The NFL Players Association has responded to the decision of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to uphold the four-game suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
The 37-year-old will miss the opening four games of the 2015 campaign after Goodell revealed that the quarterback destroyed his phone prior to meeting with Ted Wells, who was investigating the deflategate scandal surrounding the club.
Goodell found that Brady produced no evidence to contradict the findings of the report, which found him to be generally aware that members of his side's equipment staff had deflated footballs in their win over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game.
The NFLPA has reacted furiously to the outcome of the appeal process, claiming that it was an "outrageous decision".
Its statement said in full: "The Commissioner's ruling today did nothing to address the legal deficiencies of due process. The NFL remains stuck with the following facts:
The NFL had no policy that applied to players;
The NFL provided no notice of any such policy or potential discipline to players;
The NFL resorted to a nebulous standard of "general awareness" to predicate a legally unjustified punishment;
The NFL had no procedures in place until two days ago to test air pressure in footballs; and
The NFL violated the plain meaning of the collective bargaining agreement.
"The fact that the NFL would resort to basing a suspension on a smoke screen of irrelevant text messages instead of admitting that they have all of the phone records they asked for is a new low, even for them, but it does nothing to correct their errors.
"The NFLPA will appeal this outrageous decision on behalf of Tom Brady."
Brady has authorised the NFLPA to take the matter against the NFL to federal court.
Simon Sinclair
