NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will hear Tom Brady's appeal of the harsh Deflategate penalties he handed down this week.
Goodell's decision, announced Thursday night, should serve to amp up an already charged environment as the controversy continues to unfold.
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Days after saying they would accept whatever penalties the league imposed in the wake of Ted Wells' investigation into deflated footballs during last season's AFC Championship game, the Patriots (and their fans) erupted when their star quarterback was slapped with a four-game suspension. The team's lawyers on Thursday released a 20,000-word rebuttal of Wells' report, and the NFL Players Association moved shortly after that to appeal Brady's ban.
A key element to the team's and the union's response to the penalties was a demand for a neutral arbitrator to hear the appeal.
"Given the NFL's history of inconsistency and arbitrary decisions in disciplinary matters, it is only fair that a neutral arbitrator hear this appeal," the NFLPA said in a statement. "If Ted Wells and the NFL believe, as their public comments stated, that the evidence in their report is 'direct' and 'inculpatory,' then they should be confident enough to present their case before someone who is truly independent."
But under NFL rules, Goodell is empowered to fulfill that role, and apparently he intends to do so.
