[OMMENTARY] In Brady decision, the NFL still wins

Before a single down has been played, we have already witnessed the biggest upset of the National Football League's season.

Judge Richard Berman handed down a ruling in favor of Tom Brady, vacating the NFL's imposed 4-game suspension. Given the narrow scope of what this court was supposed to be ruling on, the NFL couldn't lose, right? Most pundits agreed. Until they didn't. 

Unlike most court rulings, however, this one will not bring much clarity to the situation. The average American will assume this means Brady is innocent. It does not: Judge Berman carefully sidestepped the central issue about whether the New England Patriots' quarterback was guilty. The real question is about process and procedure. 

Fairness or jealousy?

An appeal will be filed. Another judge will step in to evaluate if Judge Berman overstepped his bounds. 

Read More NFL says it will appeal judge's ruling that nullified Brady suspension

Why does the NFL care so passionately about this infraction? Why spend millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours devoted to football inflation? Because this case is not about determining a valid punishment for a specific offense, but rather a total condemnation of the Patriot Way.

I have spoken to several former NFL players, who both played for the Patriots and against them, and they tell stories that would blow your mind. The Patriots employ tactics that—in their words not mine—"totally cross the line."

Read More 'Deflategate': Sales of Tom Brady merchandise double

New England fans call it "jealousy." Fans of other teams call it "fairness."

Yes, the NFL lost (for now), but did it really?

This "scandal" has managed to keep the NFL as the main topic of TV shows, sports pages, blogs, sports talk radio, fantasy drafts and barroom chatter. Despite other sports having great playoff runs, and the U.S. women's soccer team winning a World Cup, the NFL has managed to own the off-season.

Again.

The ratings for the NFL opener between the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers should set records. Nonetheless, the debate will persist regardless of the outcome. And the NFL's business will remain dominant.

In almost every aspect of its business, the NFL is an exacting institution. Control is its mantra. It controls who its broadcast partners are. Who its sponsors are. How long the deals are. How much they cost.

But there are two courts it does not control—the judicial court and the court of public opinion.

Even so, no matter how this saga ends, one thing is certain—the players will play, the fans will watch, and the NFL owners will count their money.

Commentary by David Katz, founder, CEO and principal editorial voice of ThePostGame, a sports culture and lifestyle media property based in Los Angeles and New York. He's the former head of CBS Interactive as well as Yahoo! Entertainment & Sports. Follow him on Twitter@katzmando

Via: CNBC

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[FOOTBALL] War of words continues among Deflategate attorneys

The heated rhetoric between attorneys involved in the ongoing Deflategate saga continues to flood the federal docket, less than a week before both sides will meet before the judge who has been asking them to settle.

Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney representing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, attacked NFL lawyers today, who yesterday dismissed 19 cases his team gave to U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman to review last week.

“(T)he NFL’s submission ignores how the denial of fundamental fairness in the arbitration at issue here so closely resembles the denials of fair process in the decisions we presented to the Court,” Kessler wrote in a two-page letter filed today in New York federal court.

Kessler and other union attorneys are working to overturn Brady’s four-game suspension, which was handed down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. They have argued that Goodell should not have been the arbitrator to decide whether Brady was guilty of being generally aware that footballs may have been partially deflated during the 2015 AFC Championship.

On Aug. 19, attorneys for both sides argued their case to Berman. The judge spent considerable time poking holes in the NFL’s case, while allowing Kessler to argue with very little interruption. After finishing his argument, Kessler had one of his associates give Berman a list of cases that he said bolstered Brady’s case.

The NFL said the cases didn’t apply to Brady’s arbitration.

“These cases confirm that courts vacate arbitration awards only in extraordinary circumstances, none of which are present here,” NFL attorney Daniel Nash wrote yesterday.

That is the essence of the argument the NFL has made from the beginning: Judges very rarely overturn arbitration awards, and Berman should follow that rule in Brady’s case.

Brady’s attorneys, meanwhile, have argued that there are four reasons to overturn what they call an unprecedented suspension: that Brady had no notice; that no standards were set for testing the PSI of the footballs; that Goodell was biased; and that the arbitration was unfair.

Last week, Berman said if settlement talks in the case continue to be fruitless, he wants Brady and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in his court on Aug. 31. Berman indicated that his "current plan" is to try and have this case resolved before the start of the NFL season. Brady’s suspension would begin on Sept. 4 as of now.

On July 30, Berman implored both sides to “tone down their rhetoric” and “pursue a mutually acceptable resolution of this case.” With less than two weeks until kickoff, rhetoric is still heated, and no settlement agreement has been reached.

Via: Boston Herald

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