Four Federal Judges Have Now Disagreed on Whether Roger Goodell is an Over-Reaching Buffoon

You probably heard that Tom Brady’s suspension was reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals today. If not, congratulations on being productive and staying off the internet.

You might not have heard, though, that this was a split 2-1 decision with a dissent filed by Second Circuit Chief Judge Robert Katzmann. That means that four very smart people who have been appointed to federal judge positions have reviewed the matter in depth, and they cannot agree. Ultimately, because two of those three who were on the Court of Appeals sided with Goodell and the NFL, the suspension is back on. But this issue has been as contentious within the federal courts as in the court of public opinion.

I’ve reviewed the opinions, but let’s give you the TL;DR non-legalese summary of what happened.

One side: the CBA gives Roger Goodell pretty much unlimited authority and he used it. We’ll not talk about whether he acted as intelligently as he could have.

The other side: Yeah, but he was such a buffoon and pretty arbitrary, and managed to screw up nearly unlimited authority, that we just can’t go along with this.

Here are the key points for those that want to read further. First, from page 4 of the majority opinion:

The dissent also added, in discussing things like whether this was the most reasonable punishment, “[c]ontrary to our dissenting colleague, we do not consider whether the punishment imposed was the most appropriate.” (p. 12). The majority also refused to slap Goodell for making a bizarre steroids analogy by basically saying that he didn’t have to provide the best explanation or employ the best rationale.

Meanwhile, Katzmann in dissent just couldn’t get past Goodell’s actions.

He found that Goodell went beyond the initial Wells findings, which found Brady to be “generally aware” of the deflation scheme, and found that Brady had been involved in more. “I believe there are significant differences between the limited findings in the Wells report and the additional findings the Commissioner made for the first time in his final written decision.” (p. 2).

Katzmann found that the “generally aware” misconduct was different and less culpable than what Goodell later ruled on appeal, in regard to Brady rewarding cheating with payment of memorabilia, and found this material because Brady didn’t have notice this was an issue and didn’t ask questions about gifts.

Here’s the meat of the dissent:

“His own brand of industrial justice.” That should go on Goodell’s plaque.

Katzmann also had issue with the punishment being arbitrary.

It’s likely over. The remaining options, besides Brady just accepting this as the end, are to seek either the Second Circuit en banc to review, and/or seek to have it reviewed by the Supreme Court. En banc here means all the judges from the Second Circuit review and rule, rather than just a three-judge panel. Both of those possibilities are slim, but are alive because there has been disagreement to date.

But whether it goes away and Brady just serves out the suspension, it’s far from a clear-cut issue. Plenty of people disagree, and that includes federal judges. That’s because Goodell really has managed to push the boundaries of common sense and good sense in exercising what is nearly unlimited authority. His actions are so confusing that some find that nearly unlimited authority to be crossed, and their intelligence to be insulted.