Jane Rosenberg’s drawings of the New England Patriots quarterback on Wednesday were compared with everything from Lurch’ in The Addams Family to the figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
Advertisement
Hand-drawn portraits released from the hearing portray Brady looking pensive and, some say, not like himself.
“I guess I’m not good enough to satisfy these NFL fans”, she added. If there’s no settlement by August. 19, both Brady and Goodell will have to take the witness stand next week in court.
Where’s the evidence? This question seemed to be one of the main themes during today’s federal court proceedings. Goodell said there were no directly comparable cases to Brady’s in the past.
After the public hearing, Tom Brady signed the sketches of two courtroom artists.
Tom Brady arrives at federal court on Wednesday.
Tom Brady, New England Patriots quarterback, and commissioner Roger Goodell both spoke privately with the judge in court.
NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey Kessler said that if balls were intentionally deflated, it could have been because two Patriots employees implicated in the report, John Jastremski and Jim McNally, thought it would help their quarterback. Still, the NFL cited the cell phone in its decision explaining why it was upholding Brady’s suspension.
A deflated football can be easier to grip for a quarterback, especially in the cold conditions like those outside Boston in which the AFC title game was played.
Before asking a series of tough questions, Berman said he had not made up his mind on the “varying strengths and weaknesses” of both sides.
Brady and Goodell didnt speak during the hearing, except to introduce themselves to Berman.
Berman spoke before letting a lawyer for each side state their arguments.
Questioning phrases used in the Wells Report such as, “more probable than not” and “at least generally aware”, Berman stated: “I don’t know what that means”. Brady had his phone replaced and destroyed, a point Goodell emphasized when he rejected Brady’s appeal.
Goodell and the league are arguing that the punishment was justified under the current players’ contract. In one respect that highlights the odds Brady is facing.
Brady insists he did nothing wrong and continues to appeal. Brady’s lawyer conceded that Tom could have handled things better, Schreiber says a lack of compliance can come with a penalty.
Seventh, and finally, Judge Berman could require that it all be done by the end of the month, so that he can issue a final ruling before September 4.
Goodell walked out of a Manhattan courthouse about 10 minutes after Brady exited, with some spectators shouting “cheater, cheater” toward the Super Bowl MVP.
The talks continued more than four hours until about 5 p.m. Afterward, a smiling Brady left the courthouse.
Advertisement
Brady was suspended after an investigation that determined he probably knew that team employees deflated game balls below the minimum required by league rules before last season’s conference championship game, which the Patriots won 45-7 over the Indianapolis Colts.
