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

[DonViejo]

By Bob Hohler, Ben Volin and Matt Pepin GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 03, 2015

A federal judge sharply repudiated the National Football League Thursday as he freed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady from a four-game suspension that had overshadowed his fourth Super Bowl title and hung over his legacy like black bunting.

With the suspension vacated, Brady is poised to lead the Patriots next Thursday night when they commemorate their Super Bowl victory and open the 2015 season against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium.

But how he reclaims his golden reputation remains in question. Brady’s status for the season opener had been in doubt until Judge Richard M. Berman tossed Brady’s suspension for allegedly conspiring to improperly deflate footballs in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Jan. 18 and trying to cover up the scheme.

Berman, ruling in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, cast Brady as the victim of an arbitrary, capricious, and fundamentally unfair disciplinary process administered by the NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell.

Berman assailed Goodell for dispensing “his own brand of industrial justice” that violated Brady’s constitutional rights. Those violations included the NFL withholding notice from Brady that his penalty “would be the equivalent of the discipline imposed upon a player who used performance enhancing drugs,” Berman found.

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