The Patriots open their regular season on Sept. 10 against the Steelers, a game for which Brady’s availability remains in question.
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Repeating his sentiments from a similar hearing a week ago which Brady and Goodell attended, Berman said that he saw strengths and weaknesses in both side’s arguments.
Berman had ordered Brady and Goodell to come to court with their lawyers last week, and then met with them for hours to discuss settlement.
The NFL was on the defensive during Wednesday’s final oral arguments in the Deflategate case.
Nash said the collective bargaining agreement, which is the compact between the league and players, doesn’t require the penalty to be broken down.
Berman also said Goodell seemed to make a “quantum leap” in concluding Brady was not just “generally aware” of the scheme, but actively took part in it.
The NFL and NFL Players Association had its second settlement hearing in court on Wednesday, and it sounds like it went horribly for the NFL.
Former Patriots quarterback and Boston radio host Scott Zolak reported Brady left Tuesday’s meeting “very angry”.
With football season fast approaching, lawyers for Tom Brady and the NFL are under the gun to settle their dispute over how to punish Brady after the “Deflategate” scandal. Kessler acknowledged Brady didn’t cooperate out of privacy concerns and said Brady “should have conducted himself differently with Wells”.
Berman said he would try to rule by Sept. 4 but said judges not bound by NFL schedule.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the New England Patriots quarterback would be willing to accept a suspension if it were for not cooperating with the NFL’s investigation, instead of anything actually found as a result of that investigation.
Berman had problems with the language of the Wells Report and the appeal process.
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The NFLPA claims NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was not an impartial arbitrator and his decision was inherently flawed and should be vacated, thus lifting Brady’s suspension. It criticized Goodell’s ruling upholding the suspension as a “smear campaign”, a “propaganda piece written for public consumption”.
