NFL lawyers are asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Thursday to reinstate a four-game suspension the league handed Brady.
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In order to win the appeal, one of the sides needs a majority of judges’ votes, which means that 2-1 is sufficient to either overturn or confirm Judge Berman’s ruling.
A final decision on whether to reinstate the four-game suspension against Brady isn’t expected for months.
September 28: A federal appeals court in NY grants the NFL’s request for an expedited hearing on its appeal of the reversal of Brady’s suspension.
“Honestly, in that part of the world, a reference like Tom Brady saying Trump’s the biggest victor, Trump is a friend of mine, that makes an incredible difference”, he told the New York Times last night.
The appeals panel seemed receptive to the NFL’s argument that it was fair for Commissioner Roger Goodell to severely penalize one of the game’s greatest quarterbacks after concluding he tarnished the game by impeding the league’s investigation into deflated footballs, including destroying a cellphone containing almost 10,000 messages.
Berman tossed the suspension, which Goodell meted out, then upheld on appeal, on the grounds that Brady had no knowledge of what the repercussions would be for some of his actions, the National Football League failed to present chief counsel Jeffrey Pash for questioning, and because the National Football League and Goodell would not hand over their investigative files, collected by Ted Wells. Brady’s attorney also touched the main point brought forward during Clement’s turn: the rule under which Brady was suspended.
“How do we as appellate judges reviewing an arbitrator’s decision second-guess the four-game suspension?”
Parker, meanwhile, said that – while arbitrator decisions are normally deferred to by judges (Berman didn’t) – “Goodell serves as judge, jury and, well, not executioner but enforcer”.
Still, some experts see the judges’ stances on Brady today as harbingers of their eventual ruling.
The panel asked twice as many questions of Kessler than of National Football League attorney Paul Clement and appeared so eager to pick apart Brady’s case that Kessler wasn’t even allowed an opening statement.
That win took the Patriots to the Super Bowl, where they defeated defending champions the Seattle Seahawks, giving Brady his fourth championship title.
NFL Players Association attorney Jeffrey Kessler attempted to defend Brady’s action and was interrupted by Parker.
“Hypothetically, if a mistake was made and footballs weren’t deflated, but the commissioner believed they were and one of the most celebrated athletes in the game testifies in a way the commissioner believes is untruthful…Why can’t the commissioner suspend for that conduct alone?”.
But the judges seemed hardest on Brady’s side. Now the commissioner and the NFL are arguing that Goodell was within his rights to punish Brady and the Patriots for conduct “detrimental” to the league.
Clement urged the court to rule quickly and put the debate over what became known as Deflategate to rest.
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Brady will not attend the hearing.
