Sam Riche/Mct/MCT/ZUMAPRESS.comThe plot thickens.
The NFL Players Association has appealed the four game suspension that Tom Brady was slapped with earlier this week, the league's response to an independent report that concluded the New England Patriots quarterback "probably" knew all about his team using under-inflated footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship game.
"Given the NFL's history of inconsistency and arbitrary decisions in disciplinary matters, it is only fair that a neutral arbitrator hear this appeal," the NFLPA said in a statement.
Zing!
"If Ted Wells [the author of the report] and the NFL believe, as their public comments stated, that the evidence in their report is 'direct' and 'inculpatory,' then they should be confident enough to present their case before someone who is truly independent."
The reaction to Brady's suspension was mixed (and, at times, quite comical), with some thinking that he just his just deserts, while others thought missing what amounts to a quarter of the Patriots' season was unfair. And then there were those who concluded the NFL still doesn't know discipline from a hole in the head.
Pun now intended after the fact.
Brady's agent, Donald Yee, had vowed an appeal, calling NFL Executive President's Tony Vincent's decision "ridiculous."
"In my opinion, this outcome was pre-determined; there was no fairness in the Wells investigation whatsoever," Yee said Monday. "There is no evidence that Tom directed footballs be set at pressures below the allowable limits. In fact, the evidence shows Tom clearly emphasized that footballs be set at pressures within the rules. Tom also cooperated with the investigation and answered every question presented to him.
"The Wells Report presents significant evidence, however, that the NFL lacks standards or protocols with respect to its handling of footballs prior to games; this is not the fault of Tom or the Patriots."
Another thing the NFL needs to work on, according to the detractors.
An ESPN/ABC News poll, meanwhile, found that 63 percent of football fans (and 76 percent of "avid" fans) supported the discipline, which in addition to Brady's suspension included a $1 million team fine and the loss of two draft picks.
The Patriots issued their own rebuttal to the Wells report Thursday, charging that the 243-page behemoth's findings were "incomplete, incorrect and lack context."
They also say that locker room attendant John McNally, the one whom the Wells report said called himself "the deflator," used that term in reference to weight loss.
Meanwhile, if Brady loses the appeal, his first game back will be Oct. 18, a rematch of the now notorious AFC Championship game against the Colts. But there's plenty of speculation going around that he's going to win, that despite there obviously being something shady going down in Patriots town, the Wells report didn't really provide incontrovertible evidence that Brady was complicit in cheating.
Discuss.