Hurley: Second Circuit's Rejection Was Not A Setback For Tom Brady
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Second Circuit's decision to deny a rehearing for Tom Brady was, on its surface, bad news for the Patriots quarterback. But it wasn't unexpected.
Back in April, Brady added high-powered lawyer Ted Olson to his legal team in an effort to reverse the Second Circuit's decision. However, given Olson's background and history, it was clear from the get-go that Olson wasn't hired to win at the Second Circuit.
He was hired to win at the Supreme Court.
While those odds remain long for Brady, the rejection from the Second Circuit this week was undoubtedly an expected part of the process when Olson was hired.
"I keep getting this vibe from the Brady camp that this was the plan all along," CBS Boston's Michael Hurley said on Toucher & Rich on Thursday. "I don't think yesterday's news was a setback for them. I think the hiring of Olson was made with this next step in mind. I think when Olson filed that petition to the Second Circuit, it was aimed at the Supreme Court. It wasn't aimed at the Second Circuit. It argued things that weren't argued in the Second Circuit. It argued much larger things about all unionized employees and things like that. It brought in the Kenneth Feinbergs to talk about the grander implications on arbitration. So I think if they got the rehearing granted at the Second Circuit, it would have been like gravy. I don't think Ted Olson was hired to get that. I think he was hired for this step. And he has experience there, he's argued in front of the Supreme Court 62 times, he claims to have won 75 percent of them, so I think he was brought in for this.
"There is some sort of reason to believe [Brady's] got the right people to get it," Hurley added. "The odds are better than they were before -- it's not .3 percent, it's 1 percent. But it's still long odds facing him."
Still, considering the grand distraction that comes from something as large as a Supreme Court petition (see: NFL Network hosts), is there any chance that Brady might decide he doesn't have the stomach for it and just drop the appeal?
"Zero. Zero. Zero," Hurley said. "He didn't hire Ted Olson to just hope to win the Second Circuit 0.3 percent chance and then lay down. Zero percent. He's going to fight it. And it feels like there's been a strategy devised. It's obviously been kept pretty quiet, no one has that scoop, but I think the Olson hiring was made with this step in mind, and I think they're going to follow through with it."
Speaking of that criticism of Brady from the NFL Network hosts, Hurley said that was going to happen no matter which side petitioned the highest court in the land.
"Whichever side eventually petitioned the Supreme Court was going to get a negative backlash publicly," he said. "That was coming, no matter what. If it was the NFL, we would say Goodell needs to get over it, the NFL's being ridiculous. Or if it was going to be Brady, people were going to single him out for being selfish, putting himself above the needs of the country. Where in fact, none of us really pay close attention to what the Supreme Court does on a daily basis. We can't name the last 15 cases they've heard. They hear 80 per year. So it's not as if every case is as significant as gay marriage or things like that."
Speaking of the Supreme Court, it's rather interesting that the justice who will decide on whether or not the case is worthy is none other than Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The 83-year-old has been the target of calls to resign from her position after she made very critical comments about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
"She just created this whole firestorm around herself for talking about Trump this week. She's on CNN, Headline News all day long with people telling her she should resign. So for this case, maybe it's good timing, maybe it's bad timing. I don't know," Hurley said. "I think it's interesting that it ends up on her desk in the middle of her being in the news for ... I don't know, I haven't seen Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the news all that often until this week.
"It's a pretty tumultuous political climate at the moment, with the convention next week and everything like that. ... A lot of this is politicized and it depends on political leanings of judges and things like that."
Speaking of those political leanings, will Brady's support of Donald Trump factor in to Ginsburg's decision-making process?
"That would be remarkable. That would be in the history books 80 years from now, kids reading about how Donald Trump reinforced Tom Brady's suspension indirectly. That would be amazing," Hurley said. "But no, I have to imagine that Ruth Bader Ginsburg probably isn't up on what Tom Brady keeps in his locker."
Watch the full interview in the video above.