NFLPA wanted Tom Brady appeal transcript released, NFL declined

Before Tom Brady took his four-game suspension to federal court, the NFL Players Association and the NFL agreed to keep the transcript from Brady’s appeal hearing sealed. Now that a judge has ordered that the documents be released to the public, it’s obvious why the league would have rather kept them a secret.

As Phil Perry of CSSNE.com notes, NFLPA attorney Jeffrey Kessler said during the appeal hearing that he would like it if the transcript was made public.

“I would like the NFL to think about this,” Kessler said. “We have had this issue back and forth and we propose that there not be confidentiality in this matter and the NFL said they wanted confidentiality and we agreed to something and it was there. I would like to propose on behalf of the Union that we can release this transcript of this [hearing] today. I would like the NFL to think about that. That’s our proposal…

“I think there is a great public interest in this and in the interest of transparency, that would be something that we would like to see done.”

The two sides agreed to keep the documents sealed, but a previous report indicated that the league pushed for it. It’s not difficult to understand why.

For starters, much of Brady’s testimony was very convincing. He vehemently denied — under oath — having anything to do with deflating footballs or knowing anything about it. That’s not to say Brady couldn’t be a very good liar, but he came across as genuine throughout much of the appeal.

But that wasn’t even the worst look for the NFL. The unsealing of the transcript also revealed that an NFL executive lied to the Patriots about the inflation level of one of their game balls. We also learned that Roger Goodell blatantly lied in his appeal ruling to make Brady sound more dishonest than he actually was.

Anyone with half a brain can see exactly why the NFL never wanted the transcript to see the light of day.