#REINFLATEGATE
April 25, 2016 3:43 PM   Subscribe

Tom Brady’s Deflategate Suspension Reinstated [The New York Times] Roger Goodell, the most powerful man in football, appears to have prevailed in a 15-month battle with Tom Brady, one of the game’s most celebrated quarterbacks. In the end, their feud — known as Deflategate, and a subject of intense derision for the league — will likely end with Brady’s serving a four-game suspension. A three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday overturned a lower-court ruling, deciding that N.F.L. Commissioner Goodell had broad discretion to suspend players according to the collective-bargaining agreement with the players’ union. The panel’s decision can be appealed to the full Second Circuit, or even the Supreme Court, but a victory for Brady at this point is a long shot, legal experts said.
posted by Fizz (40 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Previously.
posted by Fizz at 3:43 PM on April 25, 2016


Happy to see this, finally. He should have taken the suspension already, but there's no chance the Supreme Court will grant cert here. He's done.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:48 PM on April 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I really hope this bullshit does not head to the SCOTUS.
posted by Fizz at 4:07 PM on April 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


For those interested, full opinion here [PDF].

TL;DR: Courts rarely overturn the decisions of arbitrators, and this case should not have been an exception.
posted by The Bellman at 4:07 PM on April 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I really hope this bullshit does not head to the SCOTUS.
Given that it was a 2-1 split by the panel and the 1 vote on Brady's side was the Chief Judge, I'd say a request for a hearing en banc by the full appeals court is far more likely than an appeal to the Supremes (although still a long shot)
posted by Lame_username at 4:17 PM on April 25, 2016


Just so I can be clear when my one Patriots fan friend moans about this for the rest of the year - this ruling (and the one it overturns) is specifically about the way the suspension was given, and have nothing to do with whether or not it was deserved, is that right?
posted by the agents of KAOS at 4:22 PM on April 25, 2016


If this case doesn't inspire God to come down from Heaven and render a final judgement, I can't imagine what would.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:26 PM on April 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


Just so I can be clear when my one Patriots fan friend moans about this for the rest of the year - this ruling (and the one it overturns) is specifically about the way the suspension was given, and have nothing to do with whether or not it was deserved, is that right?

From the article:
Brady’s lawyers had argued that he was unfairly suspended for his involvement in a scheme to deflate footballs used in a playoff game, and last summer, a Federal District Court judge agreed, allowing Brady to play the entire 2015 season. Assuming nothing changes, he could return to regular play as soon as Oct. 9.

The N.F.L. appealed that ruling to the Second Circuit, which heard oral arguments in early March. The judges were openly skeptical of many of the arguments made by Brady’s lawyer, signaling that they sided with the N.F.L.’s case that Goodell had broad discretion to suspend players.

In their decision, the judges did not consider the underlying facts of the case, including the science of football deflation, but instead looked solely at whether Goodell, as arbitrator, acted in the spirit of the collective bargaining agreement.
posted by Fizz at 4:26 PM on April 25, 2016 [8 favorites]


Oh good, I was worried that I'd have to wait until September for my Facebook feed to be filled with the shrill chest-beating commentary of Patriots fans and Patriots haters alike!
posted by usonian at 4:38 PM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just so I can be clear when my one Patriots fan friend moans about this for the rest of the year - this ruling (and the one it overturns) is specifically about the way the suspension was given, and have nothing to do with whether or not it was deserved, is that right?

Correct. From the Opinion:

"Contrary to our dissenting colleague, we do not consider whether the punishment imposed was the most appropriate, or whether we are persuaded by the arbitrator's reasoning.  In short, it is not our task to decide how we would have conducted the arbitration proceedings, or how we would have resolved the dispute. Instead, our task is simply to ensure that the arbitrator was 'even arguably construing or applying the contract and acting within the scope of his authority' and did not 'ignore the plain language of the contract.' Even failure to 'follow arbitral precedent' is no 'reason to vacate an award.' As long as the award '"draws its essence from the collective bargaining agreement’ and is not merely the arbitrator's "own brand of industrial justice,"' it must be confirmed.

