[News] Late For Work 5/8: Ravens Already Sign Maxx Williams, Over Half Of Draft Class

[BR News]

Projected offensive depth chart. 18 RFAs signed. Want Brady suspended vs. Steelers? Lucky to get Reed.

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[Ernie20]

I think the Deflategate answer is pretty simple. Brady should be fined because that is the current penalty, and it is his first cheating offense (outside of spiking Ed Reed). On the other hand Belichick should be suspended the season for having a second cheating scandel on his watch.

[rmcjacket23]

Agreed that we won't keep 10 lineman. I'd say more like 8. Reid is the obvious easiest cut... he wouldn't be the direct backup to Wagner or Monroe if they got hurt anyway, so he's basically the 4th tackle at best. Hurst and Urschel are safe to me, so that means Myers and Jensen compete for the 8th spot.

[Moderator 3]

And now another reported signing from Aaron Wilson:

@RavensInsider: Ravens signed fourth-round outside linebacker Za'Darius Smith to four-year, $2.763 million deal, per sources, including $483,124 bonus

[boldtown]

brady won't be suspended. maybe fined. remember he is the nfl's official golden boy.

[TheRavengers]

Even if Brady got suspended they'd probably cut it down after a while so he'd serve the least amount of time possible.

[Corvus]

So many great memories from Ed Reed, my favorite player of all time. I'll never forget being at that Panthers game in '10 and Ed making the interception and pulling his infamous lateral move to Landry and it actually working! The most exciting defensive player to ever watch in my 30 year old book. Enjoy your retirement Ed, we'll see you November 22 and then sometime in the Hall of Fame.

Suspend Brady against the Steelers and more. The bottom line from my perspective: if you are truly innocent of what you say are false accusations, you fully cooperate, give up pertinent information, and say "do your best because you're not going to find anything." That is what I would do in this scenario if I knew I was innocent, regardless of legal rights or being part of a union (and I actually am in a workers' union). But the Brady camp thinks they are floating down a river in Egypt, de(Nile). A lot of the material in the report IS circumstancial but those text conversations between the two equipment guys are pretty telling of what was going on. All Brady had to do in January was say "I do like my footballs a little less inflated and we talked about having them on the lower end of the PSI spectrum that is within the league's rules. If they didn't meet requirements, we didn't really know and it was certainly not intentional. I apologize for any mistake that was made, it was truly accidental and unintentional." It probably would have already been forgotten about if you had. But no, you went down the other path, caused an independent investigation that tends to support that you are being caught in some very questionable circumstances that make it clear you LIED to the "shield" and we all saw what happened with perceived lies to the league in previous investigations like the Bounty scandal. That alone should be worth the suspension.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Corvus

[ryananth]

let's move on...who here really cares about Brady and the Pats? Dennis Green said it best, "They are who we thought they were".

[Baltimore Bandwagon]

Heck ya, a Brady Bunch suspension still benefits the Ravens if he is not playing week one against the Squeelers. Ravens will win the division regardless of a Squeeler win in week one, and the Patriots take a hit on playoff seeding. The longer the suspension the greater the chance AFC Championship is played in BMore.

[757RavensFan]

Regarding deflategate, one overlooked aspect is, Brady impeded with the investigation by refusing to turn over his cell phone and email as requested.  This alone can justify a suspension by Goodell.

[Nick04263]

I personally want to see Tom suspended but more-so I want to see the implementation of 3rd party auditors assigned to New England Patriots compound for the year. I want impartial bodies at the facility, on the practice field, in the locker room(s), and in team meetings. Just sitting back and observing day to day operations, making sure all rules are being strictly followed. Is that excessive? Absolutely, but no organization has given so much probably cause for such measures. The 3rd party auditors should have a huge discovery incentive to bring any wrong doing to light in hopes to level the competitive playing field. I just don't know how anyone (outside of New England) can trust this organization is winning without the need of certain advantages.

[Nick04263]

Do I really care about deflated balls? No, unless this does help solve the low fumbling equation. The biggest issue I have is "What else are they doing?". If they feel breaking this rule is in-signification, what else is a laughing matter for them?

