Tom Brady Ends Legal Fight Over Four-Game Suspension

Update:

Patriots owner Robert Kraft has released a statement regarding regarding Tom Brady’s decision to end the legal over his four-game suspension.

“While I was disappointed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision not to rehear Tom Brady‘s case, I am most frustrated that Tom was denied his right to a fair and impartial process. The League’s investigation into a football pressure matter was flawed and biased from the start, and has been discredited nearly unanimously by accredited academics and scientists. 

“The penalty imposed by the NFL was unprecedented, unjust and unreasonable, especially given that no empirical or direct evidence of any kind showed Tom did anything to violate League rules prior to, during or after the 2015 AFC Championship Game. What Tom has had to endure throughout this 18-month ordeal has been, in my opinion, as far removed from due process as you could ever expect in this country.

“From day one, I have believed in Tom and given him my unwavering support in his pursuit to rightfully clear his name of any wrongdoing. That support extends throughout our organization and has only grown more steadfast as the preponderance of scientific evidence has exonerated Tom. Unfortunately, this stopped being about air pressure a long time ago.

“This entire process has indelibly taken a toll on our organization, our fans and most importantly, Tom Brady. His reluctant decision to stop pursuing further action and to put this situation behind him is what he feels is best for the team in preparation for this season and is fully supported by me and our entire organization. 

“To our devoted fans, your unwavering support for Tom and our organization have only reinforced our longstanding belief that we have the greatest fans in all of sports. We will continue to unequivocally support Tom and know our fans will rally around him and the rest of the team like never before. Our full focus now is on making the upcoming season a memorable one for all of our fans.”

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The NFL Players Association has released the following statement regarding Tom Brady’s decision to no longer fight his four-game suspension.

After careful consideration and discussion with Tom Brady, the NFLPA will not be seeking a stay of the four game suspension with the 2nd Circuit. This decision was made in the interest of certainty and planning for Tom prior to the New England Patriots season. We will continue to review all of our options and we reserve our rights to petition for cert to the Supreme Court.

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Patriots QB Tom Brady announced Friday via his Facebook page that he will no longer fight the four-game suspension handed down for his role in DeflateGate.

This comes as a bit of a surprise, considering that many expected him to try to get the case heard by the Supreme Court following the second circuit court of appeals’ decision to deny him a rehearing.

The Patriots will be without Brady for the first four games of the 2016 season, which are:

• Week 1: Cardinals
• Week 2: Dolphins
• Week 3: Texans
• Week 4: Bills

In total, Brady stands to lose $235,294 by serving the four-game suspension, per Spotrac.

Brady can still participate in offseason workouts, training camp and the preseason before serving his ban.

This, of course, means that Jimmy Garoppolo is now in line to start the first four games of the season.

Brady, 38, stands to make a base salary of just $1 million over the next two years after he agreed to a restructured deal that included a $28 million signing bonus.

Brady and the Patriots clearly reworked his contract preemptively in order to limit the salary losses from this ban.

In 2015, Brady appeared in all 16 games for the Patriots and threw for 4,770 yards while completing 64.4 percent of his passes to go along with 36 touchdowns and seven interceptions.