If the arbitrator acts within the scope of this authority, the remedy for a dissatisfied party 'is not judicial intervention,' but 'for the parties to draft their agreement to reflect the scope of power they would like their arbitrator to exercise.'" (Opinion at 12-13, internal citations omitted.)
posted by The Bellman at 4:55 PM on April 25, 2016


This is just one overhyped example of the terrible injustice of arbitration clauses, a biased arbitrator (Goodell) paid by the richer party (the NFL) issued a biased ruling totally disregarding all evidence, but he's perfectly allowed to do so under the terms of the agreement, which the NFLPA bargained for. I hate binding arbitration with the power of 1000 burning suns, but this is one of the few cases where the parties were equally sophisticated, or at least, should have been. The NFLPA may have gotten duped or bamboozled themselves into giving Gooddell final authority over league discipline, but only after years of contract protracted negotiation. Maybe they didn't realize what had happened until Rampage Roger came on the scene. Same thing happens all the time if you were to try to sue ATT or Comcast, but you didn't have a team of lawyers advising you when you signed up for a 24 month contract.

The trial court ruling could've been seen as a strike against binding arbitration, but it's difficult to draw any kind of larger legal insights given that Judge Berman was clearly predisposed to rule against the NFL from the beginning. And it was never going to stand up given the overwhelming deference afforded to arbiters rulings.

But, legal mumbojumbo aside, fuck the Patriots and Tom Brady. They asked for this. In writing. The NFLPA should get better negotiators at the next CBA talks.

And if Merrick Garland's opinion on deflated footballs is what it takes to get him a confirmation hearing, someone should ask him.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:57 PM on April 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


I really hope this bullshit does not head to the SCOTUS.

Never count out Touchdown Tom.
posted by HumuloneRanger at 5:05 PM on April 25, 2016 [10 favorites]


Looks like Brady and the Patriots knew this was going to happen -- he renegotiated his contract last month so that instead of the $9M salary he got last season, he'll "only" get $1M this season (albeit with a $28M signing bonus -- which is not a per-game payment). That means that rather than losing $2,117,647.06 from those four games, he'll lose $235,294.12.
posted by Etrigan at 6:24 PM on April 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


I get that this is what happens when contract disputes escalate, but as a taxpaying American I'm a little bothered that the United States Court System is involved in this.
posted by fzx101 at 7:15 PM on April 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


I guess I should tone down my ire at the republican party. If so many people can insist on being so loudly and expensively wrong about basic physics, that puts the GOP's science-resistant minutes in perspective.

Supremes: please don't fuck this up.
posted by ocschwar at 7:33 PM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


but as a taxpaying American I'm a little bothered that the United States Court System is involved in this.

Taxpayers give millions of dollars to the NFL. It sucks and it's not really anything new. Not trying to derail, but check out this article: How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers [The Atlantic]
Taxpayers in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, were hit with a bill for $26 million in debt service for the stadiums where the NFL’s Bengals and Major League Baseball’s Reds play, plus another $7 million to cover the direct operating costs for the Bengals’ field. Pro-sports subsidies exceeded the $23.6 million that the county cut from health-and-human-services spending in the current two-year budget (and represent a sizable chunk of the $119 million cut from Hamilton County schools). Press materials distributed by the Bengals declare that the team gives back about $1 million annually to Ohio community groups. Sound generous? That’s about 4 percent of the public subsidy the Bengals receive annually from Ohio taxpayers..
posted by Fizz at 7:33 PM on April 25, 2016 [8 favorites]


I'm rooting for the asteroid.
posted by the painkiller at 8:07 PM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


It won't give the Seahawks a second Superbowl win, but it still couldn't happen to a more deserving representative of his team.
posted by lhauser at 8:13 PM on April 25, 2016


but as a taxpaying American I'm a little bothered that the United States Court System is involved in this.

So uhh, you realize that you can file just about whatever the fuck you want in federal court if you pay the $350 filing fee right? Doesn't mean you'll win, but there are about a billion cases pending right now with less money at stake and less presidential value than this one. Even still, it's not a laughing matter to Brady, he's looking at losing somewhere between 250k and 2.5 million dollars, the federal courts are envisioned to settle disputes between parties provided they meet the jurisdiction requirements, this is literally why the courts exist.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:46 PM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Supremes: please don't fuck this up.

