Not if you consider things like fundamental fairness.
Here's the rule:
“Once the balls have left the locker room, no one, including players, equipment managers, ball boys, and coaches, is allowed to alter the footballs in any way. If any individual alters the footballs, or if a non-approved ball is used in the game, the person responsible and, if appropriate, the head coach or other club personnel will be subject to discipline, including but not limited to, a fine of $25,000.”
Suppose you were walking outside in a park and saw a sign that said, "No littering. Anyone caught littering will be subject to discipline, including but not limited to, a fine of $100."
Now, if you saw that, and you littered, and you got arrested, what would you expect the fine to be? $100. If you REALLY littered a ton, maybe $500. It has to be in the BALLPARK of what the fine schedule calls for.
Do you think any judge would allow a person being caught littering around that sign to be put in prison for a year for that offense? No chance in hell. That's because fundamental fairness has to be assumed. So the fine/penalty schedule in the NFL exists to tell people how serious these offenses are. Look at the
NFL fine schedule.
Scroll down and see what the second offense for "excessive profanity" is: $23,152. In other words, tampering with the footballs is given roughly the same weight as a second offense at really bad swearing.
So if Brady really tampered with footballs in a bad, bad way, yeah, you expect it to be more than $25,000. But a four game suspension (and again, the NFL said they were considering EIGHT) is like being put in prison for six months for a littering.
It's so far beyond the bounds of what is fair and reasonable, but the court in the Peterson case just said that "Fundamental fairness is not a basis for vacatur identified in the Labor Management Relations Act or the Federal Arbitration Act." In other words, Goodell can now literally punish any player ANYTHING for ANY OFFENSE, real or imagined, and the courts just gave him carte blanche.