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Appeal by Patriots likely wouldn’t succeed

New England Patriots fans Luke, left, and Andrew Sheridan, of Hanover, Mass., hold signs referring to Federal Judge Richard M. Berman in the first half an NFL preseason football game between the Patriots and the New York Giants Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. Judge Berman overturned NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s four-game suspension of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady Thursday morning. The league said it will appeal the ruling. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

AP

The Patriots aren’t inclined to alter their position that the punishment imposed against the team for #DeflateGate won’t be challenged via the appeal rights available to the team. There are good reasons for that, beyond the reluctance of the Patriots to go back against their word.

First, the deadline for filing an internal appeal has come and gone. If an appeal were filed now, the NFL quickly would dismiss it as untimely.

Second, teams, coaches, owners, etc. don’t enjoy the same protections as players. The players have a union, who have crafted a Collective Bargaining Agreement with a wide range of rights and obligations and protections. Those protections applied to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after the NFL, in the opinion of Judge Berman, abused its powers under the labor deal.

Without those same protections, the Patriots would have been stuck with the outcome of the internal appeal process. Even if the Patriots would have sued, the chances of winning would have been slim, because the Patriots don’t enjoy the benefit of the labor-law principles that ultimately delivered a win for Brady.

The best example of the differences in protections comes from the Saints bounty scandal of 2012. After the player suspensions were scrapped by former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in his role as the arbitrator of the internal appeals, coach Sean Payton remained suspended for a year, and he received no refund on the millions in salary that he lost.

So the $1 million that the Patriots lost along with the two draft picks won’t be coming back, even if the Patriots pursue an appeal and then file suit in federal court. Even before Judge Berman or Judge Doty, the deck would be firmly stacked against the Patriots, given the absence of a CBA.