The NFL may have finally issued a ruling on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's appeal of his four-game Deflategate suspension, concluding that Brady "was aware of" and had taken "steps to support" the illegal deflation of footballs, and so, ultimately deciding to uphold the ban in full, but that doesn't mean the situation is close to being over. In fact, things are probably pretty far from finished where Brady and the NFLPA's fight with the league is concerned.
Albert Breer of NFL.com reported immediately in the wake of the Goodell's ruling that the NFLPA was ready to file a lawsuit in federal court on the future Hall of Famers behalf and were simply waiting on the final go-ahead from Brady. It seems they're still waiting on word from Brady, per Breer.
"The NFLPA still doesn't have final go-ahead from Brady on filing a lawsuit. Plan for right now, if they get it, is to file in Minnesota," Breer tweeted.
In the meantime, the NFL has preemptively filed against the NFLPA in Manhattan, as noted by Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg News Sports Business and a portion of which you can see in this tweet from Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports below...
Portion of court filing by NFL against NFLPA today seeking confirmation of Tom Brady suspension that @soshnick noted pic.twitter.com/dw6vzThWTT
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 28, 2015
As Soshnick posits, it's likely an attempt on the league's part to "steer jurisdiction" away from Judge David Doty in Minnesota who was ruled favorably for the NFLPA in prior cases, most notably in the Adrian Peterson case. In March, Doty overturned arbitrator Harold Henderson's denial of Adrian Peterson's appeal, allowing the mercurial running back to return to the Vikings this offseason.
The NFL's filing and attempt to keep the issues in Manhattan courts won't necessarily work or keep it from ending up in Minnesota though.
UPDATE, 4:20 PM: Welp, that didn't take long. ESPN's Jim Trotter is reporting that Brady has given the go-ahead. Let the legal battle begin!
