NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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ajax18
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NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

Post by ajax18 »

Not that I watch the NFL anymore, but I found this article pretty interesting. Perhaps Icarus would care to chance flying to high and getting burned by these facts? No, I think not.
How does the NFL run a 10-month investigation into the Washington Football Team that concludes “the culture of the club was very toxic” ... yet, essentially, the only individual who has faced any public backlash or consequence is Jon Gruden, who never even worked there?

Well, it’s the NFL, that’s how.

Gruden resigned as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday after a series of leaked emails showed him using racist tropes, anti-gay slurs and misogynistic opinions. He was writing to Bruce Allen, Washington’s president at the time.

Even if you cheered Gruden’s resignation, the fact the NFL went through some 650,000 emails and he is the only person to have his communications leak has to rank as an astounding, if not troubling, coincidence. Of course, in some of those emails he blasted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, including with the use of ugly slurs.

The NFL denied to Pro Football Talk on Tuesday that it was behind the leaks to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Hey, anything is possible, but the league office has zero credibility on the subject. If past actions are considered, then this has the look of something directly out of the NFL playbook.

Consider 2015’s Deflategate, where the NFL was accused of not just leaking stories that cast New England quarterback Tom Brady in a negative light, but of leaking stories that turned out to be demonstrably false and then, even when called on it by an outraged Patriots franchise, refusing to correct the made-up narrative.

The NFL wanted the Pats back then – likely because it jumped to a conclusion of cheating before understanding the science of Ideal Gas Law. The league was stung at the idea New England was supposedly bending the rules so soon after the so-called “SpyGate” scandal.

It started the day after the 2015 AFC championship game when Indianapolis contested the Patriots' footballs. ESPN, citing a “league source,” reported that 11 of the 12 footballs were two pounds or more under the 12.5 PSI minimum.

In fact, none of them were. Not a single one. The NFL knew it. The league had the measurements from the referees. Yet the NFL didn’t correct the report even as it defined Brady as a cheater. It’s a reputation that persists to this day.

The Patriots demanded the league correct the inaccurate story and investigate who leaked it. Goodell’s office simply stated they didn’t believe they were the source of the leak, but even so, it just let the falsehood sit out there.

So the NFL either purposefully created a fake story that was prejudicial to Brady, or purposefully let a fake story that was prejudicial to Brady linger.

It’s not clear which would be worse. Most likely, it did both.

“You [should] already have released today a statement to the effect of, [‘]ESPN, you’ve got it wrong. You do not have full information, you are irresponsibly reporting information that is untrue,’” Patriots attorney Robyn Glasser wrote to Jeff Pash, the general counsel for the NFL. “... ‘Furthermore, as you now know ... your original story that 11 of 12 balls were 2 pounds below the minimum allowable PSI was just blatantly wrong. We know that because we have the information and here it is.’”

Pash did no such thing. The story churned and churned, amplified by the Patriots returning to, and winning, another Super Bowl.

“I cannot comprehend how withholding the range of PSIs measured in the game is beneficial to the NFL or the Patriots,” Patriots vice president Stacey James wrote the league in an email weeks later. “I can only assume, based on the scientific evidence that has been provided to us by multiple independent scientists, that the PSI numbers will be within the scientific range.

“If we had been provided this data within days of the original report, we could have changed the narrative of this story before it led all national news and the damage was done,” James continued.

The league didn’t care. Months later, the inflation levels of the footballs were made public in the Wells Report. Immediately, independent scientists and professors seized the data (which was sloppily measured in the first place) to show the balls were largely within the guidelines of expected science.

“The NFL didn’t just build a murder case when there was no body, there wasn’t even a missing person,” said Julie Marron, who directed the documentary “Four Games in Fall” which decimated the NFL’s case.

As the science evaporated, not coincidentally, a new detail was soon leaked to ESPN: Tom Brady had destroyed his cell phone.

It effectively painted Brady as someone with something to hide, even though it was not relevant to the case – the footballs weren’t deflated, so nothing mattered. Besides, he had been given permission by the league to destroy his phone after providing the information on it.

