FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Some of the notable news items and sound bites from NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith’s appearance on ESPN’s Outside the Lines on Friday:

NFL hasn’t responded yet to request. Smith said the union hasn’t heard from the NFL about the NFLPA's request to have commissioner Roger Goodell step aside as arbitrator of Tom Brady’s appeal. If the union hasn’t heard by the end of next week, Smith said, “we’ll certainly increase the volume of the request.”

His view of the Wells report. Asked an adjective to describe his view of the Wells report, Smith said, “I think that the Wells report delivered exactly what the client wanted.” Smith then noted he’s been a lawyer for some time and he thought it was interesting to compare the language of the report to others -- such as the Bountygate case with the Saints. “The first thing that jumps out at you out of that report is how negotiated the language is,” Smith said. “When it comes to the rights of our players, every player deserves a process that is fair, every player deserves a finding that is clear, every player deserves an investigation that is thorough. ... You can’t really have credibility just because you slap the word independent on a piece of paper.”

What he’d like to ask Goodell. When asked by host Bob Ley what he’d like to ask Goodell, Smith touched on “process, precedent, how the league conducted this investigation and issues that always relate to the magnitude of the punishment imposed against other instances where people have either been punished or not punished.”