New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady arrived in New York today for the appeal hearing of the four-game suspension handed down to him by the league in the wake of the Deflategate scandal and the findings of the Wells Report.
Brady's appeal was to be heard by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who refused to recuse himself from the hearing despite a potential conflict of interest which was raised as a concern by both Brady and the NFLPA.
Only, that may not matter, as ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter is reporting that the outcome of Brady's appeal hearing may prove entirely moot and the process of vacating Brady's suspension may be ultimately more successful than Patriots fans could even have hoped.
While the appeal could go well, potentially to the point where it is vacated entirely and the future Hall of Fame signal-caller is able to return to the field for Week One of the 2015 regular season, according to Schefter, even if the suspension isn't overturned, an injunction filed by Brady and the NFLPA could ensure that he's on the field against Pittsburgh.
"You file for a temporary injunction so that Brady can end up playing in the opener," Schefter told WEEI's Dennis and Callahan on Tuesday. "In talking to people who I have spoken to, and we will see how this plays out, there's a real chance they Tom Brady will end up playing in the opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers."
The overturning of the suspension, at this point, seems unlikely. As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweeted earlier in the day, the burden of proof for the appeal hearing has switched to Brady - he must prove his innocence and present new evidence, which will be difficult considering part of his suspension came from what the league perceived as a lack of cooperation on his part for not handing over his cellphone for electronic imaging.
"League source explains on Tom Brady: If he says the same thing he did to Ted Wells, his suspension won't change. How forthcoming will he be?," Rapoport tweeted.
But again, that simply may not matter, as Schefter believes Goodell has painted himself into something of a corner.
"I think Roger Goodell is in a very difficult spot here going forward," Schefter said. "I know that the league has taken a stand on all these cases and we've seen him weigh his [power] in all these cases, but I think this is a case somehow, someway, they've invested a lot in terms of the Wells Report. It cost the NFL upwards of $5 million for the Wells Report and we've seen the American Enterprise Institute and Science Times blow holes in it. Roger Goodell clearly buys into the Wells Report. Ted Wells' work is widely respected by a number of lawyers. There are other people who don't have that same respect for Ted Wells. Obviously, when you heard Ted Wells in the conference call you heard how angry he got.
"The point of it here is, is that they are going to sit in this room and they are going to go over the evidence and I can tell you that Tom Brady and the NFLPA believe that they did not do wrong. There are people who will say here that Brady will go after the commissioner and what will happen is that I think this is on a path to play out in the court of law and I don't think that is going to go particularly well for the NFL because you're not defending your actions in this case, you are questioning the process by which Tom Brady was suspended and there are going to be numerous arguments that he's going to be able to offer in terms of the process by which he was suspended."
For the NFL, Brady and Greg Hardy represent something of a litmus test for the new deterrents they're looking to put in place to keep players from bending and sometimes, outright breaking, the rules.
If Schefter's report is accurate, Brady may not even need to prove that he didn't engage in the purposeful deflation of footballs in order to reach the field for the Patriots season opener.
"... I think generally speaking, this is how it's been described to me: You want to know Tom Brady's mindset going into this, think the Tom Brady who is chewing out teammates on the sideline. In the middle of the game who is yelling at people, cursing, screaming, that Tom Brady," Schefter said. "That is the Tom Brady we're going to get here in today's hearing and moving forward, whatever course that is. I think that Tom Brady is absolutely willing and determined to fight this, to see this through.
"He doesn't believe he did anything wrong. I believe that this is on path to go to the courts. If it goes to the courts, they are questioning the process, not what he did, but the process by which this was done and I think at that point in time he has a chance to have this completely lifted, not serve any games. And if that is the case, why would he not attempt to at least do that?"
