Manfred had said it gave the players immunity so they would feel free to speak the truth to his committee. As for the players saying they thought it was wrong and would have stopped if Hinch had told them to - If you know something's wrong or illegal, why are you doing it??? Hinch destroyed two monitors in the runway - that should have told them the manager didn't approve of the cheating but also that he was either weak or too scared to actually say "STOP!!!"
The players' association is choosing wrong over right by protecting the players' who were benefitting form the electornic sign stealing and doing nothing for the players who were harmed by the cheaters.
As for immunity - consider that foreign ambassadors, etc receive diplomatic immunity but if found to be criminals either their home country can waive the immunity or in some instances they are recalled & then prosecuted at home. A criminal who receives immunity for testifying can be prosecuted (a) if they do not divulge everything about the crime or lie about it (b) committed other crimes. IF Manfred gave the players blanket immunity for all 3 years involved ('17, '18 & '19) then he is a jerk - but if the immunity was only for the '17 camera & video but not '19 whistling prosecute them fior that.
With all that has been revealed, the * still have that smug attitude and say they did nothing wrong. Can't even exonerate their owner, Crain was in & out of the locker room & on the field too often not to know something was going on. $5 mil was the maximum fine; Firing Hinch & the slimy GM does not exonerate his culpability any more than telling the players they need to apologize at ST.
Manfred failed in wrapping things up - he opened the pandora's box as players around the league are not in favor of the immunity.
