Podcast 7-16-2016: May You Live in Interesting Times

In this episode, Vinny and I discuss HRC's emails, argue about Syria, talk about underinflated footballs, and the terrifying specter of a Trump presidency.

*NSFW

http://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-jv2ym-6133e3/download

*Music is brought to you by Bensound.com

Ballghazi: The Grand Finale (Pending Appeal)

www.bostonherald.com

 I'm beginning to think Roger Goodell might not be worth $40+ million he collects in salary.  From Yahoo Sports:

• In this case, the NFL argued that obstructing justice is a suspension-worthy offense. But Berman determined that the league acted improperly on two fronts. First, the league had never suspended a player for previously obstructing justice, and most notably only fined Favre for it. Second, the league never notified anyone that there was a change in the penalties for obstruction. Judge Berman determined that the NFL acted improperly when it failed to tell Brady or anyone else that this was the new norm.

• The NFL also determined that Brady's "general awareness" implicated him in the deflation of footballs. But Berman pointed out that this also appeared to be a completely new – and totally unannounced – standard as it related to players. He cited a 2009 incident in which a New York Jets employee was suspended for the use of improper kicking balls in a game against the Patriots. But in that same investigation, Feely was left completely unscathed despite being the player who used the footballs in question. In his own words, Feely told Judge Berman that he had "no culpability" whatsoever when it came to league actions.

 To recap:

The league launched a multi-million dollar investigation into the deflation of footballs; an offense that they had no procedure for investigating and no high school level knowledge of the ideal gas law.  The league then made a determination that Tom Brady was "generally aware" that the balls were deflated after leaking false information stating that 11 of the 12 footballs were 2 or more PSI below regulation and failing there after to correct the reporting in the media.  Goodell then suspended Brady for four games a punishment wildly out of line with any comparable offense, especially the $25,000 fine mandated in the rulebook for tampering with equipment. The appeal of the suspension was brought before Goodell and upheld. Big surprise.

The NFL filed suit beating the NFLPA to the punch to get the case heard in a more business friendly court meanwhile leaking selected information including Brady's emails he handed over to the league.  The judge then urged the sides to come to a settlement because he would either uphold the suspension or not, but there wouldn't be anything in between, strongly hinting that he didn't find the NFL's case compelling.

The NFL clearly misread...everything.  Judge Berman overturned the suspension and the football gods smiled down on New England, the Patriots, Brady, his four rings, millions of dollars, and supermodel wife.

Meanwhile, Goodell (after failing at this, Ray Rice's suspension, "Bountygate", the lockout, the ref strike, "Spygate", and probably a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting) returns to league headquarters where there is more than likely a mountain of cocaine being snorted by top league officials as they will jabber endlessly about what uniform violations are worthy of a lifelong ban or whether Jim Irsay can score some Xanax so they can finally fall asleep.


*I know this is not a particularly important story, but since it was heard in a court, it could potentially have an impact on other employees covered under collective bargaining.  If the suspension were upheld, it would basically be saying that any punishment is acceptable no matter how arbitrary or excessive, provided that the contract was vague enough.  That's a precedent I'd rather not have upheld.

ESPN: World Leader in Scumbags

Yesterday, ESPN reporter Adam Schefter published New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul's medical records, showing that the player had his finger amputated after a fireworks mishap.  Does anyone else have a problem with this?

Medical records are explicitly private and nothing in those records is remotely of public value despite Pierre Paul being a public figure.  The only value here is ESPN Schefter getting to a story first and a conclusion that we all would have known about anyway after we saw the dude with a missing finger.

This isn't disclosure of a secret government surveillance program or corporate malfeasance.  It is publishing records of something that someone should have 100% expectation of privacy.  If you can't trust your doctors to keep their mouth shut then whom can you trust?

I haven't heard anything from ESPN yet on the ethics of this and honestly, I don't really expect to.  They only care when you call Roger Goodell a liar, a statement that is unquestionably true.

*Edit:  I realize it probably was not a doctor who disclosed JPP's medical records.  I doubt a doctor would risk his career for something like that.

