The ruling came down based on the process of the investigation and punishment.  As such, there were clear violations on the part of the league.  The league had supposedly independent investigators from the Wells team questioning Brady at the appeal on behalf of the NFL.  That's a clear conflict of interest.  And then the league itself didn't comply with the discovery process disclosing the information evidence and notes of the investigating team.  That's a huge red flag.  That's sloppy, egregious, and ultimately why the judge was able to find a legal basis when his appeal was based solely on the process.  

 

That being said, i think that if this judge had been able to review the MERITS OF THE CASE (guilt or innocence) he would have shredded the NFL even worse.  There is more circumstantial evidence to support the idea that the league intentionally framed Tom Brady than there is of the balls being deflated in the first place.  

 

From a legal perspective, any objective arbitrator could not take Walt Anderson's Testimony about his estimate of pre-game PSI as the basis for a FORENSIC INVESTIGATION.  That would be like a cop saying, i lost the cup but i think the fingerprint looked something like this...  That's just based on the simple fact that the PSI wasn't recorded.  Furthermore, when you tell us that you don't remember which gauge you used to measure PSI before the game that's a clear impeachment of your credibility on said subject and both parties would have been excused from the hearing.  

 

When it comes to the halftime measurement, the basis of the EXPONENT experiments was to use the Colts footballs as a control group.  That chain of evidence was contaminated.  They only measured for of them, and curiously when the first ball AVERAGED below the league mandated PSI they STOPPED MEASURING FOOTBALLS.  That's just ridiculous.  You would get laughed at.  To top it all off you have exponent saying that each football would experience relatively the same amount of slump in PSI but the raw data shows that the resulting PSI for the Colts balls and the pats balls were all over the place.  

 

So in the end, what you had was a botched investigation BOTCHED.  You had a contaminated chain of evidence, you had no system in place to ensure the integrity of the PSI and no scientific consultant to remind you that you should index measurements to surface temperature.  Basically they had no case.  The case they did make was through lying in the court of public opinion.  

 

And then you come out with this convoluted idea that you can use PED statutes to suspend someone for four games when the rule book clearly says 25k fine?  That's just insane.  PED testing is collectively bargained, objective, and administered by professionals in the arena of blood analysis.  It's not some part time ref saying i think your hgh level was this the last time you came in but i don't remember.  

 

I could go on for hours but its late.  Big picture, this was a smear job-plain and simple.  The league shouldn't even appeal it.  We have already wasted enough time on football PSI.  another year and tens of millions of dollars isn't going to help the situation at all.  I think that if the appeal hasn't been filed already that a few of the owners will get a hold of Goodell and finally get him to see reason.  

 

This wasn't about the shield.  This was about Goodell wanting to be Godell.  

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