The AFL-CIO is backing New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in his appeal of an NFL-mandated suspension stemming from the “Deflategate” scandal.
The nation’s largest labor federation filed a friend of the court brief urging the full U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to hear Brady’s case.
In the brief, the AFL-CIO argued that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “failed to follow basic procedural fairness” as an arbitrator after he imposed the original four-game suspension on Brady for his alleged role in deflating footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots won the game 45-7.
“Even a cursory review of the commissioner’s decision makes clear that he acted in the self-serving role of an employer justifying his own disciplinary decision rather than as a neutral arbitrator considering an appeal,” the AFL-CIO wrote. The group said Goodell should have been acting as a neutral arbitrator, according to Brady’s union contract.
“While the NFL and [NFL Players Association] bargained to allow the commissioner to hear appeals of disciplinary decisions, they did not agree to let the commissioner, sitting as an appellate arbitrator, to act in a manner that is arbitrary and capricious,” the AFL-CIO wrote. “Regardless of who hears appeals, labor arbitration always must be fundamentally fair.”
Brady also received support in the form of an amicus brief from Kenneth Feinberg, a high-profile lawyer who oversaw compensation funding for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Feinberg argued that Brady’s case has major implications for arbitration clauses in contracts.
“If this type of bias or capricious notions of industrial justice are upheld, the public should — and will — lose faith in the systems of arbitration and private dispute resolution that have become a parallel component of our justice system,” Feinberg wrote.
If a majority of the 13 judges on the appeals court reject a rehearing — a three-judge panel originally heard the case — Brady can petition the Supreme Court to take his case.
