DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, told reporters it was a “productive day”, offering no other details, and a NFL spokesman said both sides agreed not to comment after spending more than four hours holed up near U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman’s 17th-floor courtroom. The players’ union, fighting the suspension, maintains there is no proof balls were deflated.
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Berman noted that Brady’s statistics were better in the second half of the Patriots’ 45-7 defeat of the Indianapolis Colts in the January 18 AFC championship game than in the first half, when the footballs were found to have been underinflated. In it, it said Patriots staff probably under-inflated the footballs, and that Brady was “at least generally aware” of it.
League lawyer Daniel Nash maintained that commissioner Roger Goodell was within his power to suspend Brady, and that the quarterback’s infamous destroyed cell phone was evidence of his culpability in DeflateGate.
“This Deflategate. I’m not sure where the “gate” comes from”.
“You’re right, it could have been done a different way”, attorney Jeffrey Kessler said, according to Portland Press Herald. Kessler said the union does not believe the balls were deflated but, if they were, the employee did it on his own because he thought it would be good for his quarterback..
Brady and Commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t speak during the hearing, except to introduce themselves to Berman.
Goodell was greeted by a smattering of boos as he walked inside.
But let’s not start the party and think Brady’s in the clear and will have the four-game suspension completely wiped out and all will be well in Patriot world.
Both sides are scheduled to return to court next week.
Fans were outside the courthouse when Goodell and Brady arrived separately more than an hour before the start of the morning hearing. The NFL apparently was insisting on a suspension and an acknowledgement of wrongdoing by Brady connected with the under-inflation of footballs, not merely to a lack of cooperation with the investigation.
Brady is arguing against a four-game suspension leveled at him for the role he is alleged to have played in the scandal.
He accused him of obstructing the NFL probe about a controversy that represented “conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game of professional football”. The NFL Players Assn. then countersued on Brady’s behalf, asking the court to overturn the punishment.
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They called a June appeal hearing before Goodell ‘a kangaroo court proceeding bereft of fundamentally fair procedures’.
