New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was denied in his petition to appeal his suspension to the Second Circuit, which means that Brady is expected to miss the first four games of the 2016 season.
This has caused the NFL Network to go off the deep end as the panel on NFL HQ spouted some ridiculous notions of what Brady should do next.
“I have to be honest, and I understand Tom feeling personally, his legacy and feeling that he didn’t do anything wrong personally, and I believe that personally he didn’t o anything wrong, but beyond that this to me is much bigger than that,” former offensive lineman Jamie Dukes said. “I mean, it’s like you’re tone deaf. There’s some serious stuff that’s going on right now in this country across the country. It would, to me, it would appear very self-serving for you to, you know, want to put something like this ahead of what is going on.
“Now some people don’t care, but I just think it’s just...you know, when somebody dies big, we get an e-mail for everybody stop tweeting, because we’re getting that e-mail to stop tweeting [now] because you got to understand there are bigger things at play here than things related to football.”
Dukes is saying that even though Brady is innocent, he should step down from challenging the league because there are more macro happenings in the country, including the continued use of unnecessary force by select police officers in black communities and the recent shootings of five police officers in Dallas.
“Being from Dallas, as I am, I can tell you that I agree with Jamie and I am speaking about specifically what happened in Dallas last week,” Elliott Harrison said. “We just commemorated five officers who lost their lives in duty and I just, for me, I feel the way you do, Jamie. I think you have to know what’s going on in the country. I certainly know what’s going on in my home town. And, yes, if I were Tom Brady, which I’m not, which I’m not, I would take a step back and say hey, is this really something I need to be doing right now?”
I’m going to jump in and say that the violence that has been perpetrated is tragic and inexcusable and needs to stop. The world needs more love and inclusion.
The recent events also have literally nothing to do with whether or not Brady should pursue his appeal- and Brady’s appeal has had absolutely nothing to do with football since commissioner Roger Goodell decided to bastardize the expectations of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to cover up his own mistakes.
The appeal is about whether or not collectively agreed upon arbitrators have the vast discretion to interpret CBAs however they see fit, and whether or not the arbitrator has to act as a neutral party when making a decision. It is not about the air pressure of a football and the NFL’s denial of basic science.
This ruling affects the interpretation of labor laws throughout the Second Circuit and Brady has the backing of some of the largest labor unions in the country. Trying to say Brady should take the suspension for the better of the country is an absolutely asinine thing to say and misses the purpose of the appeal.
“After this news, it’s just a natural reaction to be defensive,” former defensive tackle Chris Canty said. “I think he’s just got to understand the landscape of where we are as a country, where our game is at, and the importance of it, and what it means to people. You know we’re trying to bring people together, we’re trying to heal as a country, and this game goes a long ways in being able to do it.
“I think Tom Brady needs to go ahead and take the suspension on the chin, he restructured the contract in the offseason so he’s not going to take the big loss that he would typically pay. There’s not the huge fine for missing the first four games. So I think you move forward with this, and we start the narrative of the 2016 New England Patriots.”
Brady is defensive because he’s sworn his innocence since day one and there has been no proof that anything happened in the first place. The “landscape of where we are as a country”- where innocent people are being hurt and killed on a daily basis in ways that should be preventable, through no fault of their own- shouldn’t preclude Brady from pursuing his innocence, just because the charges against Brady are clearly less important and vital to the health of our country and planet.
Brady has 90 days to file another petition with the United States Supreme Court, although the odds of the court hearing his appeal are pretty much zero.