Summary: Tom Brady is set to play in the season opener for now, but dismissal of his four-game suspension is not over in the courts for good.
The NFL has spent months and millions of dollars fighting for their right to punish Tom Brady for his involvement in the deflated balls controversy. Judge Richard M. Berman tossed aside the authority of the league by dismissing Brady’s four-game suspension. Commissioner Roger Goodell plans on appealing.
Brady is America’s and the NFL’s sweetheart player that could never do anything wrong. While the Ted wells report did not find any direct evidence linking Brady to the incident, there was enough unexplained behavior committed by Brady to link him, such as destroying his cell phone with the text messages between him and the two accused employees.
Blaming the league for the disciplinary actions of their players is not fair when outside sources conflict with their ability to govern their rules. While the NFL did not seek independent sources to investigate the incident, they shouldn’t have to. The NFL is forced to deal with millionaire athletes that believe they are above the rules. They do not want to punish athletes because it in turn punishes the fans and teams but sometimes an example must be made. Tom Brady was that example that a player can’t mess with equipment and get away with it. When millions of dollars are at stake, no one wants to come down on the sources of those millions but Goodell is required to.
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