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 the National Football League didn’t give Brady proper notice he might be suspended and also didn’t provide him with a chance to investigate thoroughly the league’s accusations that he probably knew footballs had been inflated below league-mandated levels.
The judge’s ruling concluded with these words: “Brady’s four-game suspension is vacated, effective immediately.”
It appears Brady will be allowed to play for the Patriots’ season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 10, but the NFL can appeal Berman’s ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A stay of the decision also could be sought.
The ruling focused on the process that the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell used to investigate and discipline Brady, 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 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 judge had urged the NFL, Brady and NFL Players Association to reach a settlement concerning the athlete’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 the Patriots footballs 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, the NFL commissioner, 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 said he regretted cooperating with the Wells investigation.
“I was wrong to put my faith in the league,” he said.
