Tom Brady appeals four-match Deflategate suspension

If his team’s 20,000 word rebuttal earlier in the day wasn’t enough of a clue, Tom Brady’s thoughts on his four-game suspension are now clear after he filed an appeal against the punishment on Thursday afternoon. The appeal was filed through the NFL Players Association.

The union says it wants a neutral party to oversee the appeal. They may not get their wish: the NFL's collective bargaining agreement stipulates that the case will be decided by league vommissioner Roger Goodell or a person of his choosing.

“Given the NFL’s history of inconsistency and arbitrary decisions in disciplinary matters, it is only fair that a neutral arbitrator hear this appeal,” the union said in a statement. The appeal must be heard in the next 10 days.

Last week, the NFL's report into the Deflategate scandal found "it is more probable than not" that at least two New England Patriots employees improperly deflated footballs in the team's AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts and that Brady was "at least generally aware" of the wrongdoing.

As a result Brady was handed a four-game suspension for the start of next season, while the Patriots were fined $1m and stripped of a first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round selection in 2017.

Earlier on Thursday, the Patriots had tweeted a link to a website, wellsreportcontext.com, detailing their objections to the Wells report, the NFL’s investigation into Deflategate.

The response, penned by Patriots lead litigation counsel Daniel L Goldberg, includes the testimony of Roderick MacKinnon, winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2003, who calls the report's scientific analysis "a good attempt to seek the truth" but "based on data that are simply insufficient".

The rebuttal even offers an explanation for the incriminating text message in which locker room attendant Jim McNally refers to himself as “the deflator”, noting that McNally was a “big fellow” who had been working out in order to slim down.

“’Deflate’ was a term they used to refer to losing weight,” Goldberg reasons. “One can specifically see this use of the term in a Nov.30, 2014 text from Mr McNally to Mr. Jastremski: ‘deflate and give somebody that jacket.’ (p 87). This banter, and Mr McNally’s goal of losing weight, meant Mr McNally was the ‘deflator.’ There was nothing complicated or sinister about it.”

Brady's agent, Don Yee, had attacked his client's punishment earlier in the week, and said they would contest the suspension. "The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis. In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever," said Yee.

“There is no evidence that Tom directed footballs be set at pressures below the allowable limit ... We will appeal, and if the hearing officer is completely independent and neutral, I am very confident the Wells Report will be exposed as an incredibly frail exercise in fact-finding and logic.”

The appeal only applies to Brady’s ban, and does not concern the Patriots’ fine or loss of draft picks.

(Guardian service)