Tom Brady has once again been suspended for four games, as the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that the suspension he was handed over Deflategate has been reinstated.
The case had essentially nothing to do with whether Brady cheated and everything to do with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell being within his rights to hand out the punishment. The court ruled that Goodell “did not deprive Brady of fundamental fairness” by overseeing the appeal and acting as arbitrator.
Here’s the language from the ruling reinstating the Tom Brady suspension: pic.twitter.com/R4F27Flv5K
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) April 25, 2016
You can read the full ruling here.
In other words, it doesn’t matter how much evidence the NFL has against Brady. This is the system that the NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed to, and now they must deal with it.
Brady could now ask for a re-appeal hearing in front of the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals, or he could seek to bring the case to the Supreme Court.
It truly is amazing that we are still talking about Deflategate more than a year later, but the entire situation has become a mess. Believe it or not, it seems far from over. Brady has come this far and is likely to keep fighting.
Again, this has nothing to do with taking air out of footballs. If you think the NFL cares about that, you haven’t read stories like this. This is nothing more than a drawn-out power struggle.