There's a 0% chance SCOTUS would actually take this case up, breathless commentary from ESPN "legal analysts" aside. The NFLPA might file a cert petition if they really feel like wasting another 15k$ plus attorney's fees, but I cannot imagine any scenario where that petition would be granted. There's not an actual legal question at issue here, much less an important circuit split that would trigger SCOTUS to look at the case closely. All this really is legally speaking is the Second Circuit smacking down a biased trial judge.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:53 PM on April 25, 2016


I was actually surprised today to hear ESPN analysts call this a "controlling the workforce" issue not a "integrity of the game" issue. This has always been about the shitty contract that the NFLPA signed giving Goodell control. I doubt it was his true intention but by taking this to litigation Brady has brought this issue out in the open.

It's a really bad contract. Goodell can do absolutely anything to any player and hide behind the "conduct detrimental" shield. It basically makes the union agreeing to anything at all moot.
posted by M Edward at 9:28 PM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Also, every ESPN analyst I have heard has completely laughed off the idea of SCOTUS taking up this case. Granted I don't actually watch ESPN I just enjoy their podcasts.
posted by M Edward at 9:30 PM on April 25, 2016




A rough day for Tom "The Asterisk" Brady.
posted by EatTheWeek at 12:44 AM on April 26, 2016


I think people would be more accepting of whatever sanctions were applied in any situation if it didn't look like Rog pulls down the curtains, puts on a Carnac the Magnificent hat and a fake twirly moustache and looks at a crystal ball (loaned from Nick Saban) to get the proper punishment on any situation.

I don't envy his job - he has to juggle a bunch of billionaires off the field and on millionaires on the field happy, keep money rolling, tweak the rules of the game to improve it and try to solve the mess of he and his predecessors did of the concussion problem. But if there's a position he has been a complete failure for his own shortcomings is at head of discipline, and he could well establish a disciplinary board composed by representatives of the league, teams and players working to bring some standards to suspensions. There's no reason why a player that deliberately tried to injure others a number of times like Suh was never suspended because he's a good kid and his actions on the field do not reflect his character, but if he's caught blazing it, gets an automatic 4 game suspension (although I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL only suspended those who might have an actual pot problem, not casual users). I think everyone would be fine with the $10k fine for the Patriots for equipment tampering and a two-game suspension to Brady (reduced to one on appeal) for refusing to cooperate with the investigation. The only reason this dragged for so long was because Rog was pulling punishments out of his ass.
posted by lmfsilva at 3:48 AM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


None of that is his real job. He doesn't get paid 40mil a year to decide player discipline, and the NFL prints money without effort. He's getting paid to be a public relations punching bag so the billionaire owner class can remain anonymous and create a layer of separation between their names and the NFL's concussion and domestic violence problems. The reason Goodell is in the news so much is he's much worse at that, his actual job, than Tagliabue was.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:07 AM on April 26, 2016 [6 favorites]


I don't envy [Gooddell's] job - he has to juggle a bunch of billionaires off the field and on millionaires on the field happy, keep money rolling, tweak the rules of the game to improve it and try to solve the mess of he and his predecessors did of the concussion problem.

I think you might have this backward. Roger Goodell makes somewhere north of $34 million a year (the number is no longer public, since the NFL voluntarily revoked its own nonprofit status to keep from having to divulge it) to act as a large, flashing target for any detractors of the NFL, the NFL's insane and contradictory disciplinary procedures, the NFL's blatant disregard of player safety, the NFL's insane tax burden on states, the NFL's insane use of the NCAA as an unpaid labor pool, and the NFL's general inability to find its own ass with both hands and a flashlight. In this sense, he's one of the most spectacularly successful professional effigies who has ever knotted a necktie. When things like Deflategate happen, people don't line up to question why in the LIVING FUCK the league has policies like "the home team provides all the equipment," they line up to criticize Roger as a tyrannical overlord, and every sportswriter in the country switches focus to Tom Terrific's mens rea. When the Cowboys sign Greg Hardy to an 8-figure contract, no one asks questions like "why is the league shielding wife-beaters and child molesters from prosecution?" they line up to talk about whether Roger should have suspended him for the entire season. In ten years, when the sport finally has to acknowledge that it is literally halving the lifespan of its players, we'll all shake a collective fist in impotent rage at Roger, the great obfuscator, and history will quietly forget that retrograde dickbag billionaires like Jerry Jones were loudly insisting, in 2016, that there's no link between football and CTE.

