AP

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. An equipment employee was suspended, but no players were investigated for being “generally” or specifically aware.

Berman notes that the NFLPA pointed out that includes then-Jets kicker Jay Feely, who stood to gain the most from using the balls and, by the logic used by the NFL in regard to Brady, would have been the likeliest player to be aware of any improprieties. Feely was in Berman’s court on Monday as part of the NFLPA’s executive committee and revealed that he discussed that case with Brady.

“We talked about the similarities in that case and the differences in the way the NFL responded,” Feely said. “I didn’t get in trouble. I had no culpability in that case.”

Berman’s ruling makes it clear that he saw merit in the argument that both the investigation and Brady’s punishment were handled arbitrarily by booting the NFL’s suspension the way Feely used to boot the football.