The NFL's on-again, off-again suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady flipped to the "on" switch Monday morning. A United States appeals court reinstated Brady's four-game suspension resulting from the Deflategate incident, arguing that the league and commissioner Roger Goodell acted within the rules of the collective bargaining agreement in suspending Brady for a quarter of the regular season. Just when we were getting a little short on off-field intrigue, right?
To some extent, this isn't a surprise. As Ian Rapoport of NFL Network pointed out on Twitter, Brady dropped his base salary from $9 million to $1 million as part of his new contract restructuring/extension, which means he'll only lose $250,000 as part of a four-game suspension as opposed to $2.