New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will have to serve his four-game Deflategate suspension after all, following an appeals court ruling that reinstates his original ban.
The second US circuit court of appeals in New York announced its decision on Monday, and the ruling could bring to a close a scandal that led to months of disagreement over air pressure, psi gauges – and the reputation of one of the NFL’s top players.
“We hold that the commissioner properly exercised his broad discretion under the collective bargaining agreement, and that his procedural rulings were properly grounded in that agreement and did not deprive Brady of fundamental fairness,” the three-judge panel wrote.
Brady was suspended for four games for his role in the ball-tampering controversy surrounding the Patriots’ 45-7 victory over the Colts in the 2015 AFC Championship game, but his ban was overturned after the Patriots appealed. Brady played the entire 2015 season as the Pats went to the championship game again before losing to Denver.
But Brady will now have to sit out four games of the new season. The Pats open against the Cardinals, and then play the Dolphins, the Texans and the Bills. If Brady and the team decide not to appeal the decision, Brady would be missing for a quarter of the regular-season.
The three-judge panel sided 2-1 with the NFL, who brought appeal, and said Brady was treated fairly. But chief judge Robert Katzmann dissented.
“I am troubled by the commissioner’s decision to uphold the unprecedented four-game suspension,” Katzmann said. “The commissioner failed to even consider a highly relevant alternative penalty.”
At oral arguments in March, appeals judges did not seem sold on the arguments made on Brady’s behalf by the NFL Players Association.
Judge Denny Chin said evidence of ball tampering was "compelling, if not overwhelming" and there was evidence that Brady "knew about it, consented to it, encouraged it."
The league argued that it was fair for Goodell to severely penalize Brady after he concluded the prize quarterback tarnished the game by impeding the NFL’s investigation by destroying a cellphone containing nearly 10,000 messages.
Judge Barrington Parker said the cellphone destruction raised the stakes “from air in a football to compromising the integrity of a proceeding that the commissioner had convened.”
“So why couldn’t the commissioner suspend Mr Brady for that conduct alone?” he asked. Parker added: “With all due respect, Mr Brady’s explanation of that made no sense whatsoever.”
Parker also was critical of the NFL at the arguments, saying Brady’s lengthy suspension seemed at “first blush a draconian penalty.”
(Guardian service)
