Make sure you follow this report with a big grain of salt. Craig Carton, one of the hosts of the "Boomer and Carton" show on WFAN, reported on Thursday that a "very influential person in the NFL" had informed him that there was "no doubt" that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady would serve his four-game suspension at some point this season.
This seems outrageous for a couple of reasons.
First, Brady's suspension was just overturned by U.S. Judge Richard Berman. It has been suggested in a number of places that a further appeal of that decision by the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell would require somewhere in the vicinity of 10 months to complete.
While Carton followed up by reporting that the league is attempting to get the appeal expedited, his co-host, Boomer Esiason, responded fairly strongly himself.
"What this person doesn't realize," Esiason said, via WFAN, "(is) that they all felt the same way prior to Judge Berman's ruling. But what they didn't know is that Judge Berman was going out to The Hamptons to hang out with (Patriots owner) Bob Kraft.
"...I don't buy it. I know they want to expedite an appeal, but there's so many other things on the docket at these courts. Is this really that important to somebody? I know it's important to the NFL."
There's also the fact that, assuming the appeal is placed on an expedited timeline and assuming the NFL wins, it would likely just end up back on Judge Berman's desk. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes that if that were to happen, Berman would then likely "consider various unresolved questions regarding Commissioner Roger Goodell's fitness to serve as the arbitrator of the case, and Judge Berman most likely would allow Brady to keep playing while that aspect of the case is resolved."
Meaning Brady's chances of missing time this season aren't just slim, they're pretty much none. And it also means that, as Florio suggests, the NFL's view of the case may be so skewed at this point as to border on "delusional."
