One appeals court judge sides with Tom Brady, blasts Roger Goodell
It wasn't a unanimous decision to reinstate Tom Brady's four-game suspension.
By
John Breech
•
2 min read
Tom Brady is slowly running out of legal options after the Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals ruled against him on Monday. However, at least one judge involved in the ruling might actually have given Brady a sliver of hope if he decides to appeal.
Judge Robert A. Katzmann, the Chief Judge of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, actually sided with Brady in Monday's ruling. There were a total of three judges who heard the case and Brady's suspension was reinstated in a 2-1 vote.
Katzmann sided with Brady and blasted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in his dissenting opinion.
"The Commissioner exceeded that limited authority when he decided instead that Brady could be suspended for four games based on misconduct found for the first time in the Commissioner's decision," Katzmann wrote. "This breach of the limits on the Commissioner's authority is exacerbated by the unprecedented and virtually unexplained nature of the penalty imposed."
Katzmann didn't like that Goodell compared the act of deflating footballs to the act of using steroids, which calls for the same four-game suspension that Brady received for Deflategate. Brady's four-game suspension was Goodell using his "own brand of industrial justice."
"I am troubled by the Commissioner's decision to uphold the unprecedented four-game suspension," Katzmann wrote. "The Commissioner failed to even consider a highly relevant alternative penalty and relied, instead, on an inapt analogy to the League's steroid policy. This deficiency, especially when viewed in combination with the shifting rationale for Brady's discipline, leaves me to conclude that the Commissioner's decision reflected 'his own brand of industrial justice.'"
Katzmann added that instead of comparing Deflategate to using steroids, Goodell should have compared it to something like using stickum. Any player who uses stickum is hit with a $8,268 fine for a first offense.
"Given that both the use of stickum and the deflation of footballs involve attempts at improving one's grip and evading the referees' enforcement of the rules, this would seem a natural starting point for assessing Brady's penalty," Katzmann wrote. "Indeed, the League's justification for prohibiting stickum -- that it 'affects the integrity of the competition and can give a team an unfair advantage,' is nearly identical to the Commissioner's explanation for what he found problematic about the deflation -- that it 'reflects an improper effort to secure a competitive advantage in, and threatens the integrity of, the game.'"
Basically, Brady's four-game punishment doesn't fit the crime.
If the NFLPA's smart, it will spend a few days sifting through Katzmann's dissent and pulling out all of the pertinent points. Brady and the NFLPA can still appeal and ask for a re-hearing.
If that happens, Brady won't be guaranteed a re-hearing, but if the court does decide to re-hear the case, then it's possible the quarterback's suspension could be overturned if the 15 judges who make up the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decide to overturn the decision handed down on Monday.
