NFL players union asks Roger Goodell to recuse himself from Tom Brady's appeal

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Newsday

By BOB GLAUBER

SAN FRANCISCO - The NFL Players Association has formally requested that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell step away from the appeals process involving Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who has been suspended four games for his alleged role in the Patriots' use of underinflated footballs in the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 18.

The players union, which has filed the appeal on Brady's behalf, cited Goodell's inability to have an independent view of the proceedings and asked that he designate a neutral party to hear the appeal. NFL vice president of operations Troy Vincent issued the suspension on grounds that Brady violated the NFL personal conduct policy, but the union argues that only Goodell has that authority.

"Given a process that has contained procedural violations of our collective bargaining agreement, the Commissioner's role as a central witness in the appeal hearing and his evident partiality with respect to the Wells report, the Commissioner must designate a neutral party to serve as an arbitrator in this matter," the union said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. "The players also believe that the Commissioner's history of inconsistently issuing discipline against our players makes him ill-suited to hear this appeal in a fair-minded manner."

Goodell did not comment on Tuesday. He is expected to brief reporters on Wednesday at the conclusion of a two-day owners meeting.

FULL story at link.

http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.9821123.1431469349!/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_640/image.JPG

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/nfl-players-union-asks-roger-goodell-to-recuse-himself-from-tom-brady-s-appeal-1.10450873

[LiberalFighter]

1. Not exactly the right person to make a ruling when he made the first one.

[Nye Bevan]

5. He didn't make the first ruling (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

10. Goodell handed down the punishment.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

11. No, Troy Vincent did. n/m

[LiberalFighter]

13. Goodell responds to NFLPA assessment of Vincent's authority

http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/goodell-responds-nflpa-assessment-vincents-authority

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

22. Okay

I'm telling you who dealt out the punishment in this case. The article doesn't really contradict that.

The NFLPA has a sterling track record too. Defending kid beaters and wife punchers.

[LiberalFighter]

29. In regards to the NFLPA...

Labor unions are required by federal LAW to represent their members in the grievance process. There usually is a difference when a union represents a member in that they also file grievances that are based on facts. Such as past practices, disparity of punishment, evidence, and even the law.

[Thor_MN]

2. Were the balls underinflated? Yes. Did it affect the outcome of the SB? Probably not.

Did it call into question the NFL itself? Most definitely.

Like other blowjobs, the act itself was mostly inconsequential, the fuss is about publicity.

[former9thward]

15. No, the balls were not under inflated in the SB.

That charge was never made. The balls were under control of the League. The charge came in the AFC championship. game which the Patriots won 45-7. The balls had no affect on who was going to win that game

[Thor_MN]

16. My error. Substitute AFC championship game for SB.

And the points are the same. The blow job had little to no effect on the actual game, but the it has an effect on the NFL.

[gregcrawford]

3. The key word in the allegations against Brady...

... is "PROBABLY." Brady may very well be a self-absorbed dick, but saying he "probably" knew of the actions of locker room employees is not sufficient grounds for the league's 4-game suspension.

Goodell's credibility is deflated nearly to the point of being inside out, so retiring "to spend more time with the family" would be his best option. But his over-inflated ego rivals the Hindenburg, so that ain't likely to happen. But Mr. Goodell would do well to reflect on what happened to THAT gasbag. Oh, the humanity...!

[geek tragedy]

4. Brady refused to cooperate. That merits a suspension

by itself.

[Nye Bevan]

6. It's like a driver refusing to take a breath test

and then whining "but they have no evidence that I was over the limit!"

[ABCin2014]

12. He cooperated.

A better analogy is refusing to submit to a blood-alcohol test after being asked to heel-toe a line and passing, then agreeing to take a breathalyzer test and passing, . . . . Brady cooperated and answered questions for a full day. He wasn't obligated to do more.

[HooptieWagon]

27. He refused to turn over his ph records.

However, the locker room attendants did, and there were numerous calls and texts to and from Brady. Plenty of other evidence, plus other NFL QBs have said it would be obvious to a QB the balls were under inflated. Bottom line, Brady and the Patriots were caught breaking the rules, and it's not the first time, thus the punishment.

[ABCin2014]

30. Brady was right to refuse.

The NFL was overreaching. I'm sure you wouldn't want your employer going through your personal phone and viewing your personal correspondence.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/roger-goodell-confirmed-why-tom-brady-was-right-to-not-share-texts-134448265.html

[HooptieWagon]

31. No. The NFL didn't ask for personal stuff.

They only requested records of communication with the ball boys. Brady certainly wasn't required to cooperate, though the refusal to do so no doubt added to the punishment. As is often the case, the coverup outweighed the crime.

