A sketch of Tom Brady from Wednesday’s court hearing hit the web and it’s absolutely terrifying.
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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sat and waited with five lawyers at a long table, then went in to meet with Berman after Goodell was finished.
Brady has gone to court demanding his four-match ban, which was handed down by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, be overturned.
Those are pretty strong words from someone who understands everything going on and has dealt with this particular judge.
At one point, the judge asked NFL lawyer Dan Nash if there was any direct evidence showing Brady knew footballs were underinflated. Brady’s exchange with a childhood friend last November was contained in documents released as part of the NFLPA’s lawsuit on behalf of Brady to overturn his suspension.
Trevor Schramn, 20, was wearing a “Free Tom Brady” T-shirt and said he had come to “support our boy”.
Goodell and Brady, along with their lawyers, met separately with the judge before the hearing started.
Another line of questioning centered on why Brady didn’t cooperate with the investigation, to which Kessler admitted Brady could have conducted himself differently with Ted Wells.
In 2011, The New York Times noted that Rosenberg’s likeness of Robert De Niro during a court appearance in New York City was “remarkably accurate”. Another headline said Brady looked like he was melting.
Crowds outside the Manhattan courthouse on Wednesday cheered when Brady entered, with one man shouting, “Don’t settle, Tom”. “So rather than risk losing it all, rather than risk a worst-case scenario, why not move a little bit in toward something of a settlement rather than face my decision”.
“I stand by the Patriot’s one way or the other”, said Dennis Boulerice of Chicopee.
When the union got its chance to argue, the judge asked attorney Jeffrey L. Kessler why two Patriots employees would deflate balls without Brady’s knowledge.
“I don’t know what to make” of the report that concluded Brady was “at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities” of Patriots’ employees involved in letting the air out of the footballs, Berman said. Brady’s credibility as a quarterback has already been put to question and the NFL has already toyed with career of Brady even without a punishment set to be handed out and completed.
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Sixth, Judge Berman could require the entire appeal hearing to proceed as if it were a court proceeding, with media permitted to attend, to observe, and to report on the testimony and the arguments.
