If the Bills can secure a victory in that game, they will have a massive advantage over the Patriots and the tiebreaker if they can later defeat the Patriots at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
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While the referee of the game testified that he used a gauge whose subsequent calibration precluded the notion of a deflation scheme, National Football League investigator Ted Wells opted to disbelieve the official and go with the opposite of what he said without any adequate explanation for his unusual decision.
But Brady needs to ride his suspension, based on NFL attorney Ted Wells concluding it was “more probable than not” that he was “generally aware” of Patriots ball boys deflating footballs prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts on January 18, 2015.
To appeal the decision, Brady would have to go through Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who oversees the 2nd Circuit.
And at that point, all Patriots fans can hope for is that the four game suspension doesn’t fall during the playoffs.
The Buffalo Bills may have escaped an unfortunate circumstance by not having their running back suspended in the start of their 2016 season, but it does not look to be the same case for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots though.
Brady’s legal options have not yet been fully exhausted.
The suspension was originally overturned by Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NY on September 3, 2015, but was reinstated by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 25. “We have a broken system that must be fixed”, a statement released by the NFLPA said.
Ultimately, Drew said, “It’s time to put this thing to bed”.
The win propelled the Patriots to Super Bowl XLIX, where they beat the Seattle Seahawks, giving Brady his fourth title. Brady stands to lose nearly $2 million in lost salary during the suspension. If Brady is going to be branded a cheater, he’s going to go down swinging.
Brady and his lawyers, including the well-known Ted Olson, has 90 days to submit another appeal to the nation’s highest court, according to Rapoport.
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“Obviously with a death penalty case and cases of much greater magnitude, a stay may be more likely, but this is the challenge for Brady is that this is really a football case”, he said. The Wall Street Journal spoke to Raffi Melkonian, an appellate litigator at Wright & Close LLP, who believes Brady’s chances of getting the Supreme Court to hear the case are “remote”, saying the case doesn’t seem to be an issue demanding the Court’s time. In week five, the Patriots are playing the Browns in Cleveland.
