Brady appeals Second Circuit court's ruling that reinstated his suspension

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As was completely expected, Tom Brady is appealing the Second Circuit’s most recent ruling which reinstated his four-game Deflategate suspension.

Brady, represented by the NFLPA and a fleet of high-powered lawyers filed a Petition for Rehearing that summarized Brady’s position in strong terms

“This case arises from an arbitration ruling by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that defies the rule of law.

"After orchestrating a multi-million dollar investigation into purported football deflation during the 2015 AFC Championship Game, Goodell imposed a severe and unprecedented punishment on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. When Brady exercised his right under the collective bargaining agreement to appeal the punishment to an arbitrator, Goodell appointed himself as the arbitrator and 'affirmed' the punishment he had just imposed.

"Goodell’s self-affirming 'appeal' ruling must be reversed.

"Even though his arbitral authority was limited to hearing appeals of disciplinary decisions, Goodell 'affirmed' Brady’s punishment based on different grounds that were not the basis for his original disciplinary decision. Nor did Goodell mention or discuss the collectively bargained penalties for equipment-related violations — the core of Brady’s defense.

"A divided panel of this Court nonetheless affirmed in a decision that repudiates long-standing labor law principles and that, if undisturbed, will fuel unpredictability in labor arbitrations everywhere and make labor arbitration increasingly arbitrary and undesirable for employers and employees alike.”

One of Brady’s attorneys, Ted Olson, appeared on Good Morning America on Monday and said, “The facts here are so drastic and so apparent that the court should rehear it." He added, “[Goodell] completely ignored the schedule of penalties for equipment-related violations." In the appeal, Olson argued that violation could have resulted in nothing more than a fine.

Olson, Brady's NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, recently added attorney Thomas Dupree and the rest of the Brady attorneys are hoping to convince the Second Circuit to conduct an en banc hearing of the case.  

The process of deciding that will take time. If it's taken up, that will obviously take a lot of time. Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk laid out a timeline for it last week

The NFL will say, of course, that tampering with footballs after the officials have inspected them and providing inducements for lackeys to carry out that practice is more than an equipment violation. It will claim that such actions chip away at the integrity of the game and Goodell can do whatever he damn pleases.

Meanwhile, the fact the NFL never uncovered persuasive evidence that tampering occurred on the night of the AFC Championship Game but suspended Brady and penalized the Patriots anyway doesn’t just chip away at the integrity of the game. It blows a crater in it. 

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