Commentary

Brady should take knee on legal fight

When I reached Ron Katz on Monday, the first word out of his mouth was "vindication."

He was referring to Tom Brady.

"The moral issues always remain the same," said Katz, the chairman emeritus of the Institute of Sports Law and Ethics at Santa Clara University and now a Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow at Stanford. "It's not what you can get away with. You've got to rise above that."

Brady is one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game, and I would have him on my starting team each Sunday. But he has lost credibility that he may never regain.

The Brady case -- his role in improperly deflated footballs -- seemed silly at first. But this molehill became a mountain the NFL was willing to die on to protect its shield.

The case has been a winding road to the truth since January 2015, after the New England Patriots' lopsided victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game.

The most extraordinary evidence against Brady was the Wells report, which suggested Brady did not always play by the rules when it came to using properly inflated footballs.

Based on the report, Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Brady for four regular-season games. The Patriots were also fined $1 million and lost a couple of draft picks, including this year's No. 1. Brady argued he was unfairly suspended.

In July, Brady's suspension was upheld by Goodell.

In September, Judge Richard Berman said Goodell administered "his own brand of industrial justice" and overturned Goodell's ruling. That decision allowed Brady to play the entire season, a season he used as a revenge tour and one that New England fans turned into a football holy war.

Monday's ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ripped apart every shred of Berman's decision. It reaffirmed Goodell's broad authority to administer discipline as he pleases, and it affirmed his power. This is power that the NFL Players Association willingly gave up during the last collective bargaining agreement.

Players who challenged Goodell's authority -- Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy -- were emboldened by what they perceived as a crack in Goodell's armor. They challenged his authority with lawsuits. But Monday's decision was loud and clear: Goodell has the hammer again and is willing to drop it.

I am all for resisting and challenging authority. But the deflation scandal was never a noble cause. Brady was caught cheating and was uncooperative, having his phone destroyed around the time league investigators wanted access to it.

"I would say this goes beyond power; I think it's really about order," Katz said. "You can't have a league unless somebody has the authority to make decisions. Otherwise you have disorder, you have chaos."

It's about order and Brady's stature.

Celebrity may have gotten Brady a favorable decision from Berman, but it was ultimately not enough to keep him from being suspended.

"If this case had been brought by a journeyman quarterback, he would not have gotten beyond the 1-yard line," Katz said.

The union released a statement Monday. It was disappointed by the ruling, adding that it would "carefully review the decision, consider all of our options and continue to fight for players' rights and for the integrity of the game."

Katz said, "They negotiated this agreement where the commissioner had this power, and that's the way it should have proceeded."

The union should stop the fight for Brady. Brady's team of legal advisers should tell him to accept the decision. Brady should allow the sport he has soiled to have its vindication.

Sports on 04/27/2016

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