NFL’s Goodell indicates compromise not near
A stone-faced NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated yesterday that he is not ready to compromise to bring an end to his ongoing war with Tom Brady.
“We got the letter today,” Goodell said of federal judge Richard Berman’s order calling for “further” settlement talks between the sides. “We will certainly cooperate fully with that and will allow the judge to handle the process from there.”
Brady and Goodell are set to face off in a New York federal court this morning in what could be a mostly closed-door affair, but doubts linger among court-watchers about whether the two sides can hash out a deal in the star quarterback’s fight to lift his four-game Deflategate suspension.
“I think the hardest part about the negotiations is the labor-management relationship in the NFL has fallen to a ridiculously poor level,” said Marc Edelman, a sports law expert and associate law professor at Baruch CollegeCUNY. “It would seem to work best if it was held behind closed doors. There’s probably some disconnect between the rhetoric and their legal arguments.
“But,” Edelman added, “this seems to be a microcosm of a much larger problem” between the NFL Players Association and the league.
Berman yesterday urged the NFL and the NFL Players Association to “engage in further good faith settlement efforts” ahead of today’s 11 a.m. hearing in Manhattan. In a brief, one-page filing, he also called for lawyers on both sides to meet with him beforehand “for an update on your discussions.”
Brady, who missed practice yesterday to prep for the hearing, and Goodell are both slated to appear in the public court session.
But beyond making initial statements, lawyers may likely retreat to the judge’s chambers for stretches as closed-door settlement talks would continue out of the public eye, said Michael McCann, director of the sports law program at the University of New Hampshire.
If talks were to drag out — or break down — Brady and the NFL would land back in Berman’s courtroom next Wednesday in a hearing McCann said would likely be far more public and “telling.”
“The truth is, it’s not that complicated of a resolution,” McCann said, “It’s not some multinational business merger. This is about whether he’s suspended or not, and whether the suspension could become a fine. ... The hardest part is whether there’s a settlement to be had.”
Goodell’s remarks appear to fly in the face of Berman’s wishes. Darren Heitner, a sports and entertainment attorney in South Florida, said, “The judge has made it quite obvious he does not want to rule on the merits of the case.”