Judge: I'm not sure Roger Goodell understands there is a CBA

MINNEAPOLIS – The federal judge who long has presided over NFL labor matters is as interested as everyone else to see how things play out in the Tom Brady Deflategate case. And he apparently doesn’t have much regard for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s understanding of the collective bargaining agreement.

At a hearing Wednesday on a contempt motion filed by the NFL Players Association in the Adrian Peterson case, U.S. District Judge David S. Doty said “we’re all very curious” how Judge Richard M. Berman will rule on Brady, whose four-game suspension is now the subject of proceedings and settlement talks in the Southern District of New York.

The NFLPA filed its motion in May against the NFL, the NFL Management Council and Goodell, whom Doty noted multiple times Wednesday isn’t an attorney while questioning union counsel Jeffrey Kessler about who exactly the NFLPA wants to be held in contempt for alleged interference with the court’s order to hold further arbitration proceedings in the Peterson case.

“I’m not sure the commissioner understands there is a CBA,” Doty said, citing Goodell’s actions and quotes in newspaper articles he has read.

The NFL's labor deal gives the commissioner broad power to impose and arbitrate discipline. The union has argued on a string of recent cases Goodell has abused that power and failed to follow proper processes.

Because Goodell — who wasn’t present Wednesday — lacks legal expertise, Doty said, he doesn’t understand contempt and only would’ve been acting on the advice of his attorneys on such matters.

“Jail time – is that what you want?” Doty asked Kessler at one point. “Do you want us to put the commissioner in jail?”

Kessler said no. The NFLPA wants an order from the court that the NFL and union jointly ask Henderson to issue a new ruling consistent with Doty’s orders, as well as an award of attorney’s fees and an order making clear the league in the future cannot impose its updated personal conduct policy retroactively.

Doty took the matter under advisement and the parties adjourned to a court-ordered mediation session before Magistrate Judge Jamie S. Mayeron.

The union also filed its Brady lawsuit here, but the court transferred the case to New York, where the NFL preemptively filed for confirmation of Goodell’s decision to uphold Brady’s suspension for allegedly participating in a scheme to deflate footballs in January’s AFC championship game. Brady, the New England Patriots’ star quarterback, has denied involvement. Settlement talks have continued this week.

Doty has ruled in the NFLPA’s favor numerous times through the years, including his February decision to vacate the arbitration award that upheld Peterson’s suspension. The NFL appealed. The union filed its motion based in part on arguments from the NFL’s attorneys to appeals officer Harold Henderson, who has yet to issue a new arbitration ruling.

NFL attorney Daniel Nash argued Wednesday the union didn’t follow “meet and confer” rules before filing the contempt motion and the league precisely followed the court’s orders by moving Peterson from the suspended list back to the commissioner’s exempt list in February. Nash’s arguments to Henderson about not issuing a new ruling until the appeals court rules were only in response to the NFLPA’s requests for relief, he said.

Nash also denied the league directed Henderson not to rule, saying it wouldn’t have the power to stop him anyway. Asked why the league didn’t seek a stay from the court, which Doty said he probably would’ve granted, Nash said the league felt it unnecessary. Nash pointed out the NFL has not moved to collect three additional game checks from Peterson from the time his appeal was pending in addition to the three he lost while serving his suspension, at a total cost of a little more than $2 million.

Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings’ star running back, arrived a few minutes into Wednesday’s hearing. He nodded his head when Kessler said Peterson would probably give back the money in exchange for the ability to play the games he missed after his indictment in Texas for injuring his 4-year-old son with a wooden switch.

The Peterson case is important precedent in part because Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy is still considering whether to sue the league, as Peterson did, over the retroactive application of the revised personal conduct policy. Henderson reduced Hardy’s suspension from 10 to four games – evidence Henderson read and understood Doty’s ruling, Kessler argued.

The NFL and the NFLPA have been at loggerheads over player discipline for most of the past year, dating to Goodell’s decision to increase then-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s two-game suspension to an indefinite ban after video of Rice knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City casino elevator in September.

Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero