The NFL Players Association on Friday released the full text of Tom Brady’s appeal letter, and it aims to have Roger Goodell removed as the arbitrator in the case.
The NFL announced on Thursday night that Goodell himself will be the one hearing the appeal of Brady’s four game suspension, which most would agree is a conflict of interest. Since Goodell played a big role in deciding the punishment, how can he also hear the appeal?
Taking it a step further, the NFLPA has stated that it would like to call Goodell as a witness during the appeal, which would make it even less appropriate for the commissioner to be the arbitrator. The same goes for NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, to whom the letter was addressed.
Please be advised that the NFLPA and Mr. Brady intend to call both you and Commissioner Goodell as essential witnesses in the proceeding. You both will be called upon to testify about, among other things, the circumstances surrounding the purported delegation of disciplinary authority from Commissioner Goodell to you in this matter and the factual basis for that purported delegation. You also will both be required to testify about when you became aware of the Colts’ complaints about ball deflation and what decisions and steps were thereafter taken to set up what may have been a “sting operation” to try to implicate the Patriots and Mr. Brady. The latter conduct would present an additional ground for setting aside the discipline imposed.
Further, your personal involvement in the game-day events surrounding this matter render you inherently biased in any disciplinary determination (see, e.g., Report at 64-72). All of these facts will require your testimony at the hearing. In light of the above, the NFLPA believes that neither Commissioner Goodell nor anyone with close ties to the NFL can serve as arbitrator in Mr. Brady’s appeal under governing legal standards…
As Ben Volin of The Boston Globe notes, the NFL is likely to brush the NFLPA’s letter aside and proceed as planned. However, the NFLPA is already thinking about the possibility of taking the case to court.
If you thought the Deflategate situation couldn’t get any messier after we heard the lamest excuse in history on Thursday, you were wrong.
