It would seem the NFLPA is ready for a fight should New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's appeal of his four-game Deflategate suspension prove unsuccessful. NFLPA President Eric Winston appeared on ProFootballTalk Live on Wednesday and indicated both his hope that the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell will get the ruling on Brady's appeal right and that, should they not, the NFLPA is ready to take the "next step."
"It's not even worth trying to guess what's going on because it doesn't seem like all the time that they know what's going on," Winston said. "I hope they do the right thing, I hope they exonerate Tom and overturn his suspension, but if they don't we're prepared to take the next step, whatever that next step might be. But we can't take that next step and we can't go forward until a decision is made. Why it takes over a month, and why it took six months to get to that point before that, and the constant feet-dragging on not just Tom's issue but all the issues is, to me, just seems a bit ridiculous and doesn't serve the players very well. But that's where we're at now and we're just going to have to continue to keep advocating for our players."
HNGN laid out Brady's potential avenues of recourse should Goodell uphold his suspension in any form - something Brady will reportedly take issue with. While Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy is mulling giving up his fight with the league and simply serving his four-game suspension after it was reduced down from 10-games, Brady, it seems, is prepared to go the distance, with the NFLPA very much on board with that thinking.
