Law Professor files brief accusing Goodell of fraud (deflate-gate)

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A decorated New York law professor has submitted a third-party brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the NFL's deflate-gate appeal, striking at the heart of the league's assertion that only a judge should overturn commissioner Roger Goodell's ruling in the case of "fraud or dishonesty."

New York Law School professor Robert Blecker, winner of Harvard Law's Oberman Prize for best graduating thesis, argued in a 34-page report that the NFL's investigation into Tom Brady's alleged ball-tampering was "infected with bias, unfairness, evident partiality and occasional fraud."

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Detailing 1) The league's false PSI measurement leaks to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, 2) Its "literally true but contextually misleading assertion that all Patriots balls were illegally deflated while all measured Colts balls were within legal limits," 3) The suppression of relevant evidence that could be beneficial to Brady and 4) The NFL's reliance on the "pseudo-science" from Exponent to arrive at a false conclusion that science alone could not explain the drop in ball pressure, Blecker takes aim at the league's own basis for its latest appeal: "Unless the award was procured through fraud or dishonesty, mere disagreement with the arbitrator’s legal or factual conclusions is manifestly insufficient to justify vacatur of an award.”

In essence, Blecker flips the script on the NFL's contention that the New England Patriots star's conduct was detrimental to the league, accusing Goodell of just that by inciting the public's mistrust in the NFL.

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"No Commissioner can initiate an investigation saturated with unfairness and bias, then find guilt on the basis of that bias and pseudo-science, only to escalate the accusation even as he abandons the very factual basis for it."

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