age of NFL Parity have “Deflategate,” Patriot fans bask in being World Champs and love the jealousy of “the haters” as the most sincere form or flattery. Moreover, the fans face a delicious win-win once the dust settles on the trumped-up sting. THE PLANET is enjoying the “controversy” so much that we come back to it one more time.

Who Dat “obnoxious, arrogant” Patriots fan? Why, it’s THE PLANET!

This is after a package arrived for us yesterday from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. In it we found two items: (1) Our copy of NFL FIlms’ Three Games to Glory, which features every play from each of the Patriots playoff games and Super Bowl XLIX … and (2) Our official locker room cap given to the Super Bowl winners (see photo).

Either Way, It Works Out Fine

On that last point, in light of the league’s announced penalty, only one of two things can happen: Either it stands or it doesn’t. We know for certain that the Patriots and Tom Brady will appeal.

In the first scenario, the penalty stands. Brady sits out the first four games, the team pays $1 million to the NFL, and it forfeits two draft choices. Let’s deal with in reverse order.

THE PENALTY STANDS

Loss of draft choices — Though the loss of picks is a speed bump, for a team like the Patriots it’s not a crippling blow. NFL drafts are crap shoots at best, and the Patriots tend to build their roster not with high picks but with unsung role players that other teams overlook or don’t want. Case in point, Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler. He joined the team in 2014-15 as an undrafted free agent. Not one team in football wanted him. The Patriots signed Butler to a non-guaranteed rookie contest about a year ago. The kid, from a small division two college in Mississippi, was given no chance to make the team.

All he did was play his way onto the roster. The team loved his intelligence, tenacity, toughness, and “nose for the ball.” When the season came down to one play, with all the marbles riding, Coach Bill Belichick and staff wanted Butler in what turned out to be the key position in the defensive backfield. End result, NFL history.

$1 million fine — Largest in league history, but to Robert Kraft, that’s like you losing a nickel down a sewer hole. You won’t miss it. Neither will he.

Brady sits four games without pay — A few things happen. Brady will have to rely on his wife, Gisele Bundchen, who made $47 million last year as the world’s top supermodel. But wait, there’s more. The $2 million the team won’t have to pay Brady will not count against the salary cap. The QB still gets in a full training camp, and then he gets to rest up until mid-October, all the while serving as mentor to backup QB Jimmy Garoppolo. At 38, basically the rest extends the wunderkind‘s career by four games, since it will be four games less wear and tear. The suspension will also mean four games of playing experience for the highly touted Garoppolo. The world will get to know Jimmy Garoppolo.

As a senior as Eastern Illinois, Jimmy G broke Tony Romo‘s school records for career passing, touchdowns, and yards. For his performance  in 2013, Garoppolo won The Walter Payton Award, which goes to the best offensive collegiate player. With the Patriots, he saw action in six games, completing 19-of-27 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown for a 101.2 passer rating. He was widely credited for his work in running the scout team as the Patriots prepared to play the Seattle Seahwaks in Super Bowl XLIX. His work helped the Patriots’ defense nail down the win after Brady’s MVP performance in that game (the legendary QB’s third such honor).

In fact, in the team’s final practice scrimmage before the big game, Garoppolo beat Butler with the same formation the Seahawks used in their ill-fated final play. After Butler got beat in practice, the coaching staff pointed out what he did wrong. When the ‘hawks came out with the two wide receivers stacked right, Butler immediately recognized it. It doesn’t work out that way if Garoppolo hadn’t done his job. Last year after four games, the Patriots were 2-2. That’s all Garoppolo has to do in the first four games to hold serve for when Brady rejoins the team. Brady’s suspension will be gold for Jimmy Garoppolo and likely a blessing in disguise for the team and its fans, since the kid is Brady’s heir apparent.

THE PENALTY DOES NOT STAND

This is a realistic and many league observers say a likely scenario. A “probable” (the NFL loves that word!) outcome of Brady’s appeal of the penalty and the team’s is that (a) the penalty will be greatly reduced or (b) thrown out completely. Check out the NFL’s record with appellate rulings. It’s not a good one. They lose more than they win.

Now if the league had issued a mild punishment, say, a $25,000 fine, the story would be over and there would be no appeal. The near universal judgment, however, is that the league’s draconian punishment of Brady and the team were radically disproportionate to the alleged offense (again, nothing has been proven). This makes it a pretty good bet that the penalty will be overturned. The league will end up with more egg on its face than it has now, Brady will be vindicated, and the Patriots will win yet another one.

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Brady had added Jeffrey Kessler to his legal team, a man according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, which may not be great news for the NFL. (source csnne.com)

Schefter told Colin Cowherd Tuesday that he received a text from “somebody connected to the [Deflategate] story in some way” stating: “Brady’s team is unreal I guess . . . Talented, big-name lawyers. Yee, Kessler, etc. Prediction = Won’t miss a game.”

It’s been long known that Brady’s agent Don Yee would help defend his client as Brady continues to wade through the aftermath of the Wells Report‘s release. Yee has been on the offensive since last week.

Kessler is a new addition, but his name is one that’s well-known in NFL circles. He served as outside counsel to the NFLPA last year during the appeal of the NFL’s indefinite suspension of Ray Rice. Twenty years ago he helped establish free agency in the NFL by winning the Freeman McNeil case and settling the Reggie White case that focused on restrictions of player movement.

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Csnne.com’s Tom Curran added, “The Wells report is going to get blown apart by the attorney that Tom Brady retained on Tuesday, Jeff Kessler. The very best Wells could do was Brady had general awareness that something happened. Probably.”

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Rich Levine, a writer at csnne.com and former sports writer for The Burlington Free Press and MetroWest Daily, wrote this:

Roger Goodell suspended Tom Brady for four games on Monday — but guess what? Something tells me that Brady will be fine. Really, I think he’ll be OK. I think he’ll appeal Goodell’s suspension and almost certainly win. In fact, I think it’s more likely that Brady will play in Week 1 than it is that he won’t play until Week 6.

I think once this story is dragged out of the commissioner’s panic room and into the light of day, the corruption inside the Wells report will be exposed and Brady might actually look like the victim. By then, America’s pitch forks will have stormed off to the next great scandal, and the only haters left will be the same jealous rivals, crazy fans and tired, curly-haired trolls that were already there in the first place. And they won’t be happy, because they really thought they had him. They thought they finally ruined Tom Brady. But believe me, Brady will be fine. He’s Tom Brady.

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And this from Mike Petraglia of weei.com:

If the NFL wanted a fight with Tom Brady, they’re going to get one. And history indicates it’s not going to turn out real well for the league.

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As THE PLANET said at the top, it’s never been a better time to be a fan of the World Champion New England Patriots.

There is is, folks. Now deal with it!

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“Be Bop a Lula, she’s my baby. Be Bop a Lula I don’t mean maybe.” — Gene Vincent, “Be Bop a Lula,” (1958).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.