TB 12 Appeals - The Saga Continues

[malevocalist#]

Tom Brady and the NFLPA continue to argue Roger Goodell’s ruling was incorrect.

Here are a few highlights of what Brady and his team are saying.

— The petition continues to say Brady’s four-game suspension is “severe and unprecedented.”

— It acknowledges Roger Goodell had the authority to hear the appeal because he’s commissioner, they say Goodell punishment was based on different grounds that weren’t the basis for his original decision.

— It says a rehearing is warranted because the panel opinion conflicts in two respects with the decisions of the Supreme Court and other courts of appeals. The first conflict relates to Goodell acting within his authority to uphold the suspension. It says “an arbitrator’s authority depends on an affirmative grant of authority by the parties not, as the panel majority held, the agreement’s ‘silence’ or an absence of express limits on the arbitrator’s power.”

It adds, “Chief Judge Katzmann had it exactly right when he explained that when the Commissioner ‘changes the factual basis for the disciplinary action after the appeal hearing concludes.'”

— Secondly, the petition brings the case back to it being an equipment violation and Goodell “completely ignored” the penalties in the CBA as it relates to equipment violations. The petition continues to question why Goodell imposed four games for such a minor violation.

— It also goes into how this case impacts more than just Brady. It states this “will harm not just NFL players, but all unionized workers who have bargained for appeal rights as a protection not as an opportunity for management to salvage a deficient disciplinary action by conjuring up new grounds for the punishment.”

— It concludes with: The panel decision stands in stark conflict with fundamental rules of labor law and undermines the rights of union members and employers alike.