Goodell: No deal, Brady’s suspension up to courts

BATAVIA, N.Y. — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell took the air out of reaching a settlement with Tom Brady following the Patriots star quarterback’s latest appeal of the league’s four-game “Deflategate” suspension.

“At this stage, no,” Goodell said Monday, noting there have been several previous bids to reach a settlement. “The courts will make their decisions, and we’ll move forward on that basis.”

Goodell spoke while attending Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s 30th annual charitable golf tournament being held outside of Buffalo.

The comments were Goodell’s f irst in two weeks since Brady’s lawyers asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a new hearing before an expanded panel of judges. The request comes after a threejudge panel in April reinstated Brady’s suspension for what the NFL ruled was the quarterback’s role in using underinflated footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship game.

The type of appeal Brady is seeking is rarely granted.

Brady’s lawyers argue Goodell is biased because he was responsible for the initial suspension and then backed his decision when the quarterback lodged an appeal. Brady was off icially informed of his initial suspension by NFL Executive Vice President Troy Vincent.

Two of the three 2nd Circuit judges ruled the players had negotiated away their right to an impartial arbiter when they agreed to allow the commis- sioner to hear appeals.

Goodell was pleased with the judges backing his authority, though disappointed by the slow pace it’s taken in reaching a resolution.

“If there’s a better system [of appeals], we’ll do it, but when it comes to the integrity of the game, that’s the responsibility of the commissioner,” Goodell said. “And we’re not going to hand that integrity of the game off to somebody who doesn’t have any involvement in the game.”

Questions over the NFL commissioner’s authority as defined in the collective bargaining agreement were raised by sports attorney David Cornwell in 2009, when he was one of four f inalists to replace the late Gene Upshaw as the NFL Players Association’s executive director.