Tom Brady no longer will pursue ‘Deflategate’ legal process

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, right, talks with quarterback Tom Brady (12) before an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015, in Arlington, Texas.

On Wednesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in NY declined to review its April decision to reinstate the suspension of Brady, 38, who was twice the league’s most valuable player.

“It has been a challenging 18 months and I have made the hard decision to no longer proceed with the legal process”. Predicting a 3-1 or 2-2 record for the Patriots with Garoppolo seems more than fair given this schedule and New England’s strength at home, meaning that if Brady wins 75 percent of his starts again, the Pats could definitely go 12-4 or better for the seventh year in a row.

“Even though Tom Brady will be suspended for the first four games of the season it has not really affected the Patriots Super Bowl odds for a variety of reasons”, Bovada Sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley said.

Brady and the NFLPA then appealed the suspension, but it was upheld by commissioner Roger Goodell (albeit on a different basis than the suspension itself).

Legal experts had called it highly unlikely that the Supreme Court would agree to hear Brady’s case, just as they’d predicted that the Second Circuit appeals court nearly certainly would not agree to a rehearing. He would have had to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take his case, and only about 1 percent of the appeals submitted to the nation’s highest court are accepted.

The NFL Players Assn., while acknowledging the decision not to continue the case, did leave the door cracked for another attempt.

The union that represents National Football League players said it supported Brady’s decision.

In a Facebook post, Brady said he’s done fighting his four-game suspension and he’ll simply be back for Week 5 of the upcoming season. The other three games are at Gillette Stadium, where Miami hasn’t won since 2008 (without Brady also), against Buffalo (Belichick has won 28 of his last 31 games against the Bills) and against Houston with Osweiler.

Since 2015, countless tests have been run to determine what exactly happened to the air inside the footballs during that playoff game, but for most Football fans, this has been a waste of time from the beginning.

“From day one, I have believed in Tom and given him my unwavering support in his pursuit to rightfully clear his name of any wrongdoing”, Kraft said in Friday’s written statement.

Kraft called the penalty the NFL imposed on Brady unjust, unreasonable and unprecedented, especially given no direct or empirical evidence showed that Brady did anything that violated league rules prior to, during or following the AFC Championship Game of 2015. That support extends throughout our organization and has only grown more steadfast as the preponderance of scientific evidence has exonerated Tom.

While the New England Patriots will be without starting QB Tom Brady for the first quarter of the season, the team is still the favorite to win the Super Bowl, according to Bovada.