Tom Brady will appeal the federal court ruling reinstating his four-game suspension for “Deflategate”, requesting that the entire 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rehear his case, in what’s known as an en banc hearing, Brady’s lawyer, former Solicitor General Ted Olson, said in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
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Goodell imposed the suspension after a lawyer hired by the league said Brady had been “generally aware” that two Patriots employees had conspired to deflate footballs.
Unless the case is expedited, it’s unlikely that Brady’s case would be heard by the Second Circuit before the season starts. In this case, since it is quite rare for any of the Circuit Courts Of Appeal to grant en banc review of a panel decision the assumption is that this petition will be denied and that Brady and the NFLPA will be left with the prospect of appealing the matter to the Supreme Court.
NFL Players Association attorney Theodore B. Olson told ABC News Monday morning that it plans to file an appeal later in the day. “Commissioner Goodell can not sit as an appellate arbitrator and then affirm the league’s initial disciplinary decision based upon a new theory and imagined evidence and pretend to be an unbiased decision-maker”. “That’s number one, and an appellate judge is supposed to look at the record and make a decision on the basis of what happened before”.
FILE – In this February 5, 2012, file photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reacts after passing to Danny Woodhead for a touchdown during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game against the New York Giants, in Indianapolis.
“The decision and the standards (the Second Circuit) imposes are damaging and unfair – not only to Tom Brady – but to all parties to collective bargaining agreements everywhere”, Olson said. “He departed from that completely and went off the track”.
Seven of 13 active judges of the federal appeals court would have to agree to rehear the case.
Brady’s team said it will aim to put the target back on Goodell, questioning whether he acted fairly and fully within his rights as granted by the collective bargaining agreement. That could save Brady nearly $2 million in lost salary during a four-game suspension.
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He said Brady has some criteria for an appeal: Chief Judge Robert Katzmann issued a strong dissent in the panel’s appellate decision that reinstated Brady’s suspension. If in fact Roger Goodell ignored the determined schedule of penalties in handing down his punishment for Brady, then the Patriots quarterback and his legal team may have a clear-cut route to overturning the Deflategate suspension on appeal.
