Federal Judge Richard Berman has ruled that the four game suspension against Tom Brady is to be dismissed. This is a very important sports law case because this is a matter of a judge overturning an arbitrators decision. This rarely happens and is based on the Judge finding that the arbitration process was flawed. I didn’t think this would occur although I have thought all along that this Deflategate issue was much ado about nothing. Never in the history of the case did anyone show that 1. Brady deflated anything or ordered the deflating of footballs a pound or two under the suggested air pressure.  2.That he enjoyed an advantage because of this that had an impact on the game, and 3. Most importantly, did the Collective Bargaining Agreement give Goodell the authority to suspend the player.

Basically, the Judge overturned the Commissioners over reach. There was no reason to suspend Brady over this imagined issue and Goodell did not have the authority. This is Judging at its best. A minor, insignificant matter, blown into a major news story because it involved a famous quarterback and the NFL, has been relegated to its proper position- a non-story, by a federal judge who has better things to do.

I was worried that the judge would follow the time honored case history that called for judges to defer to arbitrators in such matters. The judge made the right decision. I wrote that he wouldn’t <a =”http://wwwclarkgriffithblog.com/2015/08/27″>here</a&gt; but am glad to have been wrong.

The article below says more:

Judge rules against NFL, drops Tom Brady’s four-game ban

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady arrived at federal court in New York on Monday.

By Larry Neumeister and Tom Hays ASSOCIATED PRESS SEPTEMBER 03, 2015
NEW YORK — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady can suit up for his team’s season opener after a judge erased his four-game suspension for ‘‘Deflategate.’’

The surprise ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman came Thursday after more than one month of failed settlement talks between the NFL and its players’ union. Many legal experts believed the judge was merely pressuring the sides to settle when he criticized the NFL’s handling of the case at two hearings in August.
But the judge wasn’t posturing.

He came out forcefully in Brady’s favor, maligning the NFL for its handling of the scandal that erupted after the AFC championship game in January, when officials discovered during the first half that Brady used underinflated footballs. New England beat the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 then won the Super Bowl two weeks later.

An NFL investigation led to Brady’s suspension, which Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld.