Today [Friday, July 15] in a Facebook post to his fans, Tom Brady announced he will no longer seek to appeal the suspension he was given for his involvement in the deflate gate scandal. This week, Brady’s appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan was rejected, meaning that unless Brady took his case to the Supreme Court, he would have to serve his suspension.
Brady said in his post:
“I’m very grateful for the overwhelming support I’ve received from Mr. Kraft, the Kraft family, coach Belichick, my coaches and teammates, the NFLPA, my agents, my loving family and most of all, our fans. It has been a challenging 18 months and I have made the difficult decision to no longer proceed with the legal process. I’m going to work hard to be the best player I can be for the New England Patriots and I look forward to having the opportunity to return to the field this fall.”
In a scandal that has dragged on for way too long, Brady will now serve a 4-game suspension to begin the 2016-2017 NFL season. The suspension was given out back in 2015, after the AFC Championship Game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots, but Brady did not have to serve the suspension while his appeal was being judged in court.
Many analysts said that if Brady were to have taken the case to the Supreme Court, there was a slim chance they would review the chase, let along overturn the ruling of the lower courts. This is mostly a personal victory for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was defending his right to hand out such a suspension for this kind of infraction.
Since 2015, countless tests have been run to determine what exactly happened to the air inside the footballs during that playoff game, but for most Football fans, this has been a waste of time from the beginning. Either Brady was guilty of some sort of cheating and deserved to punished, or whatever happened to the footballs was inconsequential and a 4-game suspension is a ridiculous punishment in relation to the “crime”.
