A federal judge on Thursday vacated the four-game suspension the NFL imposed on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the “Deflategate” scandal.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman issued a 40-page ruling Thursday morning, saying he found “several significant legal deficiencies” in how NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell investigated accusations the Patriots used footballs inflated below league-mandated levels.
The NFL failed to give Brady proper notice he could be suspended, didn’t provide him the opportunity to question one of the league’s investigators and denied him equal access to investigative files, Berman wrote in his ruling.
The NFL is appealing the ruling but won’t seek a stay of the ruling. Brady should be allowed to play in the Patriots’ season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers next Thursday.
“We are grateful to Judge Berman for hearing this matter, but respectfully disagree with today’s decision,” Goodell said in a statement. “We will appeal today’s ruling in order to uphold the collectively bargained responsibility to protect the integrity of the game. The commissioner’s responsibility to secure the competitive fairness of our game is a paramount principle, and the league and our 32 clubs will continue to pursue a path to that end.”
There was elation among Brady’s teammates, with Rob Gronkowski tweeting: “Let’s go! This season to be one heck of another ride!! #PatsNation.”
The NFL Players Association hailed the ruling, saying, “This decision should prove, once and for all, that our Collective Bargaining Agreement does not grant this Commissioner the authority to be unfair, arbitrary and misleading.”
The ruling focused on the process the NFL and Goodell used, CNN sports reporter Rachel Nichols said.
“This was not about whether Tom Brady deflated footballs or not,” she said. “This ruling today is saying … the NFL way overstepped, according to the judge, the way (it) punished Tom Brady, whether he did it or not. …”
The judge had urged the NFL, Brady and NFL Players Association to reach a settlement concerning the four-time Super Bowl winner’s suspension. That didn’t happen.
Berman’s three options were to uphold Brady’s suspension, overturn it or send the case back to an arbitrator.
The controversy began when the New England Patriots were accused of using underinflated footballs to gain a competitive advantage in the Patriots’ AFC championship victory over the Indianapolis Colts on January 18.
The underinflation came to light at halftime after a Colts player intercepted a pass and gave the ball to his team’s equipment staff.
The equipment staff discovered the ball was inflated to 11 pounds per square inch, less than the 12.5 to 13.5 psi the NFL allows, the ruling said.
The referees discovered all 11 of footballs used by the Patriots offense were underinflated and inflated them to regulation pressure for the second half, the ruling said.
The decision noted that Brady passed better in the second half than the first. The Patriots won that game by a landslide, 45-7. They went on to win the Super Bowl in a thrilling last-minute finish.
The NFL hired high-profile attorney Ted Wells to investigate. The Wells Report found that “it is more probable than not” that John Jastremski, the Patriots’ attendant for the game officials’ locker room, and equipment assistant Jim McNally deliberately deflated the balls after referees had inspected them.
“It also is our view that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady (the quarterback for the Patriots) was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls,” the report said.
The NFL punished Brady with a four-game suspension, but Brady denied involvement and appealed the decision. Goodell upheld the suspension, and both the NFL and the players association filed to have the suspension’s validity decided in federal court.
Read the Wells Report.
The Patriots were punished, too.
The team was fined $1 million and will forfeit its first-round selection in the 2016 NFL draft and its fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft.
Team owner Robert Kraft thanked the judge for his ruling and praised his star quarterback.
“Tom Brady is a classy person of the highest integrity. He represents everything that is great about this game and this league,” Kraft said. “Yet, with absolutely no evidence of any actions of wrongdoing by Tom in the Wells report, the lawyers at the league still insisted on imposing and defending unwarranted and unprecedented discipline.”