Case has new life as Brady requests an appeal

NEW YORK — Tom Brady’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court for a new hearing before an expanded panel of judges, telling them Monday that it is not just a silly dispute over underinflated footballs — it’s the basic right to a fair process that is shared by all union workers.

Setting the stage for the “Deflategate” scandal to stretch into its third season, and putting Brady’s four-game suspension back in the hands of the courts, the players’ union asked all 13 judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case that a three-judge panel decided in the league’s favor.

In the appeal filed Monday, Brady’s lawyers said commissioner Roger Goodell’s “biased, agendadriven, and self-approving ‘appeal’ ruling must be vacated.”

The 2-1 decision by the panel, they wrote, “will fuel unpredictability in labor arbitrations everywhere and make labor arbitration increasingly capricious and undesirable for employers and employees alike.”

The NFL had no comment.

Brady was initially suspended four games for what Goodell said was an illegal scheme to use improperly inflated footballs in the 2015 AFC championship game. The suspension was overturned by a federal judge on the eve of last season, but a circuit court panel ruled 2-1 last month that Goodell was within the rights granted to him by the collective bargaining agreement.

An appeal to the full 2nd Circuit — called “en banc” — is Brady’s next step in his attempt to avoid the suspension. En banc appeals are rarely granted.

If this request is rejected, the New England Patriots quarterback could then appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the odds of obtaining a hearing are even slimmer.