Question re: appeals process, etc

[supafly]

Can anyone help to verify some reasonable time frame in regards to Brady's options here? We have a couple of cases to go off, most recently the Saints and Peterson cases.

Per the CBA, we know that the NFLPA has set up an appeals process, which would then be followed by arbitration. These 2 processes will take awhile, once a suspension is handed down. If Brady really wanted to challenge the CBA in federal court, the most recent case of Adrian Peterson took about 4 months from date of request until the 2nd arbitration process helped to reinstate him back into the game. As stated, it's going to be a bit of a wait just to get to that decision.

When all of that is considered, would the timeframe match up well enough to prove beneficial for a 4 game suspension? Or would it still be pushing things, should it get that far?

Point being that in order to present the case at the federal level, this is going to take some time. For those who are knowledgeable in this area, can you provide some type of reasonable predictor? Thank you.

@Deus Irae, thoughts? @ctpatsfan77, thoughts? @Miguel--any knowledge of this process?

 

[supafly]

No one has any knowledge of this, I take it? We're just feeling in the dark based on past cases, I suppose?

For what it's worth, here is Jonathan Vilma's timeline during the 2012 season. For what it's worth, he was the main player named in the Saints bounty scandal and was sentenced to a full, one-year suspension. He ended up playing in 11 games:

MAY--Vilma is officially suspended for the 2012 season. He then begins the appeals and arbitration process. Possibly more importantly, he files a defamation of character suit in federal court, which is eventually dismissed in January of 2013.

He finally gets into federal court at the end of July/beginning of August, where EIGHT Saints players testify that the facts were not properly represented.

SEPT--Due to this strong testimony, the judge orders the arbitration process to be reviewed again, where he eventually finds that Vilma should be immediately re-instated (Sept. 7th).

OCT--Roger Goodell upholds his original suspension, although Vilma appeals again and is somehow allowed to keep playing.

DEC--The 2nd arbitration hearing is finally given to Tagliabue, although Goodell choose to hear the 1st one himself. Throughout this process, Tagliabue agrees with Vilma, and once again, re-instates him, as he originally was back in Sept.

JAN--Federal court dismisses Vilma's defamation of character case, approx. 8 months after it was filed.

----------------------------------

Some important points to note/ponder:

1) Goodell chose to hear the appeals process himself, until he eventually handed it off to Tagliabue. Obviously, Goodell was quite upset that Tagliabue did not uphold his ruling.

2) Vilma was somehow able to continue playing while his case was in appeals. How come we haven't seen this happen recently in other player misconduct cases? Have the recent appeals processes just happened so quickly that it wasn't relevant to their (multi-game) situations? After all, there have been some shenanigans recently with the major suspensions handed down from Goodell, so things become a bit murky with the use of the players exempt rule, etc.

3) The rough timeline to get to federal court took about 90 days. It is important to note that eight different Saints players testified that the investigation did not show the right results.

4) The statement from the NFLPA was as follows in Oct when Goodell somehow overturned the federal ruling: ""For more than six months, the NFL has ignored the facts, abused the process outlined in our collective bargaining agreement and failed to produce evidence that the players intended to injure anyone, ever," the statement said. "The only evidence that exists is the league's gross violation of fair due process, transparency and impartiality during this process. Truth and fairness have been the casualties of the league's refusal to admit that it might have made a mistake."

5) While the federal ruling did indeed, allow the players to be reinstated, everyone knew that Goodell would stop this from happening. This is outlined here: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8...ita-anthony-hargrove-overturned-appeals-panel

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Thanks for posting this! And yeah, it would be nice to have some definitive info on exactly what the process is open to Brady. I imagine that someone like SI's McCann will post some article pretty quickly after Brady gets suspended that will go into this stuff.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

2) Vilma was somehow able to continue playing while his case was in appeals. How come we haven't seen this happen recently in other player misconduct cases? Have the recent appeals processes just happened so quickly that it wasn't relevant to their (multi-game) situations? After all, there have been some shenanigans recently with the major suspensions handed down from Goodell, so things become a bit murky with the use of the players exempt rule, etc.

Yes, they've expedited the appeals process in many cases. Ndamukong Suh's suspension was overturned in a hearing two or three days after the suspension was announced.

 

[ChoWZa]

Goodell is the default arbitrator for cases where he is not doing the punishment (like this), is my understanding. So appeal is not an option if that is correct.

 

[supafly]

Goodell is the default arbitrator for cases where he is not doing the punishment (like this), is my understanding. So appeal is not an option if that is correct.

Well, it will definitely be appealed, obviously. Brady has to go through the motions outlined in the CBA. The hope is that Goodell will hand the case off to someone else, which as you state, just isn't likely. The next step will be to take it to court to try and get a ruling for third party arbitration. This process will likely take some time.

 

[moejr]

Brady can appeal no mater what. He can also file in court and get a court order for a different arbitraitor.