https://twitter.com/TheAthletic/status/1490774867121168391
Whuh?
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Thatâs the clearest photo of him Iâve seen.
I think he has overtaken former poster jmakin #1 spot for the part black guys who can pass for white.
Actually reminds me of a dude I knew in IRL who was 1/2 black. Didnât look nearly as white as this coach, but it was tough to spot unless it was mentioned.
Anyway, this guy was extremely active in all sorts of black professional organizations. It was a real passion of his and he did devote a lot of time to them (likely way out of proportion to any benefits he received). I always wondered if that sort of stuff was tough for him because he looked so white. I didnât know him well enough to actually ask.
Rachel Dolezal should throw her name into the hat about now.
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Wasnât Florio throwing gas on the fire when this was all going down?
Really hate it when I canât ask my buddy (who we call âthe deflatorâ) to deflate some footballs for me without being accused of deflating footballs and having to throw my phone in a river
Iâd be shocked if he wasnât
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I think Florio ended up being a âgood guyâ - when Mortensenâs report came out with the fake data, even I (major Patriots homer) was like âWell, clearly they did something wrong, it canât have been the weather to cause a drop that big.â I donât know if I posted that on 2+2 but I did elsewhere. Iâm sure Florio was convicting the Patriots at that point, too. I honestly donât blame anybody for that initial reaction - hopefully I learned not to trust initial reports but Iâm sure Iâm still terrible.
Once the actual data came out, Florio swung around and realized that it was a screw job, that weather completely explained the drops. He wrote a lot about how awful the NFL handled the situation - maybe not as well as Sally Jenkins or Dan Wetzel but he did a good job.
Not everybody is capable of changing opinion with new data like that - thatâs why it was so insane that the NFL kept refusing to correct Mortensenâs report. It completely poisoned the well of public opinion for months. We probably have people on here who think the Patriots balls were all 2 psi under. The Patriots legal team kept pleading with the NFL to publicly correct Mortensenâs report but they didnât do it for months. There was some other report about the Patriots trying to get a kicking ball put into the same game that ESPN released â4 league sourcesâ that ended up being wrong, too - it ended up being league official trying to put the Kicking ball into regular play - took months to correct that one, too.
I digress - Florio became a good guy once the data got out there.
Itâs possible both that the Patriots were guilty and the data was crap. The data doesnât say that the deflating didnât happen, it just doesnât prove it did.
The circumstantial evidence (e.g. texts, Brady tossing his phone) is what convinces me the Patriots are guilty - but that wasnât as easy to sell as using the data. If the Patriots were innocent, they sure acted like a guilty party.
Even if Brady routinely destroyed his old phones, it seems amazing coincidence that he ordered it destroyed right before he was going to have to turn it over (and it was only 4 months old). I realize that the NFL investigation was not a court of law, but destroying the phone alone would cause you to lose any civil lawsuit.
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Man, I donât know what to tell you - the NFLâs own data tells us that there was no deflation.
Brady was never going to have to turn over his cell phone - Ted Wells (of the Wells Report) repeatedly told him he could keep it. Source: Ted Wells.
He was asked to turn over the relevant text messages on his phone but told he could keep the actual phone. I feel youâre making a technical distinction that doesnât affect the fact that itâs fishy as hell to destroy the phone in such a way that the texts couldnât be produced - right after the league asked for them.
No - Iâm pointing out that just like the Mortensen report, youâve fallen for the NFLâs misinformation campaign. You parroted the âBrady destroyed his cell phone before he had to turn it overâ garbage thatâs completely false.
Conspiracy theorists can dig into this all they want, just the like Q-Anon folks. But the end result wonât change - the NFLâs own data shows the Patriots balls werenât deflated. Thereâs no basement under Comet Ping Pong Pizza.
Brady must have had some super crappy lawyers then, since the Second Circuit laughed at his argument about why he destroyed his phone and why it was relevant to the NFLâs decision to suspend him. The Court indicated that Goodell could have suspended Brady for that action alone.
There is literally no relevant distinction between âBrady destroyed his cell phone before he had to turn it overâ and âBrady destroyed his cell phone before he had to turn over the text messages on the cell phone.â Itâs not like the league cared about the phone itself, only the information on it.
Judge Barrington Parker wondered why Brady would destroy his cell phone.
âWhy couldnât the commissioner suspend Brady for that conduct alone?â Parker said, via the Providence Journal . âYou have one of the most celebrated players performing in that fashion? Anybody within 100 yards of this proceeding knew that would raise the stakes.â
When Kessler explained that Brady routinely destroyed his phones, Parker seemed unimpressed, saying that it âmade no sense whatsoever.â
This makes Brady more guilty than ever to me.
That was the funniest part of the whole thing to me at the time, that Brady regularly destroyed his cell phones? Give me a fucking break.
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Yeah man - thatâs what the court case came down to - that Goodell can suspend any player for basically any reason under the CBA. The facts of the lack of air deflation didnât matter - the court case all came down to what is allowed for player punishment under the CBA. Brady lost on that and that alone.
Again - youâre making things up, falling for the NFLâs misinformation campaign. Brady never had to turn over anything to Ted Wells. Source: Ted Wells. He had the option, decided not to. Itâs not evidence of anything. Bad lawyer advice? Maybe!
The only actual evidence we have is the air pressure readings from the balls, which show that no deflation took place. The rest is grasping at straws. I get it, you want there to be a basement under Comet Ping Pong, youâre desperate for there to be a basement under Comet Ping Pong - several emails you can maybe glance at sideways to see that thereâs a basement under Comet Ping Pong.
Once you see that you see that there isnât a basement, all the other âcircumstantialâ evidence is meaningless.
His statement is that his phone was broken, he replaced it, and it was then destroyed. I donât know, that seems pretty reasonable for a famous dude. I destroy all hard drives and phones from my work, thatâs pretty standard.
I also disagree with yesterdays narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.
- Ted Wells tells Brady he will not have to turn over his phone.
- Brady gets rid of phone.
Oh my god! Why did you get rid of your phone?!? Why is John Podesta talking about Cheese Pizza? You canât explain that!
I promise Iâm done. It just speaks to how effective the NFLâs leak of incorrect data was that these guys are still arguing the same incorrect talking points years later. If the NFL releases the actual readings even a week after the game, none of this happens. Maybe the Patriots draft Chris Jones with the stolen draft pick, and win another 2 Super Bowls (probably not, I bet they just take Cyrus Jones even earlier).
For more current matters: Lovie Smith should be contractually obligated to keep that beard next season. Worth at least a win by itself.
He indicated he did this many times. Itâs just weird.