Judge Berman Uses Quotation Marks for Ted Wells' "Independence" in Further Blow to NFL Credibility

Judge Berman issued a 40-page rebuke to the NFL in his ruling to nullify the league’s four-game suspension of Tom Brady. We are still reading through it, but one thing that sticks out — as first pointed out by radio host Marshall Hook — is how the independence of Ted Wells’ prolonged, expensive, and inconclusive report was called into question.

Throughout the report the word “independent” is in quotation marks, which elicits imagery of somebody reading this aloud and making clear gesticulations with his index and middle fingers. In total, there are seven cases where the opinion references Wells’ independence, all with quotation marks around the term.

“Denied the opportunity to examine [NFL lawyer Jeff] Pash at the arbitral hearing, Brady was prejudiced,” Berman wrote on page 35. “He was foreclosed from exploring, among other things, whether the Pash/Wells Investigation was truly “independent,” and how and why the NFL’ s General Counsel came to edit a supposedly independent investigation report.”

(In early August, when the transcript of Brady’s appeal hearing became public, our site’s Jason Lisk noted that the lack of independence could be a sticking point in court.)

Berman continued on pages 37 and 38: “Compounding Brady’s prejudice is the fact that, as noted, Paul, Weiss acted as both alleged ‘independent’ counsel during the Investigation and also (perhaps inconsistently) as retained counsel to the NFL during the arbitration, Paul, Weiss uniquely was able to retain access to investigative files and interview notes which it had developed; was able to use them in direct and cross-examinations of Brady and other arbitration witnesses; share them with NFL officials during the arbitral proceedings; and, at the same time, withhold them from Brady.”

Ben Volin of the Boston Globe took screenshots other specifics of the Judge’s ruling:

It will be fascinating to see where the NFL goes from here. Will Goodell pin this failure on underlings? Is the league inclined to appeal, and how long would it take before there’s final resolution? In any event, Tom Brady is set to play Week 1 against the Steelers, and that in and of itself is a huge blow to the league’s ability to wield punishment over its players without proper due process.