Yep, here comes more crap from Tanguay on Brady-vs.-NFL. Friday’s brief filed by the National Football League provided a major blow to the Tom Brady camp.
The NFL made it clear that the Collective Bargaining Agreement does not require an independent investigation in league matters such as the Brady suspension. Now, you can be ticked off all you want that Roger Goodell said time and time again that Ted Wells was conducting an "independent" investigation. You know what? It doesn’t matter. What matters is what is written or not written in the CBA, and "independent" is not written before investigation. So scratch that argument off Brady’s list.
The only substantial argument that can be made by Brady’s attorney, Jeffrey Kessler and the NFLPA is that deflating a football is an equipment violation, like using stickum, as opposed to committing an act against the integrity of the game, like PED use.
While I remain convinced that Brady is guilty of orchestrating the deflation of the footballs, I also believe his crime falls in the equipment-violation category. It's not even close to PED use. However, the CBA doesn't give Judge Berman a lot of wiggle room to overturn Brady’s suspension on these grounds.
Goodell's argument? There's no precedent when it comes to the deflation of footballs and therefore -- as NFL judge, jury and executioner, powers granted him by the CBA -- he can choose whatever punishment he likes.
Of course, the Vikings were only fined for leaving footballs by sideline heaters against the Panthers, but is this as egregious as what Brady and his posse is accused of? No. But I also think that stickum use is worse than what Brady did, and the penalty for that is an $8,600 fine. Will Berman find Goodell unfair because he treated deflating footballs more damaging to the integrity of the game than stickum? I doubt it, because of the strength of the CBA gives Goodell the power to make that decision.
Brady will go down fighting. But the more we learn about the briefs handed into Judge Berman, the more it looks like Tom will go down.
