Disappointed but not surprised. The SMART thing would have been to wait a few months to see how their smear campaign was working during the the football season and see what they wanted to do after the season was over and then file if they wanted to. But who said that those at 354 Park Avenue were that bright. To my untrained eye, the 3 issues they raised seem overly biased to there position, especially when the original judge's ruling was so strong in its dismissal of the suspension.
There are a couple of good thing to come from this waste of the NFL's money:
1,. That the NFL will be wasting a lot of money.
2. It will give Tom Brady a further reason to file that defamation suit. It's the only way he can finally clear his name because in that case, the full exposure of the lack of evidence will become clear in the testimony, while at the same time the full extent of the League Office's lies, misinformation and maliciousness can be exposed, not just in the weeks after the AFCCG, but in the months after. It's the only way to get to ESPN et al.
3. It's a good chance to give Roger Goodell another butt hurt, and further erode his position with the CRYBABY owners.
4. It will give another opportunity for the real story to be exposed to the public, now that most of the evidence that clears Brady is more readily available, so the brain dead media won't have an excuse not to use it since they won't actually have to do any real research. They just have copy the Dowd column or any one of a number of Stradley articles, etc, etc
5. Edit : I am almost 100% sure that Brady will not have to miss a minute of practice, game family or vacation time. No one will be calling on him for any testimony or strategy questions. This will all be done by the lawyers and judges. No one else is involved.