NFL's plan to have the Brady-Deflategate court case heard in New York backfired again for the league.
Judge for the initial hearing ended up grilling Goodell and the league more than Brady over the shaky evidence regarding the Wells Report. Judge kept asking the NFL for direct evidence that was used for punishing Brady in order to prove he deserved the punishment and instead only kept getting vague claims of evidence.
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Originally Posted by ESPN
Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan repeatedly asked NFL lawyer Daniel L. Nash for "direct evidence that implicates Mr. Brady" as he gave both sides a chance to state their case in the first hearing before him.
Nash responded there was "considerable evidence Mr. Brady clearly knew about this,'' including records of text messages and phone calls between the quarterback and one of two Patriots employees implicated in the scandal known as "Deflategate.'' But he also said there was no "smoking gun'' showing Brady had direct knowledge that the balls were deflated for the first half of the Patriots' 45-7 defeat of the Indianapolis Colts in the Jan. 18 AFC championship.
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Judge also thought it was a bit ironic that Brady performed better with higher inflated balls than under-inflated balls in regards to the NFL claiming Brady had a competitive advantage with Deflategate.
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Originally Posted by ESPN
"Turns out, Mr. Brady did better with higher inflated balls than underinflated balls. You might say he got no competitive advantage."
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According to ESPN's sources, the NFL changed their settlement offer to Brady with them unwilling to listen unless he accepts the Wells Report as true. Side effect for those terms would be his lawsuit against the league would basically collapse and he would have committed perjury.