New England Patriots: In Suspended Animation

In 15 seasons in the National Football League, Tom Brady has played in 209 regular-season games and 29 postseason contests.

Now the 10-time Pro Bowler, four-time Super Bowl champion and three-time Super Bowl MVP gets ready for a whole new tilt.

It’s called the waiting game.

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As the free world knows (in part thanks to Rachel Cohen of the Associated Press), Brady spent 10 or so hours in the basement of the NFL offices on June 23 (along with numerous others) making his case for why his four-game suspension to begin the 2015 season should be overturned. On May 11 (as documented by Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com), the league announced that the prolific signal-caller would miss the defending Super Bowl champions’ first four contests due to his role in the NFL’s latest controversy (aka “DeflateGate) for violating the NFL policy on the integrity of the game.

Tom Curran of CNNSE.com reported on Tuesday evening (via Twitter) that Jeffrey Kessler, Brady’s attorney, stated that when it came to finding out when this issue will finally be resolved, he was uncertain just how long it would take.

“I don’t know what timetable will be,” said Kessler. “We presented a very compelling case.”

Compelling is that this story has been all about ever since mid-January, when allegations of deflated football arose following New England’s 45-7 rout of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game at Foxborough.

Jan 18, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) throws a pass against the Indianapolis Colts in the second half in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Notice we said January. Since then, we watched, waited and listened as the Patriots rallied for a 28-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks on February 1 in a very-memorable Super Bowl XLIX. We tapped our toes as the NFL’s free-agency period began on March 10. We paced back and forth as the NFL draft began on April 30.

Finally on May 11, we got news of Brady’s fate as well as the Patriots, who were fined a not-so-cool $1 million while forfeiting a first-round draft choice in 2016 and a fourth-round pick in 2017. Now it’s late June and the appeal process has begun…and obviously not quite ended. For those of us who like to count down until the regular-season begins, the number is 78 days as of June 24.

So when do we actually get a final answer to a mystery that has lasted longer than an NFL season? There has seemingly been more procrastination shown her (or a lot of unknown details behind the scenes) than a child avoiding vegetables or homework?

We are not here to tell the NFL how to do its job. But the reality is that all of the disturbing issues that have surrounded the league the last year or so have taken plenty of time to resolve or not. For instances, Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy, suspended for the first 10 games of 2015 for his off-the-field issues, had his appeal heard in late May and is still awaiting an answer.

Now add the Brady case to the list. Only now, the clocking is really ticking when it comes to training camp, the preseason and the NFL opener vs, the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday evening, September 10. And this time around, perhaps sooner than later would actually be a great idea.

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