When the NFL Draft happens on Thursday, Roger is going to frog-march up to the podium, rictus grin in place, and he's going to be booed heartily by an audience full of fans who have latched on to a recognizable persona of the banality of evil. He'll be well-paid for enduring this abuse. Because he's really, really good at what he's paid to do.
posted by Mayor West at 5:26 AM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yup. I should have put "job" (and I *still* don't envy it. The money is excellent, but I'd have to take some heel wrestling classes to deal with the hate).

Part of the problem of Roger being the self-aware tool/hate magnet is that even sites like Deadspin or SBNation (that are more willing to attack the league than ESPN, that is more concerned about protecting their investment in MNF) focus on Roger instead of the owners. The owners could probably fire and replace him on any meeting. Several -gates and high profile player conduct scandals after, still haven't.

In the end, this is ultimately a circus. There has been more pages devoted to Tom's deflated balls (which is a total non-event) than to Manning's balls or doping allegations the NFL was quick to sweep under the rug.
posted by lmfsilva at 5:56 AM on April 26, 2016


Oh, I'm so relieved that this terrible injustice to the game of football has been corrected, bringing light where before there was only darkness.

I'll comment on this more fully after I finish putting these flowers on Junior Seau's gravesite here.
posted by newdaddy at 6:54 AM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm a Patriots fan who thinks it sucks, but I'm not surprised, given the agreement they are working under.

Silver lining: Tom Brady is going to be SO MAD when he comes back after suspension. Angry Tom Brady is not an opponent to be underestimated. His rage metastasizes as touchdowns.
posted by joelhunt at 7:06 AM on April 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


That's a great hashtag. I know this is a touchy issue, so I'll put my two cents in the piggy bank and save it for later.
posted by smashthegamestate at 7:38 AM on April 26, 2016


As someone from Boston who is indifferent to Football, this actually makes me smile. It's nice to see a new Evil Empire being established 215 miles northeast of the original. Now I just need to work on my maniacal cackle.

My only other comment on this is the joke I saw when this first happened that if Brady had deflated the balls by punching them in an elevator, he would only be facing a 2 game suspension. Knocking out a woman, that's a little bad. But changing a few PSI, well, that's one step below a war crime. (Actually prosecuted war crime, not swept under the rug with fancy language war crime.)
posted by Hactar at 7:53 AM on April 26, 2016


Arbitration clauses are massively good things for unions and the workers they represent. They allow a union to actually defend firings. Full on lawsuits are too expensive and the standard breach of contract remedies are not useful.

I do labor arbitration. It is the best thing going for workers.

It is amazing how well Brady's spin people have worked him into the victim. He is dead to rights guilty and destroyed evidence. That makes judges and arbitrators rightly see red.

Seriously, the idea that Goodell is some sort of tyrant is hilarious. He under punished Brady, who should have been suspended a whole year, not for deflation, but for destroying the phone.

Whoever he's paying for spin ought to get a huge raise.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:00 AM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Remind me again why professional sports haven't all been replaced by sophisticated predictive algorithms that people can bet on yet?
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:14 AM on April 26, 2016


NFL Permitted To Impose Grossly Disproportionate Punishment For Offense That Wasn’t Committed
The second argument made by the dissent was that Goodell did not adequately defend the decision to impose an unprecedented sentence that went far beyond the penalty for similar offenses mandated by the CBA [...] As an argument about the merits of Goodell’s decision, this argument is unanswerable — the punishment was irrational and grossly disproportionate. But it’s not the appellate court’s job to determine the defensibility of the suspension on the merits, and on this point I agree with the majority that the CBA did not require Goodell to consider analogous punishments or forbid an arbitrary and unprecedented punishment, even one as extreme as this. If Goodell exceeded his authority, it was by denying Brady’s right to advance notice.

