OT: Patriots fans raising funds to pay the Deflategate fine.
Ok, I am second to no one in my contempt of the punishment over deflategate, which is so overblown as an issue that it devalues the term overblown. And the crime itself is at best, a five MPH over the speed limit issue IMO. However, that does not mean it makes much sense for regular people to try to pay a fine levied on one of the world's richest men. Apparently Pats fans have raised 4k already on gofundme. I don't even agree with the title of this linked article, but do agree it makes little sense.
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/5/12/8592911/patriots-fans-raise-1-…
It gets worse...
http://national.suntimes.com/nfl/7/72/1103265/new-england-patriots-fans-protest-nfl-handcuffs
Even if you think the punishment is unjust, that is just ridiculous.
Handcuffing yourself is something that hipsters do to protest overseas working conditions, NOT something to do because the multi-billion dollar corporation you are rooting for got its wrists slapped.
EDIT: I should note that I have no problem with protesting in general....I just think it's idiotic in this instance.
Just an FYI they are from barstoolsports.com and basically did it to be funny/make the news.
I follow the site and although idiotic, it was quite humerous watching it.
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Did you mean hippies? I'm interested in the taxonomy here.
People with hips in general.
That's why you don't see the elderly protesting like this...their hips can no longer take the strain.
Someone get Elizabeth Warren on the phone. Forget the TPP, we need to help the Pats!
Maybe Kraft can delay writing a check long enough to pay in inflated dollars.
According to JayBaugh's Twitter, one Pats fan got arrested at the protest. If charges are filed, part of his plea should include "can't ever lie about what you were protesting".
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but an FU to the NFL for their stupid fine.
A league that only cares about its fans insofar as what it can get out of them monetarily will happily take the money they raise and then increase ticket prices as an FU right back to them. All this kind of thing says to the NFL is "we the fans have more money than sense so please gouge us even more."
They make enough money to pay their fines.
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The number of Brady worshipers on here is annoying. I realize many of you are younger than me and have not had the opportunity to see much success lately. That being said, turning Brady into model of Michigan success is kind of pathetic. He was a slightly above average Michigan quarterback who was drafted in the sixth round. Brady led us to a 3 loss season and a 2 loss season. Between 1980 and 2007 Michigan had 18 season equal or better then what Brady generated. He is not the greatest Michigan quarterback ever. He is the best former Michigan quarterback to play in the NFL. Good for him.
Being a Michigan fan does not require being a Tom Brady fan. Many Michigan fans don’t like the Patriots, Belichick or really care for Tom Brady. Personally I feel the guy comes across as a douche most of the time. Great pro quarterback but holding him up as a paragon of virtue is a bit much.
Also please note that attacks on Tom Brady have nothing to do with Michigan. They guy has been gone for 15 years. If you are a Patriots fan I can understand the rage. Take your comments to a Patriot blog and rage on. From the Michigan fan perspective, who gives a crap?
Hopefully the upcoming Harbaugh seasons will allow many of you to get over your Brady infatuation.
You can just not read any Brady threads. It's your choice as well. Dude, this is the biggest topic in sports right now, and there would be plenty of posts about it no matter what the team. It so happens that Brady is involved.
I like Brady a lot. I think he got a raw deal by Lloyd his senior year. But the man cheated and got caught. Simple as that.
If Peyton accused/suspended because of this, the reaction on this site would be a complete 180. People may not say the NFL got it right, but there would be more jokes than ANGAR about injustice.
He was "generally aware" that the Patriots staff "probably" deflated the balls. Still waiting on this evidence that Brady cheated.
The evidence reported is circumstantial, but he also refused to cooperate with the investigation. That says a lot about him and what he did.
All he did to not cooperate was that he didn't give over his cell phone. He did a full interview for Wells, and he has every right not to give over his cell phone with personal information on it.
"Not true"?? You just indicated that what I said was true. He did not cooperate with the investigation, which requested access to both his cell phone records and emails related to the matter. He refused. A man of character who is innocent runs such emails, texts and phone logs by his lawyer and then turns them over, filtering out the stuff they don't need to see and he doesn't want them to see. He did not cooperate with the investigation and that is why they came down hard on him.
Tom Brady and every other NFL player signed on, through the CBA, to the rules of the game, which basically allow Goodell to play little short pants dictator on behalf of the most powerful ownership group in sports. He's not resisiting out of principle, he's resisting because .... well, since he hasn't stated why he's not cooperating, I'll just jump to the conclusion that he's probably guilty of breaking the rules.
And he's not alone - his owner refused to make available to the investigation the supposed "deflator".
___
Edit: by the way, I think Tom Brady is a fantastic football player. I haven't formed a judgement about him as a man because I really haven't been compelled to, he leads a rather stable life out of the news compared to some of his colleagues. But this incident and the way he has handled it has changed that.
