NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady could again be facing a four-game suspension for the scandal known as Deflategate after federal appeals court judges spent time Thursday shredding some of his union\u2019s favorite arguments for dismissal.<\/p>\n
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan gave a players\u2019 union lawyer a tough time, with Circuit Judge Denny Chin even saying evidence of ball tampering was \u201ccompelling, if not overwhelming,\u201d and there was evidence to support a finding that Brady \u201cknew about it, consented to it, encouraged it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we as appellate judges reviewing an arbitrator\u2019s decision second-guess the four-game suspension?\u201d Chin asked attorney Jeffrey Kessler of the NFL Players Association.<\/p>\n
The appeals court did not immediately rule, but it seemed to lean heavily at times against the union\u2019s arguments, raising the prospect that the suspension Brady was supposed to start last September before a judge nullified it may begin next season instead.<\/p>\n
The appeals panel seemed receptive to the NFL\u2019s argument that it was fair for Commissioner Roger Goodell to severely penalize one of the game\u2019s greatest quarterbacks after concluding he tarnished the game by impeding the league\u2019s investigation into deflated footballs, including destroying a cellphone containing nearly 10,000 messages. The league had concluded that deflated balls were used when the Patriots routed the Indianapolis Colts at the January 2015 AFC championship game before they went on to win the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Judge Barrington D. Parker said the cellphone-destruction issue raised the stakes \u201cfrom air in a football to compromising the integrity of a proceeding that the commissioner had convened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn adjudicator looking at these facts, it seems to me, might conclude that the cellphone had incriminating information on it and that, in the teeth of an investigation, it was deliberately destroyed,\u201d Parker said. \u201cSo why couldn\u2019t the commissioner suspend Mr. Brady for that conduct alone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all due respect, Mr. Brady\u2019s explanation of that made no sense whatsoever,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
Kessler said the league\u2019s investigator never asked for the phone.<\/p>\n
Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann noted that the fact that commissioners can be confronted with a novel situation might be why the language of the players union\u2019s contract agreement with the league \u201cgives the commissioner broad authority to deal with conduct detrimental\u201d to the game.<\/p>\n
The judges did not treat the NFL gingerly either, with Parker questioning whether Goodell took his authority too far by designating himself the arbitrator and making findings that went beyond a report prepared by an investigator the league hired.<\/p>\n
Parker told NFL attorney Paul Clement that Goodell in effect is \u201cthe judge, the juror and, execution is not the right word, but the enforcer,\u201d and that his power made his role different fundamentally from arbitration cases the court typically handles.<\/p>\n
Clement said both sides had agreed in contract negotiations that Goodell would preside over \u201cconduct detrimental\u201d proceedings.<\/p>\n
At another point, Parker said Brady\u2019s lengthy suspension seemed at \u201cfirst blush a draconian penalty\u201d for deflated footballs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the advantage you get from an underinflated football?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
The judges also questioned why deflating footballs would warrant a severe suspension.<\/p>\n
But they seemed to answer that question themselves when Kessler stood before them as they noted repeatedly that it may well be within Goodell\u2019s authority to punish a player if he concludes that the player interfered with an investigation and thus engaged in conduct detrimental to the game.<\/p>\n
After Goodell rejected Brady\u2019s appeal of the four-game suspension, the league went to federal court to get a judge\u2019s approval of its handling of the case. But Judge Richard Berman ruled against the NFL a week before the season began, eliminating Brady\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n
The NFL appealed.<\/p>\n
Clement urged the court to rule quickly for the good of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be an awful shame if this issue has to be hanging over the league for another whole season,\u201d he said. \u201cEnd this right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Goodell nor Brady was in court Thursday. A decision could take weeks or months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady could again be facing a four-game suspension for the scandal known as Deflategate after federal appeals court judges spent time Thursday shredding some of his union\u2019s favorite arguments for dismissal. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan gave a players\u2019 union lawyer a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16114"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}