The NFL on Tuesday changed its settlement offer to Tom Brady, saying there will be no settlement unless Brady accepts the findings of the Wells report, sources tell ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.
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The court hearing is the first since the league and Brady with the NFL players’ union traded filings in the scandal known as “Deflategate”, a dispute over whether Goodell was justified in suspending Brady four games for his role in using underinflated footballs during the AFC championship game in January. For Goodell, it’s, “I am in a strong position, why should I negotiate?”
The case against Brady had no eyewitness testimony or smoking gun evidence.
Goodell concluded Brady “knew about, approved of, consented to, and provided inducements and rewards” to support a scheme in which a Patriots employee deflated balls on game day. This was hardly a slam dunk case, because other experts opined that the deflation may have been due to environmental factors and Brady strongly denied knowledge of any tampering with the footballs. Courts are reluctant to overturn arbitration awards because the point of arbitration is for the parties to resolve disputes privately and efficiently without court intervention. The Players Association’s heavy burden is to convince Judge Berman that a biased arbitrator, Goodell, produced a biased result.
In a July 28 decision upholding the suspension, Goodell heavily criticized Brady for having an aide destroy a cellphone containing almost 10,000 text messages from a four-month stretch including the AFC championship, when the Patriots defeated Indianapolis 45-7, and the Super Bowl, which New England won. When asked if he thought the Patriots would be punished, he said, “Not as long as Robert Kraft and Roger Goodell are still taking pictures at their respective homes”.
Brady could play in the preseason game because his suspension does not go into effect until the regular season begins.
In earlier negotiations the two sides were far apart as the NFL wanted a sizable suspension imposed on Brady, while the quarterback and the NFLPA insisted they wouldn’t settle for anything that had the quarterback missing any games.
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Gregory J. Wallance, a former federal prosecutor, is an attorney in New York.
