Roger Goodell, the most powerful man in professional football, prevailed again Monday in his 15-month battle with Tom Brady, one of the game’s most celebrated quarterbacks. And this time, Brady has virtually no chance of escaping a four-game suspension.
Goodell’s victory came in a ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that overturned a lower-court decision and affirmed that Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, had broad discretion to suspend players according to the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union.
The panel’s decision can be appealed to the full Second Circuit, or even the Supreme Court, but the chance of a victory for Brady is “close to nil,” said Michael LeRoy, who teaches labor law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.