It looks like the New England Patriots will have a VERY strong start to the season as a federal judge has overturned Tom Brady’s four game suspension.
The ‘Deflategate’ hoopla started back in January when the Patriots were accused of using deflated balls during a playoff game.
The NFL conducted an investigation into the accusations and later found out that Brady probably knew about the game balls deflated by team staff. This created a question whether the balls were a factor in their 38-point win over the Indianapolis Colts, which was later debunked.
The league and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell punished Brady to a four game suspension for the deflated ball scandal and for deleting nearly 10,000 messages off his cell phone before he was interviewed for the NFL probe. The player union, along with the New England quarterback, counter-sued saying Brady did nothing wrong.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman stated that Goodell went too far in punishing the Super Bowl winning quarterback. Berman noticed that the leagues findings were not open to judicial challenge stating that the suspension was “premised upon several significant legal deficiencies…Brady also had no notice that his discipline would be the equivalent of the discipline imposed upon a player who used performance enhancing drugs.”
While Brady is set to start the season, this battle may not be over. The NFL might challenge in federal appeals court in Manhattan. The league is not willing to let this go as this is one of the many times the league has laid down suspensions for teams and players only to be later overturned in court.
This is another loss to Roger Goodell as most of his punishments handed down to players have come back to strike him in the face.
