Judge Richard M. Berman suggested Wednesday that he could have grounds to drop Brady’s suspension altogether should he decide to do so, citing concerns about the league’s issues with “fundamental fairness and evident impartiality”.
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At Wednesday’s hearing, Daniel Nash, the NFL’s lawyer, said Goodell properly in his role as arbitrator assessed the evidence and decided that he “did not believe Mr. Brady”, who denied involvement.
After Wednesday’s events, the NFL can’t be confident that Berman will keep Brady’s four-game suspension intact, while Brady and the Patriots are still anxious that a ruling won’t come down in time for the season-opener.
In yesterday’s court hearing, it would seem that Judge Berman took the Patriots side in this battle. “During the four months that the cell phone was in use, Brady had exchanged almost 10,000 text messages, none of which can now be retrieved from that device”. However, on Wednesday a federal judge said no settlement had been reached, and warned the league it can erase the suspension if it refuses to negotiate a deal in the case.
Meanwhile, Brady is open to accepting some for of suspension, but only if it’s for failing to cooperate with the NFL. Nash told the judge each was about gaining a competitive advantage and was about the integrity of the game. It’s quite possible that if the NFLPA didn’t at least bring an offer to the table, Berman could have turned the tables on Brady.
Berman has been trying to move the sides toward a settlement of the dispute over deflated footballs. The union countersued, saying the suspension violated the CBA and should be dropped.
But Brady probably isn’t fighting his suspension because of the money, said Spotrac editor Michael Ginnitti.
At one point, as Wetzel chronicled in his piece, NFL Players Association attorney Jeffrey Kessler said, “Your Honor is spot-on”.
“The key reason is the NFL’s process for disciplining Tom Brady, and punishing and reviewing the punishment had a number of problems”, said McCann.
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Instead, both sides will again present oral arguments in front of Berman, who really, really would like them to settle this without him having to make a ruling. Neither Brady nor Goodell attended the hearing, leaving it to their attorneys.
