Eric Hard talks about Tom Brady, Roger Goodell, the laws of life, football and ideal gas, unions and the meaning of the unconscious will of men on Fox 61 News.
00:00:41.670 Joining us now is attorney Eric Hard. He was with us when the suspension was overturned. He’s back for a little to play legal quarterback again today. In full disclosure, he is a Patriots fan so he’s not very happy, so let’s talk about what the issues were really because we were talking in the break just before and people in that sports bar talking about the suspension we’re talking about whether Brady actually had anything to do with the deflated footballs or whether there was proof that he was involved or whether it’s a stupid rule, but that’s not what the judges and the 2nd US Court of Appeals were looking at, right?
00:01:14.460 Right. What those judges said, I think very notably, was parties to an arbitration can ask for no more impartiality than in here’s in the method they have chosen. What they basically said was you made your bed, lie in it, to the players association that represents, among other people, Tom Brady.
00:01:27.930 And, they made their bed by agreeing to a labor contract with the NFL that puts Roger Goodell in a very powerful position here.
00:01:36.329 Right. From the standpoint of a Patriots fan, power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely… He was judge, jury, and executioner, and what the Second Circuit said today was the contract allows them to do that. Next time bargain for a better deal. They say it repeatedly throughout the decisions.
00:01:50.700 Alright, now two of the three judges said that
00:01:52.110 Two of the three, that’s right. The chief judge of the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit was outflanked by two of his underlings in this case.
00:02:03.869 Mm-hmm, so so what then do you think was maybe the biggest factor in these judges upholding the suspension?
00:02:09.628 It’s hard to say because are we a nation of laws are we a nation of men? We never know. Judges are human beings. Decision makers, like arbitrators and commissioners of a sports organization, are also human beings and we are motivated by things we don’t even have conscious access to. You know just speaking of each of us individually. So, what exactly motivated? Who knows. But there’s a long-standing practice in labor law of allowing arbitrators to be basically crazy in what they decide and still upholding it, just rubber-stamping it.
00:02:41.430 Okay. Alrighht, so what do Brady in the players union do now? What are the options they have open to them?
00:02:44.730 They’ve got basically four things. Number one, they can ask to have it re-heard again with all the judges of the Second Circuit assembled; this is highly unlikely to be granted, although you know we’ve seen stranger things so far. (2) They can appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court however is going to decide whether or not this is going to be included and they got plenty of other stuff on their
plate.
00:03:02.240 Important things as well, yeah.
00:03:04.170 They could try to settle, but even if the Players Association approached the NFL at this point, the NFL probably feels pretty comfortable that they’re in the catbird seat and that they don’t have to negotiate anything. And number four is they could take their medicine.
00:03:17.970 Yeah, which which I don’t know if that seems like it might be likely at this point. But let’s say they do find some way to side on a way to appeal. Can things move fast enough for them to avoid this suspension for Brady?
00:03:30.239 They can certainly ask for extraordinary relief. Anybody can ask for extraordinary relief and argue that there is something that is so irreparably damaged unless you come in and intervene now and you know stop the universe from turning then you know all will be lost and you could potentially get a judge somewhere to say sure I’m going to grant a stay.
00:03:51.180 Alright, well we will see. Eric Hard thank you for joining us.
00:03:52.620 Thank you.
