NFL: Brady to contest ‘Deflategate’ suspension
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady passes during an NFL football practice, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. The New York Jets are to play the Patriots Sunday, Oct. 25 in Foxborough. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady filed an appeal against his four-game suspension on Monday in a last-ditch bid to overturn his punishment for his role in the “Deflategate” scandal.
The Patriots superstar has applied for a full hearing by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals after a three-judge panel found in favor of the National Football League on April 25 and reinstated Brady’s suspension.
Brady had until Monday to decide whether or not to challenge the court ruling, and has now requested a hearing en banc, before the full panel of judges on the appeals court.
For the hearing to proceed, seven out of 13 judges must first agree that the hearing is necessary.
NFL Players Association attorney Ted Olson, the famed lawyer who has appeared in several high-profile cases, told “Good Morning America” Monday that the appeal was a certainty.
“The facts here are so drastic and so apparent that the court should rehear it,” Olson said.
If the court refuses to hear the case, the only option left to Brady would be to seek a case before the Supreme Court, something which could take several months or years.
Olson, who served as Solicitor General under President George W. Bush, told ABC News that the case would target the role of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“Our two primary arguments are that the commissioner in the first place conducted an investigation and then the commissioner imposed discipline. Then the commissioner appointed himself as an appellate judge or an arbitrator and then decided something new in the appellate process, abandoning the grounds that were the original basis for the supposed discipline,” Olson told ABC News.
If the suspension stands, it will mean Brady misses the Patriots’ games against the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills.
Brady, one of the highest-profile athletes in America and a record-equalling four-time winner of the Super Bowl, had been plunged into controversy following the Patriots’ blowout AFC Championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts in 2015.
The Patriots were accused of deliberately manipulating the air pressure of balls used in the first half of that game, in order to make them easier to grip, grab and throw.
An inquiry by the NFL ruled that Brady was probably “generally aware” that Patriots staff had tampered with the balls and found him uncooperative when quizzed by investigators.
Goodell’s initial decision to impose a four-game ban however was sharply criticized by a lower court judge who ruled in Brady’s favor last September, clearing him to play throughout the 2015-2016 campaign.
