A decorated New York law professor has submitted a third-party brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the NFL's deflate-gate appeal, striking at the heart of the league's own assertion that a judge should only overturn commissioner Roger Goodell's ruling in the case of "fraud or dishonesty."
New York Law School professor Robert Blecker, winner of Harvard Law's Oberman Prize for best graduating thesis, argued in a 34-page report that the NFL's investigation into Tom Brady's alleged ball-tampering was "infected with bias, unfairness, evident partiality and occasional fraud."
As Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio — also a lawyer — points out, Blecker's submission is termed an amicus curiae brief, translated from Latin as "friend of the court.