Deflategate ended with an anticlimactic tweet
"We have decided to not pursue additional appeals in this matter."
After more than 20 months of discussion, scrutiny and legal battles, the NFL’s “Deflategate” saga ended, “not with a bang but a tweet.”
On Sunday evening following the conclusion of the final game that the Patriots will play without Tom Brady due to his Deflategate suspension, the National Football League Players’ Association tweeted that the organization will not persist in its legal battle over the matter:
After consultation with Tom Brady and our appellate counsel, we have decided to not pursue additional appeals in this matter.
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) October 3, 2016
This appears to officially close the book on Deflategate. The NFLPA’s decision is logical, according to legal experts. As sports law expert Michael McCann noted, the chances that the Supreme Court would have accepted the appeal case were no higher than one percent.
While experts have heavily dispute the NFL’s findings, the Patriots were nonetheless punished in the form of losing multiple draft picks (including a first round pick), the largest team fine in league history, and the loss of Brady for four games.
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