Very. very sadly what you say is true. The appeals process was NEVER supposed to be about Brady's guilt or innocence. It was supposed to be about whether the NFL's actions, policies and procedures complied with current legal statutes. That is what made Berman's ruling so compelling, because he brought Brady's obvious innocence into his ruling. Unfortunately the 3 judge panel didn't have to do the same, and 2 of them bought the NFL's lies, and didn't bother to work hard enough to look below the surface of right or wrong
I don't know how this will end up. The way things are going now in the legal system, probably badly in the short term. In the long term, m my hope is that JG will perform well enough that the team will come out of those 4 games at least 2-2, and become an draft asset. I also hope that Brady will EVENTUALLY seek retribution against Goodell and the NFL through a defamation suit, though I might have to wait for his retirement before he does it. Brady really needs to pursue this because while the fact is that these current arguments are all about strict legal matters, if Brady's suspension is upheld, it will be viewed by the great majority of the generally uniformed public, as confirmation of his guilt