Tom Brady entered the Hail Mary phase of his Deflategate appeal Monday.
Attorneys for the Patriots star filed a motion with the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals asking that the entire court — all 13 active judges — rehear the case to have his four-game NFL suspension overturned.
Brady’s appeal, headlined by former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, came on the last day he could petition the court after a three-judge appeals panel from the Second Circuit voted 2-1 last month to overturn the quarterback’s initial court victory in the saga.
A decision on a full hearing is expected within six weeks, according to legal experts. If the full hearing is granted, Brady’s suspension would be put on hold until the new ruling.
Although widely expected, Brady’s latest appeal is the definition of a long shot. According to court records, just eight of 27,000 cases (0.000296 percent) got a full hearing from the Second Circuit from 2000-10.
But Brady and the NFL Players Association are plowing ahead anyway, zeroing in on what they claim was misconduct by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and resting their hopes on the significant fact that the lone appeals dissenter was Chief Judge Robert Katzmann.
Brady and the union also feel the case merits a full hearing because four Second Circuit judges — including the case’s initial judge, Richard Berman — have weighed in so far and were split 2-2.
“The divided panel of the Second Circuit reached erroneous legal conclusions under an unfair and unjust standard,” Olson said in a statement released Monday by the union. “The decision and the standards it imposes are damaging and unfair — not only to Tom Brady — but to all parties to collective bargaining agreements everywhere.
“Commissioner Goodell cannot sit as an appellate arbitrator and then affirm the league’s initial disciplinary decision based upon a new theory and imagined evidence and pretend to be an unbiased decision-maker,” Olson added.”
NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith argued in a statement that Brady “was not afforded fundamental fairness and due process as guaranteed by the collective bargaining agreement and case law.”
Smith also continued to take aim at the league’s much-debated Wells Report that decided Brady was generally aware of a scheme to deflate footballs in violation of NFL rules during the 2014 AFC Championship game.
“We also know that the NFL propped up a now completely debunked ‘independent’ report with a made-up standard as the basis for his suspension,” Smith said in the statement.
Even if the Second Circuit declines to give Brady a full hearing, his legal avenues to put off the suspension wouldn’t end there. The quarterback could also appeal — with an equally improbable chance of success — to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whether the Supreme Court would take the case would be decided by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. If the court agrees, Brady’s suspension would almost certainly be delayed until the 2017 season.