NEW YORK -- A federal appeals court has rejected Tom Brady's attempt to get a new hearing on his Deflategate suspension.
Brady was asking for the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case. In April, a three-judge panel of the court said that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was within his powers when he suspended the star quarterback four games for his role in a scheme to doctor the footballs used in a Jan. 18, 2015, playoff game.
The decision Wednesday affirms the wide-ranging powers given to the commissioner by the NFL's collective bargaining agreement and is a setback for organized labor groups arguing for due process in employee discipline.
Brady's remaining hope is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Patriots open the season Sept. 11 at Arizona. If Brady remains suspended, backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to take his place against the Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills.
Brady, who signed a two-year contract extension during the offseason that dropped his 2016 salary from $9 million to $1 million to save himself almost $2 million in lost salary during the suspension, would then make his regular-season debut in Week 5 against the Cleveland Browns. His renegotiated deal deferred $8 million of his 2016 salary to later in the contract.
What began as an accusation of cheating in the 2015 AFC Championship Game has grown into a multimillion-dollar legal battle over three NFL seasons involving not just an MVP quarterback but also some of the elite lawyers and scientists in the country.
As it developed, it evolved from a dispute about the air pressure in footballs into a referendum on the powers of a sport's commissioner and the right of all unionized employees to due process in a disciplinary hearing.
Joining the case along the way were longtime league adversary Jeffrey Kessler and former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who was involved in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit that settled the 2000 presidential election and the case that overturned California's ban on same-sex marriage in 2010. The AFL-CIO and scholars from some of the top legal and scientific institutions in the country also piped in with briefs.
At stake for the Patriots was not only the availability of their quarterback for one-quarter of the season but also their legacy as an NFL dynasty. Goodell had already penalized the Patriots for cheating -- in an illegal-videotaping scheme in 2007 that came to be known as Spygate -- and they saw the suspension as an attack on their legitimacy of the four Super Bowl championships earned under Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
The suspicions boiled over on Jan. 18, 2015, when the league tested -- somewhat unscientifically, it would belatedly learn -- the footballs provided by the home team for the AFC title game against the Indianapolis Colts and found them to be underinflated.
After three months of analysis, league investigator Ted Wells found that the Patriots intentionally used underinflated footballs in the game and that Brady was "at least generally aware" of the scheme. The NFL suspended the four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback four games and docked the team $1 million and two draft picks.
Brady appealed -- first within the league, and Goodell affirmed the decision. Brady appealed to federal court, and U.S. District Judge Richard Berman overturned the suspension in September 2015. The league appealed to the 2nd Circuit, and the three-judge panel reinstated the original penalty.
That left Brady hoping for a new hearing in front of the complete circuit -- called "en banc" -- or an even more unlikely hearing at the Supreme Court.
"That's always an option to litigants," Olson said after joining the case in May. "It is not something we have resolved ourselves to doing."
New England fans rallied behind their quarterback, putting "Free Brady" on T-shirts, reciting the ideal gas law from memory and giving a hero's welcome to the quarterback when he took the field for the 2015 regular-season opener.
Brady was asking for the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case. In April, a three-judge panel of the court said that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was within his powers when he suspended the star quarterback four games for his role in a scheme to doctor the footballs used in a Jan. 18, 2015, playoff game.
The decision Wednesday affirms the wide-ranging powers given to the commissioner by the NFL's collective bargaining agreement and is a setback for organized labor groups arguing for due process in employee discipline.
Brady's remaining hope is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Patriots open the season Sept. 11 at Arizona. If Brady remains suspended, backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to take his place against the Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills.
Brady, who signed a two-year contract extension during the offseason that dropped his 2016 salary from $9 million to $1 million to save himself almost $2 million in lost salary during the suspension, would then make his regular-season debut in Week 5 against the Cleveland Browns. His renegotiated deal deferred $8 million of his 2016 salary to later in the contract.
What began as an accusation of cheating in the 2015 AFC Championship Game has grown into a multimillion-dollar legal battle over three NFL seasons involving not just an MVP quarterback but also some of the elite lawyers and scientists in the country.
As it developed, it evolved from a dispute about the air pressure in footballs into a referendum on the powers of a sport's commissioner and the right of all unionized employees to due process in a disciplinary hearing.
Joining the case along the way were longtime league adversary Jeffrey Kessler and former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who was involved in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit that settled the 2000 presidential election and the case that overturned California's ban on same-sex marriage in 2010. The AFL-CIO and scholars from some of the top legal and scientific institutions in the country also piped in with briefs.
At stake for the Patriots was not only the availability of their quarterback for one-quarter of the season but also their legacy as an NFL dynasty. Goodell had already penalized the Patriots for cheating -- in an illegal-videotaping scheme in 2007 that came to be known as Spygate -- and they saw the suspension as an attack on their legitimacy of the four Super Bowl championships earned under Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
The suspicions boiled over on Jan. 18, 2015, when the league tested -- somewhat unscientifically, it would belatedly learn -- the footballs provided by the home team for the AFC title game against the Indianapolis Colts and found them to be underinflated.
After three months of analysis, league investigator Ted Wells found that the Patriots intentionally used underinflated footballs in the game and that Brady was "at least generally aware" of the scheme. The NFL suspended the four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback four games and docked the team $1 million and two draft picks.
Brady appealed -- first within the league, and Goodell affirmed the decision. Brady appealed to federal court, and U.S. District Judge Richard Berman overturned the suspension in September 2015. The league appealed to the 2nd Circuit, and the three-judge panel reinstated the original penalty.
That left Brady hoping for a new hearing in front of the complete circuit -- called "en banc" -- or an even more unlikely hearing at the Supreme Court.
"That's always an option to litigants," Olson said after joining the case in May. "It is not something we have resolved ourselves to doing."
New England fans rallied behind their quarterback, putting "Free Brady" on T-shirts, reciting the ideal gas law from memory and giving a hero's welcome to the quarterback when he took the field for the 2015 regular-season opener.
Here are the games Tom Brady will miss.
NFLPA issues statement on Tom Brady decision.
No change in New England's Super Bowl odds or win total at Westgate after Brady appeal rejected. Pats are SB 51 fave at 6-1, win total of 10.5.
The Patriots have been .500 or better after the first 4 games of the season each year between 2002-15.
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down to the final steps, lets see if they appeal to the SC
I was partially joking when I predicted that at the beginning, didn't think it would get this far
but don't spend that money either way, if I lose, I'm just going to deduct it from the money I let you carry over from last football season