Given the extreme unlikelihood that 2CA will grant an en banc appeal or the Supreme Court would grant cert, this is now a football story. And as a football story, Goodell’s actions remain as outrageous as ever. The suspension of Brady for 4 games has a significant impact on the NFL season, and even if Brady and the Patriots were guilty as charged, the offense merited no more than a five-figure fine. And, of course, they weren’t. [...]

The season has been substantially affected by a suspension based on completely worthless junk science put forward by a for-hire chop shop, and also involves a severe punishment for an offense that would be trivial even if it had actually happened. Goodell may have been within his formal legal authority, but his actions were a disgraceful abuse of his powers, powers that need to be constrained in the next CBA.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:50 AM on April 26, 2016 [3 favorites]


The thing I'll say about Tom Brady is that, whenever you find that you're asking a henchman to destroy your cellphone for you, that's a pretty sure sign that you're guilty of something.
posted by newdaddy at 11:31 AM on April 26, 2016


He under punished Brady, who should have been suspended a whole year, not for deflation, but for destroying the phone.

On what NFL precedent are you basing a penalty for conduct detrimental to the league for one year for destroying one's phone on?


Any of the suspensions for using masking agents in a drug test.

Seriously, tampering with evidence is the worst thing you can do. Attacks the core process of the proceeding. People are so pro-Brady that they cannot see the facts.

Brady was punished for knowing about it because he destroyed the evidence that would have showed he was involved.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-evidence-against-tom-brady-deflategate-2015-5

The texts are just damning.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:03 PM on April 26, 2016


Seriously, tampering with evidence is the worst thing you can do. Attacks the core process of the proceeding. People are so pro-Brady that they cannot see the facts.

I like Brady, and I think he's guilty as fuck here of obstructing an investigation. But suspending him for an year does not seem appropriate to punish an equipment violation (IIRC, $10k fine). If he was, for instance trying to stop a widespread PED usage investigation, proof of collusion with other teams, match fixing for betting purposes, etc. Unless the NFL had valid suspicions turning up his phone would turn up evidence of more serious offenses, a two game suspension for tampering and obstructing an investigation and a 10k fine for the Pats would be more reasonable than what Rog came up with.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:08 PM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Seriously, tampering with evidence is the worst thing you can do. Attacks the core process of the proceeding. People are so pro-Brady that they cannot see the facts.

I like Brady, and I think he's guilty as fuck here of obstructing an investigation. But suspending him for an year does not seem appropriate to punish an equipment violation (IIRC, $10k fine). If he was, for instance trying to stop a widespread PED usage investigation, proof of collusion with other teams, match fixing for betting purposes, etc. Unless the NFL had valid suspicions turning up his phone would turn up evidence of more serious offenses, a two game suspension for tampering and obstructing an investigation and a 10k fine for the Pats would be more reasonable than what Rog came up with
.

In most labor arbitration hearings sanctions for destruction of evidence means the sanctioning party loses and if the employee was directly involved, the employer would fire them. In New York State the rule is quite specific. If one of my clients did it they would be fired.
posted by Ironmouth at 1:53 PM on April 26, 2016


A lot of people have listened to the near consensus of the Physics community on how the NFL is wrong about Ideal Gas Law, and how their inability to actually tell which measuring device was used when, are hugely problematic.

If you read the texts, there was an attempt to tamper with the footballs. Effective or not they attempted to cheat. I know all about the alleged physics but really? A ball boy calls himself the "deflator" asks for autographed Brady materials, is provided those materials, says the footballs will be blown up like a watermelon because he's tired he's doing Brady's work and the only source of evidence linking Brady to the conspiracy is destroyed by Brady the day it is supposed to be turned over.

This is out and out fraud. They are cheating and destroying evidence to cover it up.

Plus, I am to believe that these two did it all on their own because Belichick runs such a loosie-goosie shop that people just do what they want. Okay, sure. Nobody on that team dares call their mommy unless Belichick says its OK.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:16 PM on April 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


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