Tom Brady 4-Game Deflategate Suspension Ruled An Appropriate Sanction By Second Circuit

Darren Heitner ,

The four-game suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In its ruling, the Second Circuit determined that the suspension based on Brady’s alleged deflation of footballs was properly implemented by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and that it is not the judicial branch’s place to interfere with Goodell’s findings.

“In their collective bargaining agreement, the players and the League mutually decided many years ago that the Commissioner should investigate possible rule violations, should impose appropriate sanctions, and may preside at arbitrations challenging his discipline,” reads the Second Circuit’s ruling. “Although this tripartite regime may appear somewhat unorthodox, it is the regime bargained for and agreed upon by the parties, which we can only presume they determined was mutually satisfactory.”

Tom Brady has to have his head down after losing a big battle in the Second Circuit. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

In essence, the court has held that Goodell did not put a gun to NFL players’ heads and demand that they sign the collective bargaining agreement currently in place. Instead, NFL players voluntarily agreed to the terms contained within the collective bargaining agreement and must live with the consequences of same, even if they believe those terms to be tacitly unfair.
The court noted that its task is to only ensure that the arbitrator arguably construed or applied the collective bargaining agreement and acted within the scope of his authority while not ignoring the plain language of the agreement
“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,’” stated the court with citation to case law from the same district in 2015.

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Basically, the court said to Brady that he and his colleagues made their bed and now they must sleep in it. They should have envisioned that the words they agreed to, in writing, could be used against them. The Second Circuit’s position is that any gripes with the language contained with the collective bargaining agreement must be resolved through negotiations amongst the parties and now through judicial intervention.
The Second Circuit made it quite clear that it did not feel comfortable with the judicial branch intervening between parties that had previously agreed to arbitration procedures. But it also could not resist the urge to use its opportunity to chime in on Brady’s destruction of his mobile phone in close proximity to the Deflategate investigation.
“[A]ny reasonable litigant would understand that the destruction of evidence, revealed just days before the start of arbitration proceedings, would be an important issue. It is well established that the law permits a trier of fact to infer that a party who deliberately destroys relevant evidence the party had an obligation to produce did so in order to conceal damaging information from the adjudicator,” said the court’s ruling.
Thus, Brady’s suspension is put back in place and NFL players, as a whole, must reconsider allowing Goodell to be judge, jury and executioner in future collective bargaining negotiations.
Darren Heitner is a lawyer and the Founder of South Florida-based HEITNER LEGAL, P.L.L.C., which has a focus on Sports Law and Entertainment Law.