Tom may have federal case
TOM BRADY’S quest to have his four-game suspension erased may make its way to a federal courtroom.
ABC News reported Wednesday that the NFL Players Association will challenge any suspension of the Patriots quarterback, even for one game, in federal court.
NFL Network reported that if Brady gives the green light for a lawsuit, it likely will be filed in Massachusetts — pro-Brady territory — or Minnesota, which is known to have labor-friendly courts. The network also reported that Brady’s lawyers met with NFLPA lawyers on Monday.
An appeal in federal court could include an injunction request to delay a suspension until the court reaches a decision. That would allow Brady to potentially play until the issue is resolved, depending on the timeline of the case.
Brady received a four-game suspension on May 11 for his role in DeflateGate. Investigator Ted Wells determined Brady “was at least generally aware” of the release of air from 11 footballs found to be below the minimum required 12.5 PSI during last season’s AFC Championship Game against the Colts. If the NFLPA does take the issue to federal court, it could argue that the ball policy in place doesn’t apply to Brady, and that Wells’ finding of general awareness is substandard without proper evidence.
Brady appealed the suspension and met with Roger Goodell, who appointed himself the appeal arbitrator, for 10 hours on June 23 hoping for the NFL commissioner to acknowledge Brady did nothing wrong with respect to the deflating of footballs. The NFLPA could also argue in federal court that Goodell should have appointed an independent party to arbitrate the appeal.
Goodell told CNBC last week that a decision on Brady’s appeal “is coming soon,” and left open the possibility that a decision could come as soon as this week. In addition to Brady’s suspension, the Patriots were fined $1 million and had to forfeit their 2016 firstround draft pick and 2017 fourth-round pick.
At this point, the worst-case scenario for Brady and the Patriots is Goodell upholds the four-game suspension and the federal court does nothing to alter the outcome.