Tom Brady Beats NFL In 'Deflategate' Court Case
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be in the lineup for the season-opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Today, a judge nullified a four-game suspension in the "DeflateGate" scandal, in which he and the Patriots are accused of intentionally deflating footballs in the AFC title game.
Le'Veon Bell will miss the opener in Foxborough, Massachusetts on Sept. 10, while he serves a suspension related to his arrest for possession of marijuana and DUI during a traffic stop last year. Bell had his suspension reduced from three games to two earlier this year.
The Steelers will also be without wide receiver Martavis Bryant, who was suspended for four games for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.
Last year, Bryant caught 26 passes for 549 yards and 8 touchdowns in just 10 regular season games.
The ruling was a surprise to some legal experts who believed U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman was merely pressuring the league to settle when he criticized its handling of the investigation and discipline over the last eight months.
The league brought the scandal to Berman's Manhattan courtroom immediately once Goodell upheld Brady's four-game suspension, blasting the quarterback for arranging the destruction of his cellphone and its nearly 10,000 messages just before he was interviewed for the NFL probe. The union countersued, said Brady did nothing wrong and asked the judge to nullify the suspension.
While the league investigation found it was "more probable than not" that two Patriots ball handling employees deliberately released air from Patriots game balls at January's 45-7 New England victory over the Indianapolis Colts, it cited no direct evidence that Brady knew about or authorized it.
In July, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld the four-game suspension. In his decision, the commissioner claimed Brady directed that his cell phone be destroyed on or shortly before March 6, when Brady met with investigator Ted Wells.
The commissioner said he concluded Brady "knew about, approved of, consented to, and provided inducements and rewards" to ensure balls were deflated.
Berman attacked the league while questioning one of its lawyers at two hearings, citing a lack of proof against Brady and asking how Goodell settled on a four-game suspension instead of other discipline.
He warned the league that he had the authority to overturn its punishment of Brady if he found the NFL acted unfairly by refusing to deliver NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Pash as a witness even though he worked on the NFL investigation.
Berman's ruling does not necessarily end the dispute. The league can appeal.
Don't expect @NFL to seek an injunction to keep Tom Brady off the field as they appeal this ruling. Basically, he's playing this season.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 3, 2015
LISTEN: Locals react to ruling:
Many Steelers fans didn't a like the ruling.
"They punish people for lesser offenses, but they won't take no action against him, so I think it's unacceptable," said Mike Howell, of Moon Township.
"What they decided isn't right," said Andy Dzatko, of Monessen. If you cheat in the playoffs, and then you get to the Super Bowl and you win the Super Bowl, that's not fair."
"From a legal standpoint, it's probably correct," said Jack O'Hare, of McCandless. "I think you'd ask a great amount of people, they'd say he's guilty."
"I think it's just rotten," added Roy Daniels, of Greensburg. "He should have been able to do the time like everybody else. If these guys got in trouble with the Steelers, what they do, they suspended them."
Berman had repeatedly urged both sides to settle and tone down their rhetoric. At a hearing Monday attended by Brady and Goodell, the judge announced that both sides had "tried quite hard" to reach a deal in morning talks. But the case was left for him to decide.
As they negotiated, the sides attacked each other in court papers.
In one August court filing, the union said the four-game suspension displayed "a clearly biased agenda - not an effort at fairness and consistency," and it criticized Goodell's ruling upholding the suspension as a "smear campaign," a "propaganda piece written for public consumption."
In its papers, the NFL said there was "ample support" in evidence for the commissioner to conclude Brady was involved in efforts by the Patriots equipment personnel to deflate footballs.
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