Remember when Tom Brady was suspended for four games for allegedly being involved in a scheme to doctor footballs in the NFL playoffs two seasons ago? Then he won an appeal against the NFL in federal court September 2015 and was un-suspended? Well, now he’s been effectively re-suspended by a panel of judges from the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. From Reuters:
“Our review of the record yields the firm conclusion that the Commissioner properly exercised his broad discretion to resolve an intramural controversy between the League and a player,” Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote for the majority.
The ruling came in a 2-1 vote by the three-judge panel, and followed arguments last month where a lawyer for the players’ union faced tough questioning that signaled the likely reversal of U.S. District Judge Richard Berman’s ruling.
Like Judge Berman’s ruling in September, Monday’s decision concerns the fairness of the NFL’s disciplinary process rather than the factual question of whether Brady was culpable in a scheme to deflate footballs to make them easier to throw and catch. (The scientific consensus, for what it’s worth, seems to be that the measured loss in ball pressure during the game in question can be explained by the laws of physics and that NFL consultants’ assertions on the issue were flawed. The league’s investigation, meanwhile, was sloppy and reportedly motivated more by internal politics than a dispassionate interest in Finding the Truth.) Berman ruled that Brady had not been provided with adequate due process before and after the league issued its supension, but during a March 2016 hearing the Second Circuit judges foreshadowed today’s decision when they seemed willing to defer to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s unilateral authority over disciplinary matters.
It appears that Brady now has two options: Asking for a rehearing in front of the full Second Circuit or appealing to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court!
This post has been updated.
