Judge rules for Tom Brady, overturns suspension

[cheekman]

Judge rules for Tom Brady, overturns four-game deflate-gate suspension

oh boy the die-hards were all set for him not to play...

This was the NFL’s nightmare.

After more than seven months, several millions of dollars and big talking from the league and commissioner Roger Goodell in the deflate-gate controversy, the first time someone independent looked at the case against Tom Brady it was thrown out.

Judge Richard M. Berman ruled that Brady’s four-game suspension by the NFL will be vacated. Brady maintained his innocence even while the NFL tried to make its most popular player a scapegoat in a scandal the league let grow to outrageous proportions, but from the moment investigator Ted Wells’ report came out it was clear that there was no evidence against Brady. The NFL, for whatever reason, didn’t want to admit that and kept trying to turn Brady into a villain. An independent judge saw it for what it was worth.
And with that, Brady will play. The reigning Super Bowl MVP will be on the field for the season opener on Sept. 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Officially speaking, Brady is off the hook for whatever happened when the Patriots’ footballs were found to be under-inflated during the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. That’s great news for the Patriots. And — if you need one sentence to sum up how badly the league botched this entire thing — the fact that Brady will not miss any games is a horrible look for the league. The NFL under Goodell has been criticized for becoming quite a mess, especially when it comes to player discipline, and deflate-gate sums that up. As soon as the parties got in front of Berman, he chided the NFL, asking, “What is evidence of scheme or conspiracy that covers the January 18 game? I'm having trouble with that.” There never was any.Where does the NFL even go from here? Although it is said that Goodell has "universal" support among owners, some owners have to wonder how this entire debacle was allowed to happen. Its biggest star twisted in the wind all offseason, only to have a court tell everyone he was right all along. Goodell wants desperately to hold onto absolute power over the players, but in very high-profile cases involving deflate-gate, Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and the New Orleans Saints’ bounty scandal, he has been publicly overturned. The NFL doesn’t seem to be too adept at the punishment business. Perhaps it’s time for the league to re-think the process because nobody would say this is working too well.

[HipKat]

This is Goodell's nightmare now. 5 appeals in a row go against him

[nogods]

All the judge ruled was that the collective bargaining agreement does not allow the NFL commissioner to suspend a player for the alleged violations. the judge did not rule on whether Brady committed the alleged violations. It was a rather simple ruling, in essence, it doesn't matter whether or not he committed the alleged violations because the collective bargaining agreement does not allow player suspension even if he violate the agreement.

[HipKat]

What the judge actually ruled on is that the CBA does not allow a player to be suspended when they do not know the consequences of the action. In other words, Brady did not know that he could get a four game suspension 4 this offense or for his alleged role in it and that is why the NFL lost this case

[Mr. Lackawanna]

Maybe it is time for Commissioner Goodell to go.