Brady, after all, feared that anything on his phone might get leaked out. Which, of course, was true – a number of personal emails and texts on all sorts of non-Deflategate topics became public.

Oh well. The destroyed-cell-phone-leak became a hot story. Even as the facts were proving Brady innocent and the NFL guilty, the reverse became the storyline.

It’s far easier to overwhelm the public with emotion than science. One is great talk show fodder. The other is science.

The NFL wasn’t done. Later, when interview transcripts became unexpectedly public in court filings, it was proven the league had mischaracterized Brady's testimony in a way to further damage him. It also was shown to have provided bogus information to the Patriots in the early days of the scandal, which limited the team’s initial response.

And the following season, the league bailed after a few weeks on a promised scientific study of how air temperature impacts PSI levels. Every scientist on earth guaranteed it would prove Ideal Gas Law is a real thing ... if it was ever completed.

This is what the NFL did. And maybe still does.

So the league can say it had nothing to do with the downfall of Gruden – and the protection of everyone else. Maybe it's just a big coincidence.

But why would anyone believe them?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/th ... d=msedgntp
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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I’d like to see all the 650,000 emails leaked to reporters. I’m primarily interested in the WFT with regard to their operations, and whether or not they got away from the good ol’ boy way of doing things. I suspect the NFL won’t want to take down a franchise that has so much history, but we’ll see - Dan Snyder is already in thin ice. Bottom line is if the Carolina Panthers’ owner was forced out of the league for his comments, I don’t see Dan Snyder surviving this. Hopefully, the NFLPA keeps at this because it makes for great fodder. Whatever the case may be, I love football and I want to see the game survive well into the future, so if they can grow the sport by growing the fan base away from internal gatekeepers I’m all for it.

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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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ajax18 wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:16 pm
Not that I watch the NFL anymore, but I found this article pretty interesting. Perhaps Icarus would care to chance flying to high and getting burned by these facts? No, I think not.

Getting burned how? You're just proving the point always being made about you. That you only start posts that in some way relate to race. Here you cannot even bring yourself to condemn the racist comments by Gruden. Instead you're trying to spin this in some convoluted way that makes you feel like it benefits the Right in some weird way.

And you're the only "doctor" I know who cannot differentiate between to and "too."
Last edited by Alf'Omega on Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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Alf'Omega wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:03 pm
ajax18 wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:16 pm
Not that I watch the NFL anymore, but I found this article pretty interesting. Perhaps Icarus would care to chance flying to high and getting burned by these facts? No, I think not.

Getting burned how? You're just proving the point always being made about you. That you only start posts that in some way relate to race. Here you cannot even bring yourself to condemn the racist comments by Gruden. Instead you're trying to spin this in some convoluted way that makes you feel like it benefits the Right in some weird way.

And you're the only "doctor" I know who cannot differentiate between to and "too."
I was referring to the original Icarus who got himself killed by flying to close to the sun and melting his wings.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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I’d like to see all the 650,000 emails leaked to reporters. I’m primarily interested in the WFT with regard to their operations, and whether or not they got away from the good ol’ boy way of doing things. I suspect the NFL won’t want to take down a franchise that has so much history, but we’ll see - Dan Snyder is already in thin ice.
I grew up a Redskins fan. While I was annoyed at the league getting rid of their mascot, the truth is that the Redskins have been terrible ever since Dan Snyder brought the franchise. Dan Snyder is the worst owner in NFL history and he knows it.

I am interested to know your opinion on the NFL's conduct during Deflate gate. Do you see Tom Brady as a cheater who tried to conceal evidence of by destroying his cell phone? Was what Brady did worse than Plexico Burress or Ray Lewis?

Bottom line is if the Carolina Panthers’ owner was forced out of the league for his comments, I don’t see Dan Snyder surviving this. Hopefully, the NFLPA keeps at this because it makes for great fodder. Whatever the case may be, I love football and I want to see the game survive well into the future, so if they can grow the sport by growing the fan base away from internal gatekeepers I’m all for it.

