Tom Brady’s four-game Deflategate suspension upheld; NFLPA plans new appeal

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell denied New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s appeal of his four-game suspension for his alleged involvement in the Deflategate scandal, the league announced Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday, the NFL Players Assn. announced that it would file an appeal on Brady’s behalf.

In his ruling, Goodell said he upheld the suspension because Brady impeded a league-commissioned investigation by destroying his cellphone. Goodell said Brady instructed an assistant to destroy the phone on or just before March 6 -- the day he met with attorney Ted Wells, who was investigating the Patriots’ use of deflated footballs in the AFC championship game.

“[Brady] did so even though he was aware that the investigators had requested access to text messages and other electronic information that had been stored on that phone,” Goodell said in his decision.

Goodell found “Brady’s deliberate destruction of potentially relevant evidence went beyond a mere failure to cooperate.” He also concluded “Brady was aware of, and took steps to support‎, the actions of other team employees to deflate game footballs below the levels called for by the NFL’s Official Playing Rules.”

Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said in a statement that “the appeal process was a sham.”

“The Commissioner’s decision is deeply disappointing, but not surprising because the appeal process was thoroughly lacking in procedural fairness,” Yee stated. “Most importantly, neither Tom nor the Patriots did anything wrong. And the NFL has no evidence that anything inappropriate occurred.”

Yee added that Goodell ignored the “unprecented amount” of electronic data presented by Brady.

“Tom was completely transparent,” he said. “All of the electronic information was ignored; we don’t know why. The extent to which Tom opened up his private life to the Commissioner will become clear in the coming days.”

In announcing its plan to appeal Brady’s suspension, the NFL Players Assn. argued that the commissioner’s ruling did not address deficiencies in due process.

“The fact that the NFL would resort to basing a suspension on a smoke screen of irrelevant text messages instead of admitting that they have all of the phone records they asked for is a new low, even for them, but it does nothing to correct their errors,” the NFLPA said in a statement.

The Patriots issued a statement expressing disappointment in Goodell’s ruling, calling the penalties excessive in light of “no hard evidence of wrongdoing.”

“We continue to unequivocally believe in and support Tom Brady,” the team said. “We also believe that the laws of science continue to underscore the folly of this entire ordeal. Given all of this, it is incomprehensible as to why the league is attempting to destroy the reputation of one of its greatest players and representatives.”

According to multiple reports, Brady will fight the suspension in federal court and is seeking an injunction to delay the the suspension from being imposed. To defend him in the Deflategate case, Brady retained lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, who has successfully fought the NFL on multiple occasions, including the New Orleans Saints’ bountygate scandal in 2008.

In May, days after being suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season, the star quarterback filed an appeal. The punishment was for conduct deemed detrimental to the integrity of the NFL after Wells found that Brady was likely generally aware that equipment assistants had deflated the Patriots’ footballs for the AFC championship game Jan. 18 against the Indianapolis Colts. Deflated footballs are easier to throw and catch.

Goodell, who imposed the original penalty, appointed himself to hear the appeal. Goodell had also fined the Patriots $1 million and stripped them of a first-round pick next year, and a fourth-round selection in 2017. The fine is tied for the largest in NFL history, matching that imposed on former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo in 1999 for his role in a Louisiana riverboat gambling scandal.

The alleged football-deflation scheme marked the second time in eight years the Patriots had been accused of cheating. In 2007, they were caught improperly videotaping the sideline hand signals of New York Jets coaches. That incident, nicknamed Spygate, cost New England Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 — the maximum allowable fine at the time — and the league docked the Patriots a first-round draft pick.

If Brady were to file in federal court, he would likely do so in either Minnesota, where the NFLPA has had success before, or the Patriots’ home state of Massachusetts.

The NFL has been on a losing streak lately when it comes to getting original suspensions to stick. The high-profile discipline cases involving players Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy were all successfully challenged on appeal or in court.

Were Brady to file an appeal in federal court, he almost certainly would request an injunction that would delay any suspension until a decision were reached. That would at least allow him to play in the Sept. 10 Kickoff Opener against Pittsburgh.

Last week, ABC News was the first of multiple media outlets to report Brady’s strategy for fighting any eventual suspension. That included arguing that the league’s policy for handling equipment applies to club personnel and not players; that having a “general awareness” of a plan to deflate footballs doesn’t justify punishment; that Brady didn’t have fair notice of the punishment he faced; and that other such instances of alleged tampering with footballs didn’t result in player suspensions.

The Patriots also have questioned Wells’ methodology and procedures in the production of his report.

Brady remains eligible to participate in training camp and preseason games with the Patriots. His first game back from suspension would be in Week 6 against the Colts on Oct. 18.

Staff writers Austin Knoblauch and Christina Littlefield contributed to this report.

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