New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady can suit up for the season opener after a judge overturned his four-game suspension for using underinflated footballs in a January playoff game.
A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday set aside the punishment handed down by the National Football League, paving the way for Brady to take the field Sept. 10 when the Patriots open at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The court granted the players’ union request to throw out the league’s decision “thereby vacating the four-game suspension of Tom Brady,” U.S. District Judge Richard Berman wrote in an opinion.
Berman’s ruling may not end the case. The league may try to challenge it at the federal appeals court in Manhattan.
The ruling is another blow to the NFL, following a string of decisions on punishment handed down by Commissioner Roger Goodell and later altered to a lesser penalty. In the past two years, Ray Rice and Greg Hardy had their suspensions overturned or reduced by arbitrators, and Goodell’s indefinite suspension of Adrian Peterson was also thrown out by a federal judge.
An NFL investigation found that Brady probably knew team staffers deflated game balls below required limits before the team’s 38-point win over the Indianapolis Colts in the conference championship game.
The controversy, which has become known as Deflategate, overshadowed the two-week lead-up to the Super Bowl, which the Patriots won 28-24 over the Seattle Seahawks, and the league’s 2015 pre-season. The league suspended Brady in May.
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