On Wednesday the Second Circuit Court of Appeals levied a painful blow to Tom Brady’s chances of playing the first four weeks of 2016 when it declined to rehear Brady’s case with a full panel of judges.
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In April, a three-judge panel ruled in favor of the NFL in the Deflategate case, effectively reinstating the New England Patriots quarterback’s original four-game suspension imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
As of now the suspension still stands for Brady, he will be slated to miss first four-games of next season, according to SB Nation.
Brady now has 90 days to file a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit’s decision.
He will argue, as he argued in the rehearing effort, that the 2-1 ruling could lead to the destruction of labor arbitration, a pillar of the American economy that must be preserved and can be saved only by a decision for Brady and against commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL.
“The track record of this league office when it comes to matters of player discipline is bad for our business and bad for our game”, the NFLPA said in a statement on Wednesday. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.
“It’s time to put this thing to bed”, Drew said. The Patriots and their coach, Bill Belichick, will have to find a way to remain in the Super Bowl-contending mix without Brady in the lineup for a quarter of the regular season, undoubtedly employing the same us-against-the-world approach that served them so well during their march to a almost flawless season in the aftermath of the Spygate ordeal almost 10 years ago.
The quarterback has denied involvement.
After three months, league investigator Ted Wells concluded the Patriots intentionally used underinflated footballs in the game and that Brady was “at least generally aware” of the scheme.
The next step is to apply to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the high court.
Two former US solicitors general under President George W. Bush were on opposite sides of the case, with Theodore Olson representing the union and Paul Clement representing the NFL. In other words, it is extremely unlikely the Supreme Court would even consider the case.
Team is fined, Brady is suspended four games. Following that reinstatement, Brady made an en banc appeal to the same court.
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April’s decision had reversed a federal judge, Richard M. Berman, who had nullified Brady’s four-game suspension in September because of “several significant legal deficiencies” in how Goodell investigated accusations that footballs were below league-mandated minimum pressure levels at the AFC Championship Game in January 2015. Brady’s camp will need to prove that he will be dealt irreparable harm from courts most recent decision. That ability to add charges mid-arbitration, Olson will say, sets a unsafe precedent. “It is not something we have resolved ourselves to doing”. In other words, a stay points toward the Supreme Court likely agreeing to accept the case for a decision on all of the issues raised in the litigation.