- Doc
'

It's a crazy world we live in. Ray Lewis kills people and remains in the league. At least 10 different players are facing criminal charges such as domestic violence and DUI but they get to keep their jobs and their fat contracts. But if a coach says a black guy has lips as big as michellin tires 10 years ago in a private email that the league gets access to and leaks, he must resign.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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It seems to me that there are two issues at play: Whether or not the NFL has been selective in exposure and exoneration, and whether or not Gruden has exhibited a pattern of racist and homophobic behavior.

While I don't know the particular ins and outs of this investigation, investigators tend to look where they are told to look. It certainly seems suspect that Gruden was the only person they found. I share your skepticism.

Since this story broke I've thought a lot about it. Start with the great quote about Robert E. Lee:
Stephen Vincent Benét wrote:And kept his heart a secret to the end
From all the picklocks of biographers.
I think we live in an age where people are careless with the consideration they give their opinions. An impulsive thought is much easier to transmit to the world with twitchy thumbs on a cell phone than with a pen and quill on parchment. In the Internet Age, Gruden's protestation that he doesn't have a racist bone in his body is easy to contest. The age of instant messaging makes lock-picking an easy task for both biographers and investigation committees.

The more you communicate, the more you expose who you are. More and more people are exposing themselves because words typed on the internet are part of a global community since the Wayback machine. People need to start thinking of the words they type as a the tattoo that defines the contours of your body on the internet.

I thought the Raiders overpaid for Gruden's services, he is nevertheless a competent coach as far as XXs and OOs. But allowing Gruden to stay on at the head of the team would be the equivalent of dismissing his comments as locker room talk. People in positions of authority transmit more than just XXs and OOs.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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The NFL also set black players at a lower intelligence level than white players when testing the long term effects of concussions sustained playing football.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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MeDotOrg wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:25 pm
It seems to me that there are two issues at play: Whether or not the NFL has been selective in exposure and exoneration, and whether or not Gruden has exhibited a pattern of racist and homophobic behavior.

While I don't know the particular ins and outs of this investigation, investigators tend to look where they are told to look. It certainly seems suspect that Gruden was the only person they found. I share your skepticism.

Since this story broke I've thought a lot about it. Start with the great quote about Robert E. Lee:
Stephen Vincent Benét wrote:And kept his heart a secret to the end
From all the picklocks of biographers.
I think we live in an age where people are careless with the consideration they give their opinions. An impulsive thought is much easier to transmit to the world with twitchy thumbs on a cell phone than with a pen and quill on parchment. In the Internet Age, Gruden's protestation that he doesn't have a racist bone in his body is easy to contest. The age of instant messaging makes lock-picking an easy task for both biographers and investigation committees.

The more you communicate, the more you expose who you are. More and more people are exposing themselves because words typed on the internet are part of a global community since the Wayback machine. People need to start thinking of the words they type as a the tattoo that defines the contours of your body on the internet.

I thought the Raiders overpaid for Gruden's services, he is nevertheless a competent coach as far as XXs and OOs. But allowing Gruden to stay on at the head of the team would be the equivalent of dismissing his comments as locker room talk. People in positions of authority transmit more than just XXs and OOs.
Yeah I think most of what Gruden said in his emails was pretty bad but to say that's the worst thing any NFL player, coach, or owner has said is skewed thinking.

It's similar to a 15 year old girl getting forcibly sodomized by a boy in a dress given access to the girl's bathroom in a Loudon County Virginia public school and the only person arrested is her father for throwing a fit about it. But such is the moral compass in America today.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
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Re: NFL denies leak amid John Gruden scandal

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ajax18 wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:45 pm
The NFL also set black players at a lower intelligence level than white players when testing the long term effects of concussions sustained playing football.
So what? :roll: :roll: :roll: What relevance does John Gruden's or the NFL's behavior or misbehavior have to do with the discussions on this board, or generally either credit or discredit anyone or any group other than John Gruden or the NFL or anyone else directly or indirectly associated with them? Are you just grasping at any straw you can find to make some point that you think will somehow cast a bad light on whomever or whatever you disagree with?
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