[ABCin2014]

32. The best analysis I've read to date

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/in-trying-to-restore-his-authority-goodell-undermined-his-credibility/2015/05/21/142c8d2c-ffd4-11e4-805c-c3f407e5a9e9_story.html?tid=pm_sports_pop_b

[hughee99]

34. Actually it's more like the boss finding a joint in the bathroom at work

and asking to see the text messages of the guy who listens to Bob Marley.

[yellowcanine]

7. Actually the wording was "more probable than not" and the NFL can sanction based on that.

Those are the league rules which Brady and the Patriots have agreed to. If they don't like it, try to change the rules, but meanwhile, they have to live by them.

Wells wrote that investigators also concluded “it is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.”

[TBF]

25. Too bad "more probably than not" didn't work with Rice -

because frankly any of us would've made that statement after watching the video. If that's our standard there are a bunch of folks to bench.

[Calista241]

9. Goodell has presided over much of the NFL's growth since he came to be commissioner.

The players may not like him, but that's tough shit. The owners support him, and he's brought the league billions of dollars in additional TV revenue.

The NFL is CRUSHING other professional sports. MLB is way, way, way down in revenue and viewship. The NBA is pretty stagnant. Hockey is being broadcast on the Outdoor life network, and viewership is declining. MLS is still in its infancy.

And players may bitch about fines, and discipline and what not, but they're making more money than ever. What's not to like about Goodell?

[apnu]

17. The NHL has its own loathed commissioner: Bettman

Who has the support of enough of the owners to keep his job despite having been booed presenting the Stanley cup for 20 years by the fans.

And though the NFL is crushing all sports competition, Bettman's tenure has brought Hockey's stock way up from what it was before.

Oh and OLN was bought by NBC and now its NBC's sports channel, so NBC owns hockey on a national level. Regionally, hockey does very well on TV in more than half of its local markets.

Most football fans I know around here are also hockey fans. But I live in an old football and hockey market. The two are pretty compatible around here. The NFL season is very short and the games are only one a week. Its easy to watch both, both appeal to highly aggressive entertainment desires, but if there's a NFL game on at the same time as the NHL, Football wins.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

24. OLN is now NBC Sports Network

So that kinda worked out well for Bettman, who I don;t like, but I think gets more shit than he deserves.

[TBF]

14. And today we learn that Rice was completely let off -

and we have video evidence of that abuse. Goodell is a joke.

[Calista241]

18. It was the justice system that let him off.

Goodell had nothing to do with it. And without Janay Rice to press charges, I don't know show much they could have really punished him.

[TBF]

19. That doesn't preclude Goodell from doing the right thing -

Last edited Thu May 21, 2015, 03:04 PM - Edit history (1)

he saw the tape.

[Calista241]

20. Ray Rice didn't play last year. He doesn't have any prospects for playing this year.

He's essentially been fired. In 2 years, he'll be dead broke.

So yeah, Goodell could have suspended him earlier, but he did do the right thing in he end. What else do you want him to do? i suppose he could hire a hit man.

[TBF]

21. While creative that probably isn't necessary -

I just don't like these abusers being held up as heroes.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

23. This is what I love

We are holding a fucking football league to a higher standard than the criminal justice system!!!!!

The league should be meting out punishment for trivial shit, not acting as a criminal court being forced to decide whose guilty. Rice should have been in FUCKING JAIL SO HE COULDN'T PLAY!!!!

And by the way, Bob Kraft said he did a great job on Rice.

[yellowcanine]

8. "When you don't have the facts nor the law on your side, holler."

"When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler."

[GOLGO 13]

26. Kraft knows Brady lied so he wisely is backing away from him.

Notice nobody has come out for Brady? Belachik is stone silent. No other QB in the league has come out to support him.

Brady is totally on his own now on this.

[HooptieWagon]

28. Yep.

[hughee99]

33. Kraft knows suing the 31 other NFL owners isn't going to make anything better for him,

and I can't imagine why any other QB would want to involve themselves in this either.

Goodell wanted to look strong and in-charge (after a whole season of getting beat up for a series of poor decisions) and dropped the hammer.

In the end, Brady's suspension will get dropped to 1 or 2 games, and I think Goodell would like nothing better than to have someone other than him be responsible for doing that, so he can look like he didn't go soft.

Jonathan Vilma got suspended for a full season for being the player's ring-leader for bountygate, where NFL players were encouraged and rewarded for trying to hurt other players, but he only served a 5 game suspension. Brady was "more probable than not generally aware" that someone (not him) let some air out of the footballs. There's no way the 4 game suspension stands.