No surprise, everybody saw it coming.
The judge threw out the NFL's suspension of Tom Brady today.
It's pretty clear that any suspension under the NFL is probably illegal at this point, given the structure of how the situation is dealt with. I'm not sure there's been a meaningful non-drug suspension which could be upheld, especially under the "brand of industrial justice" Goodell has done.
It's open fucking season. As of right now, there is no personal-conduct policy, player-safety policy, or any other policy which can stand as presently applied.
And this is all what Goodell wants. You've already seen some of the side-effects this preseason, as there have been several open incidents on the field (both in practice and in the preseason games) to indicate that we are heading to a very dark place this season, with the nation absolutely screaming for blood -- and some of them not caring which set of laundry actually provides them with it!
Goodell can now continue the kabuki theater of appealing the suspension up the line and all that crap. (The league will appeal this ruling.) At the end of the day, I expect he will lose for numerous Constitutional reasons, since football players are important enough that they are "more people" than the rest of us, but that's another rant for another day.
Eventually, there will be two major side-effects of this.
First, Goodell can finally come on to television at some point and tell America that there is now no feasible way he can control the criminal element of the NFL, on and off the field. They will now have effective open license to do whatever they really want to do and all that fucking son of a bitch will be able to tell us is that these are bad men doing bad things to bad men.
But don't celebrate, New England, because there is a very ominous black cloud to all this.
The second side-effect is now Goodell can order -- privately -- open season on Tom Brady.
If there's one thing that the NFL has shown over the last 30 years, you do not fuck with the NFL without paying for it through the nose. We are now going to find out just how far that extends.
If the NFL can intimidate Sony, then what's to say a dial here and a twiddle there doesn't result in more "desired results"?
In the four games Brady is now cleared to play, they play Pittsburgh, at Buffalo, Jacksonville, at Dallas -- and, oh by the way, Game 5 is at Indianapolis.
I'm predicting that, by the end of Week 6 (since New England's bye week is Week 4), Tom Brady will be crippled by one or more cheap shots and his season will be over -- and probably his career as well.
If this prediction is wrong, so be it. It is not the character of the NFL to let a defeat of this level (even if it is by design) go "unpunished".
And if this prediction is wrong, you now have to make New England the favorites in the AFC again. By a WIDE margin.
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