FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady’s lawyers demanded that N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell recuse himself from Brady’s appeal of his four-game suspension for his role in a deflated-football scandal and threatened to go to court unless the suspension was overturned.
Laying out the grounds for a challenge to the penalty and setting the stage for a potential battle in federal court, the N.F.L. Players Association said in a letter released Friday that Goodell could not hear the appeal because he would be called as a witness.
“The NFLPA believes that neither Commissioner Goodell nor anyone with close ties to the NFL can serve as arbitrator in Mr.