Tom Brady has officially appealed through the NFLPA his four-game suspension for the DeflateGate scandal. In addition to that punishment, the Patriots were fined $1 million, a first-round pick in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017.
RT @NFLPA #NFLPA Statement on Appeal Filed on Behalf of Tom Brady: http://t.co/nIo9lYb6As
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 14, 2015
The Player’s Union has asked for an independent arbitrator to look over the evidence against Brady and his responsibility in the DeflateGate saga. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell can appoint his own arbitrator, even himself if he wants. The NFLPA has asked for an independent arbitrator.
In the statement released by the NFLP, they call out the NFL’s past failures and discipline flubs.
Given the NFL’s history of inconsistency and arbitrary decisions in disciplinary matters, it is only fair that a neutral arbitrator hear this appeal.
If Ted Wells and the NFL believe, as their public comments stated, that the evidence in their report is “direct” and “inculpatory,” then they should be confident enough to present their case before someone who is truly independent.
The appeal comes as a surprise only to people who thought Tom Brady might want to keep a shred of his dignity and potential legacy intact. That is not the case. Brady has still not responded to the allegation and since he’s chosen to appeal the ruling, won’t.
The Patriots set the stage for the appeal with their own “truther” website that would put Michael Moore, Alex Jones and Glen Beck all to shame.
On it, for instance, they claim that Jim McNally’s nickname as “The Deflator” came from his desire to lose weight. The Patriots also allege that the “Tom” mentioned in the texts wanting the balls deflated was not Tom Brady. Yeah. I know.
The site’s front page states:
The conclusions of the Wells Report are, at best, incomplete, incorrect and lack context. The Report dismisses the scientific explanation for the natural loss of psi of the Patriots footballs by inexplicably rejecting the Referee’s recollection of what gauge he used in his pregame inspection. Texts acknowledged to be attempts at humor and exaggeration are nevertheless interpreted as a plot to improperly deflate footballs, even though none of them refer to any such plot. There is no evidence that Tom Brady preferred footballs that were lower than 12.5 psi and no evidence anyone even thought that he did. All the extensive evidence which contradicts how the texts are interpreted by the investigators is simply dismissed as “not plausible.” Inconsistencies in logic and evidence are ignored.
These points, and others, are addressed in greater detail in the following Annotations to the Executive Summary of the Wells Report by Daniel L. Goldberg, a senior partner in the Boston office of Morgan Lewis and who represented the Patriots and was present during all of the interviews of Patriots personnel conducted at Gillette Stadium. Our intention is to provide additional context for balance and consideration.
NFL Network’s Michael Silver called the Patriots’ truther site an insult to “our intelligence. I think it’s reached the point of embarrassment.”
Eight days ago, Robert Kraft said "extending this debate would prove to be futile." Today, his lawyers produced a 19,662-word report.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 14, 2015
All this comes on the heels of a national poll from ABC News/ESPN which stated that 76 percent of self-described “avid” NFL fans supported the NFL’s decision to suspend Tom Brady.
Four games was a light punishment for the Patriots in light of their past cheating and Tom Brady’s obvious breaking of the rules for years now according to not only the texts from Jim McNally and John John Jastremski, but also a recent interview with former back-up quarterback A.J. Feeley, who spoke with a Philadelphia sports station and said he saw Brady receiving “broken-in” footballs during a game in 2004.
“Prior to Tommy and Peyton Manning going to the league and saying, ‘Let us doctor our balls’ we used to all play with the same balls,” Feely said. “…Somehow this beat-up ball from the ball boy was getting thrown in on offense for New England, yet when we were on offense this orange brand new ball was getting thrown in.”
The NFLPA has hired Jeffrey Kessler to represent Brady and the union. Kessler was Adrian Peterson’s lawyer that got him reinstated back in February. He also represented Patriots coach Bill Belichick during SpyGate and has litigated multiple sports-related anti-trust suits.
The NFL tried to take it easy on Brady and the Patriots and neither would stand even for that.
