Federal appeals court punts ‘Deflategate’ appeal

NEW YORK – A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s attempt to get a new hearing on his four-game “Deflategate” suspension.

At this point, the quarterback’s remaining hope is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Legal experts say it’s an extreme long shot that the highest court would take up the case.

“It’s the ultimate Hail Mary, very unlikely to be completed,” said Peter Carfagna, former IMG general counsel who lectures on sports law at Harvard. “(The Supreme Court) is playing an eight-deep zone.”

The NFL Players Association, which wants to limit the punishment powers of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, said it is “disappointed” with the court’s decision to deny a re-hearing as, the union argued, there were “clear violations of our collective bargaining agreement” by the league and commissioner.

After Goodell suspended Brady for the first four games of this season for the star quarterback’s role in an alleged football-deflating scheme – something a three-judge panel affirmed Goodell was able to do – Brady asked for the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court to hear the case.

In rejecting that appeal for a new hearing, the court affirmed Goodell’s powers under the collective bargaining agreement to make these kinds of decisions in the future, and delivered a setback to the NFLPA.

“Despite today’s result, the track record of this League office when it comes to matters of player discipline is bad for our business and bad for our game,” the NFLPA said in a written statement. “We have a broken system that must be fixed.”

The union said it will review all of its options on behalf of Brady and other NFL players.

The issue stems from the 2015 AFC championship game between the Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, in which the NFL determined that multiple footballs being used by New England were underinflated, theoretically making them easier to throw and catch.

Barring another legal twist, Brady will be suspended for the first four games of the season, meaning backup Jimmy Garoppolo will start in his absence.

Carfagna said this is almost certainly the final word, legally, on the case.

“From a legal standpoint it would really be jousting at windmills for Brady to continue this,” he said. “It would be unprecedented for the Supreme Court to accept this, an exercise in futility.”