He refused to cooperate, which I took to mean that he didn't cooperate at all. Honest mistake. He didn't fully cooperate, and he has no obligation to turn over his private cell phone. You are jumping to a lot of conclusions that because he respects his own privacy, that he's guilty. I'd do the exact same thing in his shoes and I have absolutely nothing to hide on my cell phone.
...Wells at least said he asked Brady and his attorneys to pull only those texts/emails related to the investigation. If true, there was no chance of Wells & Co. running into family photos, etc. They would never have been in possession of Brady's phone.
The investigator made the offer in writing, it's out there and confirmed by Brady's agent. Your wife is a divorce attorney.
The league's policy on preserving the integrity of the game states:
Failure to cooperate in an investigation shall be considered conduct detrimental to the League and will subject the offending club and responsible individual(s) to appropriate discipline.
And i believe this will be the issue that gets the suspension lifted.
The NFL with all its rules, does not have actual supeona power (or else they would have used it to get the phone). There is no clause that says you have to allow the NFL into your personal devices in order to collect incriminating evidence (if it exists) from you.
This entire case is based on circumstantial evidence and hear say, and the misbelief that Brady is supposed to just hand over access to his personal life beyond his job to his employer for perusal.
I didn't say the NFL had subpoena powers. I said they asked for his phone information related to the case, and he refused. So they came down hard on him. An innocent man doesn't refuse to at least run it through his attorney and offer something to the investigator, especially since he's not exactly making a stand on principle. He refused for the same reason Kraft refused to make one of his employees available to talk to the investigators.
always refuse to just hand over their personal artifacts when being investigated.
Only idiots hand over "evidence" to people investigatiing them for wrong doing, whether you are innocent or guilty. If the cops borught you in for questioning for a murder you had no part in, would you willingly answer their questions, or lawyer up first?
People get rail roaded for crimes they didnt commit all the time in this country.
The fact that you think anything less than absolute cooperation at all times proves your guilt is just an indication of how broke the justice system is in this country. Burden of proving guilt is on the accuser, not the accused.
the NFL can do anything they want within their rules and guidlines. playing in the NFL is not a constitutional protected right.
agreement. This will be fought by the Players Association and most likely won.
Beyond collusion to black ball Brady from the league, which im pretty sure the Patriots are not gonna go along with, there is really nothing that will be done.
that someone would doctor the balls without him knowing? The bat boy or clubhouse staff would not scuff a baseball or put pine tar on it if the pitcher did not want it. I didn't need the texts from the two guys they interviewed, and took text messages from, to know that was the case. Like I said. He got caught. Move on.
hence not a lot evidence. but its coming, because the equipment manager lost his job because of this. you know his book is right around the corner unless tom&gisele compenste him.
in which case I feel sorry for you. I don't know any other explanation for your overly-harsh criticism of TB. I don't think anyone here believes he's perfect either. Maybe you're taking the Brady-loving comments too seriously too. In any case, many people on this blog really do want to see ex-Michigan athletes do well. Evidently, you don't.
I personally don't care for him. He had a strong dislike for Lloyd Carr (justifiably so), so he didn't seem to support the program for the longest time. He left his pregnant actress girlfriend for a supermodel. He is a winner, but he's extremely smug. Now this. Plus the Patriots win all the time, so that doesn't help any.
I can't take anything away from him on the field; he's the best quarterback of all time.
I'm a Lions fan, so everyone already feels bad for me.
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Not a Jets fan. Are you a Patriots fan?
Even if Brady admitted this and pled guilty, and even of this was any other QB in the NFL, I would say excatly the same thing. This is a seriously minor nothing rule breaking akin to jaywalking, and part of a centuries long tradition of trying to get an edge in sports. This offense is nothing, and in fact way less than things like corking a bat or throwing a spitter or stealing a sign in baseball. And when those things happen in baseball, they fine them and move on. they don't call out the morality police to agonize over "the children."
The hockey equivalent is a two minute minor, which teams are discouraged from trying to challenge because they're penalized if they're wrong.
I don't get why there's a range in the first place. If Brady wants to throw a ball resembling an overcooked steak and Rodgers wants the seams busting, who cares?
Yeah, it's not like he is currenlty active within the M football community!
But oh well, a fool and his money...
The fan protest at the NFL HQ was done by a humor website BarstoolSports.com. David Portnoy the owner of the site and leader of that protest is actually a Michigan Grad.
Really makes me wonder what they're thinking . . . I mean, I love sports too much. Follow too many games. But I've got limits. I guess this is where fans are really "fanatics." It makes me think of the crazies in Columbus who dress up with red and silver paint and garlands of buckeyes and jerseys and all. I know Michigan has some of these guys too. But somehow, once you're past 30 or 40 or 50, it seems crazy to do some of this stuff. Including donating to pay the fine. To each his own.
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