NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that a decision could come this week on the appeal of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who is currently scheduled to miss the first four games of 2015 season after being suspended for his alleged role in Deflategate. According to a Wednesday morning report, Brady and the NFLPA won’t be happy unless the entire suspension is wiped completely off the board by Goodell.
According to Ryan Smith of ABC News, NFLPA sources are telling him that if Brady’s appeal results in any type of game suspension, they’ll challenge the ruling in federal court.
#DeflateGate latest: NFLPA sources tells us if Tom Brady’s appeal results in suspension for ANY games, they’ll challenge in federal court
— Ryan Smith (@ryansmithtv) July 15, 2015
This is not an overly surprising development by any means as many analysts have predicted that the NFLPA and Brady would indeed challenge any ruling in a court of law if they were unhappy with the final say from Goodell, who they tried to get to recuse himself prior to the hearing.
Should this ultimately go to court, Brady’s suspension might very well be put on a temporary hold for several more months via an injunction and that of course would result in the Patriots quarterback being allowed to play in the Thursday night regular-season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As it looks like right now, unless Goodell completely wipes out Brady’s suspension this week, his final ruling on the appeal won’t mean much of anything.
