US justice ruled Monday that quarterback Tom Brady from the New England Patriots must meet the four-game suspension levied by the National Football League in 2015 for his involvement in the scandal of deflated footballs. It is the last episode of a soap opera that has questioned the legal authority of the NFL, Brady’s honesty and the cleanliness of a sport that moves masses and millions of dollars in the United States.
The judgment of a court of appeals in New York cancels an earlier appeal and supports the action of the NFL players union against the league. The defense of Brady, 38, one of the stars of the NFL, can appeal the ruling. The player claims to be innocent. The quarterback is the key player in the football dynamic as he is the one to make the passes.
The controversy, called Deflategate, has its origin in the match played in January 2015 between New England and Indianapolis. The Patriots won by 45-7 and qualified for the Super Bowl, the championship game, they won against the Seattle Seahawks. In that game, the Boston team used underinflated balls. Theoretically, a softer deflated ball is easier to launch by the quarterback and grab by the player who receives it.
The NFL suspended Brady in May 2015, who has won four Super Bowl, after determining that two employees of the Patriots had maliciously deflated the balls and it was “more likely than not that Brady was at least aware of inappropriate activities “.
Brady’s lawyers appealed the decision and in September a federal judge overturned the suspension and allowed him to play all season. The judge argued with Brady that the “did not know” of his actions could amount to punishment a player would receive for example from a positive doping test.
The NFL appealed the suspension to the New York judge who has considered that the NFL and its powerful commissioner Roger Goodell had the authority to punish Brady.
The saga is expected to continue and continue hitting the image of Brady and the Patriots. In 2007, the team was fined by recording how a rival team gave instructions to his players, something banned by the NFL.