[reed20fence]

Anyone interested in a petition to get Ed Reed a statue at the Bank?

[budman]

Agreed that we won't keep 10 lineman. I'd say more like 8. Reid is the obvious easiest cut... he wouldn't be the direct backup to Wagner or Monroe if they got hurt anyway, so he's basically the 4th tackle at best. Hurst and Urschel are safe to me, so that means Myers and Jensen compete for the 8th spot.

Agree but didn't they just re-sign, extend , Reid before the draft? Wouldn't that be more dead money/

[rmcjacket23]

Agree but didn't they just re-sign, extend , Reid before the draft? Wouldn't that be more dead money/

1. He has a non-guaranteed contract.

2. Its only $745K, so we could certainly live with the hit even if we were to take it.

[rmcjacket23]

I personally want to see Tom suspended but more-so I want to see the implementation of 3rd party auditors assigned to New England Patriots compound for the year. I want impartial bodies at the facility, on the practice field, in the locker room(s), and in team meetings. Just sitting back and observing day to day operations, making sure all rules are being strictly followed. Is that excessive? Absolutely, but no organization has given so much probably cause for such measures. The 3rd party auditors should have a huge discovery incentive to bring any wrong doing to light in hopes to level the competitive playing field. I just don't know how anyone (outside of New England) can trust this organization is winning without the need of certain advantages.

Me personally, if I know that the league is spending money that I contributed to them, I wouldn't feel that great about them spending even part of that money on a third party to just sit around and watch the Patriots practice.

 

Frankly, I don't think any (including Spygate and Deflategate) of the Patriots transgressions warrants that kind of reaction.

[ellicottraven]

I hope Garrett and Ryan figure out a way to get us involved in Rookie camp that is coming up! They always do a great job getting fans a glimpse of the Ravens. I hope they can stream live or something like that from rookie minicamp as well! Can't wait to see the young studs in action!

[salamander]

Although I would not want to help the Steelers have an advantage which could give them another win in the division, I believe Brady being suspended is the bigger issue. Never thought I would see the day or circumstance that I would ever deviate an inch in the pleasure of any opportunity or factor to watch the Steelers go down, but I don't see any way around facing meaningful consequences to Brady that don't involve a much deserved suspension. Like other player disciplinary suspensions in the league, the punishment of suspension starts with the next game on the schedule. What lousy timing, huh? Steelers must be celebrating at their possible good fortune in all this mess.

[rmcjacket23]

Regarding deflategate, one overlooked aspect is, Brady impeded with the investigation by refusing to turn over his cell phone and email as requested.  This alone can justify a suspension by Goodell.

And its probably the very thing that would elevate it from a mere "slap on the wrist" to a suspension.

 

Never really understood the publics argument though that "if you have nothing to hide just turn your cellphone over". I mean at the end of the day, its really no different than a stranger just asking to look through your phone and email. Regardless of what I have on either, you're not just going to look through my stuff just because you want to.

 

You want to get a subpoena of some sort, then we can talk. But the "well he shouldn't have anything to hide" argument doesn't make any sense to me.

[roamingcharges]

I'm done with Brady; he can win another 3 Superbowls and I wouldn't give a donkey's a$$. At any rate, are those Flacco CDs in Sam Goody yet?

[DaRupp]

Anyone interested in a petition to get Ed Reed a statue at the Bank?

While I gave you a like, the only issue is if you put Reed out there, you gotta put Ogden too. How many statues can we fit?

[Nick04263]

Me personally, if I know that the league is spending money that I contributed to them, I wouldn't feel that great about them spending even part of that money on a third party to just sit around and watch the Patriots practice.

 

Frankly, I don't think any (including Spygate and Deflategate) of the Patriots transgressions warrants that kind of reaction.

 

I would be willing to bet this would be a drop in the bucket for them and a huge distraction for the Patriots. I just feel it would help send a larger message to any other team that they are actually being monitored. Most people it seems don't trust the organizations nor the head office to curtail cheating. They need to clean this up and not just sweep it under the rug like I feel they are about too.

