The court hearing is the first since the league and Brady with the NFL players’ union traded filings in the dispute over whether Goodell was justified in suspending Brady four games after using underinflated footballs during the AFC championship game in January.
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On Tuesday, Berman asked Goodell and Brady, along with lawyers, to appear before him privately a half hour before a public court session.
The DeflateGate saga is expected to continue after Tom Brady and the NFL wrapped up their day in court with Judge Richard Berman’s chambers Wednesday.
Fans were outside the courthouse when Goodell and Brady arrived separately more than an hour before the start of the morning hearing.
Goodell arrived at the courthouse in lower Manhattan before Brady, with several spectators shouting “liar” as he entered.
Trevor Schramn, 20, was wearing a “Free Tom Brady” T-shirt and said he had come to “support our boy”.
Brady, who denied any wrongdoing, has said he prefers to throw deflated footballs. “No, there is not such direct evidence”.
The judge asked fewer questions of Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer for the N.F.L. Players Association, which is representing Brady. “I’m having trouble finding it”.
You might say (Brady) got no better advantage from the under-inflation, the judge said. His look said it all: What the hell am I doing in a courtroom in Manhattan in mid-August arguing about deflated footballs when I should be with my team in training camp getting ready for the season?
He also referred a “question in my mind” as to the independence of NFL investigator Ted Wells, whose report was used by the league as a basis to justify the suspension, which NFL commissioner Roger Goodell upheld on July 28.
Kessler, however, said Brady had followed the advice of his lawyer in declining to hand over his communications, and said the quarterback routinely destroys his old phones to avoid unwanted leaks to the media. Berman then met individually with each side for more settlement discussions in private.
Berman has asked both sides to work toward a settlement in the matter.
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, NFL general counsel Jeff Pash and Brady’s agent, Don Yee, were all in attendance.
Both parties were instructed to submit further documents by Friday and a second mediation hearing is set for August 19.
They called a June appeals hearing before Goodell “a kangaroo court proceeding, bereft of fundamentally fair procedures”. After a bye Week 4, the Patriots return visit the Dallas Cowboys on October 11. Of the respondents, 78% thought that Brady’s four-game ban was too long.
The Patriots were fined a record $1-million and stripped of their first-round draft pick in 2016 and fourth-round selection in 2017.
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Brady could play in the preseason game because his suspension does not go into effect until the regular season begins.
