Among the grounds that Judge Richard Berman used to come to his decision to wipe out Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension was the lack of notice of potential discipline from the league to Brady.
In his ruling, Berman lays out some of the cases that led him to that conclusion. Those include Brett Favre’s fine (and no suspension) for failing to cooperate with a league investigation and previous cases of violations of equipment policy that led to no punishment for players. One of those cases was the Jets’ attempted use of unapproved kicking balls in a 2009 game against the Patriots.