Berman replied that he didn’t see them as comparable offenses.
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Nash didn’t have an answer.
Nash responded that Wells was “talking about the AFC Championship Game”.
In court papers, the league has said there was “ample support” in evidence for the commissioner to conclude Brady was involved in efforts by Patriots equipment personnel to deflate footballs.
Brady has denied involvement, but the NFL suspended him four games without pay in May.
Representatives of the league and the players’ union were back in federal court in New York on Wednesday. “But it’s preliminary and that doesn’t mean the NFL is going to cut a better deal”. ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack, for example, said Berman is pushing for a settlement and might believe the league has to be prodded more to move toward that; hence the aggressive questioning. If the case doesn’t settle that day, Judge Berman may issue a ruling by September 4.
Deflategate has fractured our vulnerable nation perhaps beyond fix, as Brady lovers and Brady haters dig in for the long two weeks until the next Tom Brady-NFL court hearing. How does deflating a football/not cooperating with the investigation compare to say, beating your wife on camera (until actual footage shows up) or the possession of drugs and guns?
“Somebody needs to make a call, and under the CBA, that person is the commissioner”, Nash said. Or, in an entirely different case, Judge Berman could have just been playing straight when he told the NFL that arbitration cases have been overturned for less bias than what the NFL’s shown.
That answer didn’t satisfy the judge, who pressed the NFL attorney on the potential length of suspension for someone who tampers with footballs but cooperates with the subsequent investigation. “Questions of fundamental fairness and evident impartiality”, he tweeted.
Brady appealed but Goodell on Tuesday announced Brady’s ban had been upheld after further information which came to light during the appeal process had counted against the 37-year-old.
None of the lawyers talked to the media as they left court Wednesday. The Manhattan judge said both would be required to attend an August. 31 hearing.
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“This case fails the test for where the arbitrator is dispensing his own brand of industrial justice”, Kessler said in his opening remarks to Berman.
