It's the NFL story that just won't die. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady won a decisive victory over the league and commissioner Roger Goodell just prior to the start of the 2015 regular season when U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ruled in Brady's favor and tossed out the four-game suspension that had been handed to the future Hall of Famer by Goodell in the wake of the Deflategate scandal and the findings of the Wells Report.
Berman tossed the suspension, which Goodell meted out, then upheld on appeal, on the grounds that Brady had no knowledge of what the repercussions would be for some of his actions, the NFL failed to present chief counsel Jeffrey Pash for questioning, and because the NFL and Goodell would not hand over their investigative files, collected by Ted Wells.
It seemed that Brady had won. But the NFL appealed Berman's decision immediately and if the tone of Thursday's first court meeting between the NFL and NFLPA regarding the NFL's appeal of Berman's decision is any indication, Brady's case isn't quite so solid as it once seemed.
A three-judge panel at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York tossed difficult question after difficult question at Jeffrey Kessler, Brady's lawyer, on Thursday, with one, Judge Denny Chin, concluding that the star quarterback's explanation for destroying his cellphone was "ridiculous" and "made no sense whatsoever."
Brady claimed that he destroyed the phone, as he always does with old cellphones, because of his high-profile. If the memory card were to fall into the wrong hands, it could be both damaging and highly invasive.
Chin in particular didn't seem to be buying it.
Kessler and Clement were expected to have 15 minutes to argue their case to Chin, Chief judge Robert A. Katzmann and judge Barrington D. Parker, but the panel began hounding the pair for answers to questions regarding Brady's defense almost immediately.
But it wasn't all bad for Brady on Thursday.
Chin said that evidence of Brady's alleged ball tampering was "compelling, if not overwhelming" and the panel also questioned why they should "second guess" Brady's punishment. They also questioned Goodell's power and his role in the entire saga as "judge, juror...and the enforcer."
The NFLPA though, said that they were "very happy with the proceeding," and it certainly seemed the judges were hardest on Brady, stating ultimately that the cellphone destruction "raised the stakes."