The Least Important Story That I Find Absolutely Infuriating

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am an unrepentant Patriots fan.  My bias is well documented.  Even taking this bias into consideration, if you believe that a four game suspension for playing with and "likely knew" about and was "generally aware" about slightly deflated below regulation PSI footballs, is somehow warranted, I want to thank you, because now I can disregard your opinion completely on all matters of consequence.

This story is not important.  Brady will still have millions of dollars and a supermodel wife and there are a billion greater injustices in the world, but this is complete bullshit.  The NFL is run by hypocritical billionaires and Roger Goodell changes his mind as the winds of public perception change.

It's not that I don't think Tom Brady cheated, I think by the ultra-high standard of "probably", "likely knew", and "generally aware" he probably did.  So what?  All teams break the rules.  Players on every team in the league use PEDs, teams routinely tamper with each others free agent signings, the entire league has engaged in collusion, every offensive line in the league holds every game, and up until a couple weeks ago the league didn't even pay taxes.

So I say fine.  You know what? If the rules are that important suspend Brady but hold the rest of the league to the same standard.  Jerry Rice admitted to applying stick-um illegally to his gloves throughout his career in order to catch passes better.  As of right now, Rice should have to surrender his records and the 49ers should have to surrender their Super Bowl victories.  Ben Rothlesberger "likely knew" that he sexually assaulted at least two women and was "generally aware" that it was wrong.  Kick Rapistberger out of the league and remove two titles from the Steelers.  In fact, remove all Terry Bradshaw's titles too, he admitted to steroid use and implicated his teammates in it as well.  Ray Lewis covered up a murder, please Baltimore, return your trophies.  The Colts and Falcons pumped noise into their stadiums they should lose their stadiums for a season.  The list goes on.

Given the history of Goodell dishing out punishment I wouldn't be surprised if much of it is overturned on appeal.  I say give Brady a $25k fine and be done with it, but instead the NFL continues to conduct itself as if it strives for the level of integrity of professional wrestling.  If the Patriots alleged cheating was so terrible, then maybe the NFL should return all the revenue from those games.  That's dirty money and the league should have no part in it.

Hoarders: Chip Kelly

Chip Kelly needs an intervention, he has a problem hoarding bad quarterbacks. Currently on the Eagles roster, Kelly has 4 QBs with NFL experience:  Matt Barclay, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, and Tim Tebow.  Add all these QBs together and you get a whopping 57% completion percentage, 158 touchdowns, 131 interceptions, and 55 fumbles.   Out of this group the best QB by far is Bradford completing 59% of his passes and actually scoring more touchdowns than turnovers.  Unfortunately, Bradford has only been able to stay healthy about 75% of the time and if there is one thing that usually doesn't get better with age in the NFL, it's injuries.

That Was Awesome!

Malcolm Butler intercepts the Russell Wilson pass to win the game. Source:  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/malcolm-butler-lauded-as-super-769069?amp

 What a game! I'm obviously biased, but that was the most exciting Super Bowl I can remember.  These were clearly the best two teams in the league and they delivered for 60 minutes. I have the following thoughts:

Ballghazi: I've Had Enough

Source:Wikimedia

 As a fan of the sport of American Football, I find the weeks prior to the Super Bowl rather annoying.  It's the time of year where people who've never watched, played, or even touched a football in their lives, manage to watch about 10 minutes of football in between chicken wings and form an opinion.  Some years I'm lucky enough to have my team in the Super Bowl and then I can enjoy the buildup to the big game.  As a fan of the New England Patriots, I've been more fortunate than most as this will be the eighth time in my life that the Patriots will have appeared in a Super Bowl (Eight! Suck it other teams).  But alas, after a thorough ass-beating of the Colts, a scandal of a most heinous nature broke involving footballs below regulation PSI, sullying my beloved Patriots' good name.

DeflateGate: Stop Breakin' My Balls

Source:  Gronk's Twitter

The New England Patriots are headed to another Super Bowl which means one thing, more allegations of New England cheating.  The allegations this time focus on the inflation or rather, the deflation of the Patriot's balls.