Deflategate is over, for now: Tom Brady’s 4-game suspension for deflating footballs nullified

by on

Photo via Flickr user WEBN-TV.
Photo via Flickr user WEBN-TV.

In a huge win for the Patriots and an embarrassing loss for the NFL front office, a federal judge nullified Tom Brady’s 4-game suspension on Thursday.

The NFL suspended Brady in May after finding that it was “more probable than not” that the Patriots purposefully took air out of footballs during last season’s playoffs to gain an edge on offense.

The digital gauge can deflate a football in just seconds.
The digital gauge can deflate a football in just seconds.

Judge Richard M. Berman did not rule on whether Brady and the Patriots broke NFL rules, but rather found that the NFL did not have the authority to hand out the suspension in the first place given an agreement in place between the league and the player’s union.

“This decision should prove, once and for all, that our Collective Bargaining Agreement does not grant this Commissioner the authority to be unfair, arbitrary, and misleading,” NFL Players’ Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith said in a statement. “While the CBA grants the person who occupies the position of Commissioner the ability to judiciously and fairly exercise the designated power of that position, the union did not agree to attempts to unfairly, illegally exercise that power, contrary to what the NFL has repeatedly and wrongfully claimed.”

You can read the full decision here. Michael McMann has a good run-down here of why the judge ruled in Brady’s favor, and Andrew Brandt takes a look at what this means for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The NFL, which can still appeal today’s decision, originally found that the Patriots’ game balls were all under the minimum PSI (pounds per square inch of pressure) levels at halftime of last season’s AFC Championship. It also noted that two team employees used a “needle” to deflate the footballs.

GeekWire saw one of these “needles” in action back in February when we visited Baden Sports to learn more about ball pressure and why a quarterback may like a “softer” ball — it allows fingers to depress the leather more easily and allows quarterbacks to throw the ball farther, for example.

Regardless, today’s ruling ends a long, dramatic battle between Brady’s Patriots and the league office. It also sparked great chatter on Twitter.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.