NFL to appeal Tom Brady ruling, Patriots owner Bob Kraft celebrates

Did you really think federal court Judge Richard Berman’s decision to overturn New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension would really mean the end of Deflategate? Of course it’s not, because the NFL has already announced plans to appeal it.

Earlier today, Berman ruled in favor of Brady, meaning that the four-time Super Bowl champion will get to play against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 10. Moments later, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the league will appeal. However, the league will not pursue a stay that would prevent Brady from playing.

“We will appeal today's ruling in order to uphold the collectively bargained responsibility to protect the integrity of the game,” Goodell said. “The commissioner's responsibility to secure the competitive fairness of our game is a paramount principle, and the league and our 32 clubs will continue to pursue a path to that end. While the legal phase of this process continues, we look forward to focusing on football and the opening of the regular season.”

The NFL Players Association was happy with the ruling. NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said that it should prove that the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the players “does not grant this Commissioner the authority to be unfair, arbitrary and misleading. While the CBA grants the person who occupies the position of Commissioner the ability to judiciously and fairly exercise the designated power of that position, the union did not agree to attempts to unfairly, illegally exercise that power, contrary to what the NFL has repeatedly and wrongfully claimed.”

“As I have said during this process and throughout his Patriots career, Tom Brady is a classy person of the highest integrity,” Patriots owner Bob Kraft said in his own statement. “He represents everything that is great about this game and this league. Yet, with absolutely no evidence of any actions of wrongdoing by Tom in the Wells report, the lawyers at the league still insisted on imposing and defending unwarranted and unprecedented discipline. Judge Richard Berman understood this and we are greatly appreciative of his thoughtful decision that was delivered today. Now, we can return our focus to the game on the field.”

Berman’s ruling featured three main points that lead to his decision. First, the NFL did not tell Brady that he would receive a four-game suspension for deflating footballs. Next, Brady and his team were not able to question NFL General Counsel Jeff Pash, who was one of the main investigators for Ted Wells’ report. Lastly, the NFL also didn’t give full access to all the investigation files.

image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on your website.

Learn more about debugging in WordPress.