[stixfix69]

Brady will probably get off with a fine, personally if they feel he was aware, during a AFCCG game he should be subject to at least a year ban....but that's not going to happen.....

[peppy57]

Here is a thought, suspend Brady from playing against the teams he cheated against, colts, ravens, any others they know about. I like it, or suspend Brady from playing in the play offs in 2016, man that would be awesome.

[MTRavensFan]

And its probably the very thing that would elevate it from a mere "slap on the wrist" to a suspension.

 

Never really understood the publics argument though that "if you have nothing to hide just turn your cellphone over". I mean at the end of the day, its really no different than a stranger just asking to look through your phone and email. Regardless of what I have on either, you're not just going to look through my stuff just because you want to.

 

You want to get a subpoena of some sort, then we can talk. But the "well he shouldn't have anything to hide" argument doesn't make any sense to me.

Because they sign a contract agreeing to the League's Code of Conduct, and giving them access to that sort of thing. No subpoena necessary.

 

I (and most hospital workers in this country) can be asked to turn over BLOOD for a drug test at any time by my employer, because I agreed to that upfront as a condition of my employment. I can refuse, but I'd also be fired.

 

Same thing with Br*dy. He refused. He should be fired. Not so hard to understand.

[RavensFanMania]

Even if Brady got suspended they'd probably cut it down after a while so he'd serve the least amount of time possible.

He should be fined and have to play with inflated balls to 16 psi

[rmcjacket23]

I would be willing to bet this would be a drop in the bucket for them and a huge distraction for the Patriots. I just feel it would help send a larger message to any other team that they are actually being monitored. Most people it seems don't trust the organizations nor the head office to curtail cheating. They need to clean this up and not just sweep it under the rug like I feel they are about too.

I don't even know what message it sends. All it would do is make sure the Patriots complied with rules for whatever short duration the independent party were there. They are already going to comply with rules in the interim after this fake scandal anyway, so again, not sure what the independent party would accomplish. At best, they'd likely find some extremely minor equipment or uniform violations, for which they would fine the Patriots, which means nothing to the public.

 

Its no different than the NFL instituting a mandatory domestic violence "seminar" for NFL personnel. That's for show. That's so that they can go to the public and say "hey look, we are trying". The seminar accomplishes less than nothing. If you need to have a seminar to tell people that beating other human beings is wrong, then the problem is above anything the NFL can fix anyway (which is exactly true). That's about how relevant bringing in an independent party to watch the Patriots would do. It makes the public feel like they are "trying", but other than that, it accomplishes nothing.

 

I don't even know what they need to clean up to be honest. Its the first time any of us are aware of this even remotely being perceived as a problem, and something tells me that catching one team deflating some footballs doesn't quite meet the "epidemic" standard. And no, Spygate doesn't meet the epidemic standard either. Even if you wanted to argue that its some sort of fake epidemic, its not even isolated to the Patriots. There's two other teams that have cheated this offseason alone... why shouldn't they have independent parties in their lockerrom as well? Because the Patriots got caught doing something else like a decade ago?

 

I don't buy it, nor do I think its even a remote possibility as the "punishment" is levied.

[RavensFanMania]

Here is a thought, suspend Brady from playing against the teams he cheated against, colts, ravens, any others they know about. I like it, or suspend Brady from playing in the play offs in 2016, man that would be awesome.

lol, that would be awesome

[bioLarzen]

I don't really see why anyone should decide whether Polamalu or Reed was better - after all they didn't play the same position. Polamalu was a SS and Ed was a FS - and both should easily be in the conversation for best ever in their respective positions.

Edited May 8, 2015 by bioLarzen

[bioLarzen]

Here is a thought, suspend Brady from playing against the teams he cheated against, colts, ravens, any others they know about. I like it, or suspend Brady from playing in the play offs in 2016, man that would be awesome.

 

Nice idea - but first, Brady might not even be arount the next time the patriots play the Ravens (next season that is), and also, the report does not indicate there's any kind of evidence aboput them using illegall balls against us. They might have - but there's no evidence. The only game where it is proven that there were fishy balls was the Colts game.

 

(Not as if that alone wasn't bad enough...)