Spygate and Deflategate: A look at the legal cases following the Patriots Scandals
By Joshua Hinds ‘26
Introduction
The New England Patriots is a professional football team that plays in the AFC East division of the National Football League (NFL). They are most known for their dominance within the sport during the early 2000s to late 2010s. It is this dynasty between 2001-2019 that resulted in nine Superbowl appearances and six wins. This era of success was built on the backs of effective quarterback play by Tom Brady, and the defensive mastermind, head coach, Bill Belichick. During this time the Patriots received much praise for their dominant play. Yet, in the midst of their dominance, the Patriots were involved in two major scandals that are entwined with their legacy, those being Spygate and Deflategate.
Spygate
It was September 9th, 2007, and the Patriots were playing the New York Jets, a division rival. By this time, the Patriots were beginning to establish themselves as a dynasty, winning three Superbowls between 2001 and 2005. During this week one game in East Rutherford, NJ, a New England video assistant, Matt Estrella, was caught videotaping hand signals from New York’s defensive assistants from an unauthorized location. Later that week, the Patriots admitted to the act. After an internal investigation done by the NFL, the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, fined Belichick and the Patriots for their actions. Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, an NFL maximum, and the New England Patriots were fined $250,000, also having to forfeit their first round pick in the following year's draft. Along with issuing penalties, the NFL destroyed the “Spygate” game tape.
Mayer v. Belichick
As a result of the Spygate scandal, a lawyer named Carl Mayer from Princeton, New Jersey, who happened to be a Jets season ticket owner, brought a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. It was brought against Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots, and the National Football League for the actions resulting in Spygate. Mayer was seeking $184.8 million in damages. Mayer alleged that the video recordings violated league rules and that this activity “violated the contractual expectations and rights of New York Jets ticket-holders who fully anticipated and contracted for a ticket to observe an honest match played in compliance with all laws, regulations and NFL rules.” Based on this, Mayer sought many causes of action in complaint against the defense. Such causes of action include: “tortious interference with contractual relations, common law fraud, deceptive business practices, violations of the New Jersey and federal racketeering statutes, violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, and breach of contract, quasi-contract, and contractual rights as third party beneficiaries.” Yet, as the court considered each of these causes of actions in relation to the case, they were presented with the same gap; the court believed that Mayer did not present an actionable injury. The court stated that the “Plaintiff’s subjective expectations regarding how the game would be played and what decisions the respective coaches would make, right or wrong, even if these actions constituted ‘cheating,’ was not anything that he either received license to, or contracted for. Rather, Plaintiff’s ticket was redeemed, and he was able to see whatever transpired at Giants Stadium on that date; in this case, a football game; as a result, Plaintiff got exactly that for which he paid.” Since the court believed that all Mayer was contracted for was admission to the game, for which he was admitted, regardless of how the game transpired, he got exactly what he paid for, and there was no further injury present.The court granted the defense's motion to dismiss, dismissing the case entirely.
Upon dismissal, Mayer filed for an appeal to the United States Court of Appeal, Third Circuit. While reviewing the case, the Court of Appeals noted a copy of a ticket stub used by the Jets during a preseason game earlier that year that was included with their motion to dismiss. On this stub, along with other things, it said “[t]his ticket only grants entry into the stadium and a spectator seat for the specified NFL game.” The Court of Appeals was brought with the same question that the district court raised when dismissing the case: whether or not there is an actionable injury present. The court reasoned that this ticket stub followed the traditional understanding of being a license, in that the ticket provides the customer with nothing more than a revocable license. Previous court rulings surrounding a license approach determined that the claim for a breach of contract in a case such as this would only refer to the ticket holder’s right to obtain a refund if they were denied entry or expelled from the event. As that was not the case for Mayer, the court decided that more would be needed to establish an injury. Thus, since Mayer at best possessed a contractual right to enter the game, for which he “suffered no cognizable injury to a legally protected right or interest,” the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of Mayer’s complaint.
Issue present, ruling, and impact
The main issue present within Mayer v. Belichick was the lack of presented injury brought before the court by Mayer. In order to bring forth a lawsuit, the person pursuing it must first have proper legal standing. Legal standing, or locus standi, is “the capacity of a party to bring a lawsuit in court.” There are four requirements in order to determine standing, those being: Legally cognizable interest, an injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability. This court case specifically called into question the injury-in-fact requirement. Since the court determined that Mayer got exactly what he paid for, in that he bought a ticket to see the game, and was granted admission, there is no further injury presented to pursue the causes of actions he brought forth. This means that regardless of the facts of the case that would be brought forth or determined, Mayer was deemed not in proper legal standing, and his lawsuit was dismissed. This case helps make clear how fans suing teams along these same lines would go, since fans who only bought a ticket to the game do not possess a true injury-in-fact. No matter how true their statements and grievances could be, they do not have any standing to bring forth a suit in the first place. Bruce Afran, a lawyer working with Mayer said that this ruling “Invites professional teams to cheat, without liability to fans who pay to support them. It strikes us as very strange that one can spend tens of thousands of dollars for season tickets and have no right to be protected from fraud.” While Daniel Goldberg, a partner for a law firm representing the Patriots said, “We always viewed this as a frivolous lawsuit, brought to the court by a Jets season ticket holder who happens to be a lawyer.”
Deflategate
Deflategate was the second of the two scandals involving the Patriots, as it happened during the 2014 AFC title game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts on January 11, 2014. During that game, twelve game-used balls were tested at halftime due to them feeling off. The NFL required that footballs be inflated between 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch (PSI). Of the balls tested, eleven used during the first half were under the minimum PSI threshold. After this game, an investigation took place looking into these deflated balls used by the Patriots. As a result, a 243-page report was published on May 6, 2015, which found “it was more probable than not that Patriots equipment assistant John Jastremski and Patriots locker room attendant Jim McNally deliberately deflated footballs, and that it [was] more probable than not that [Brady] was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski.” After this report, on May 11, the NFL punished Brady for his supposed role in Deflategate, suspending him without pay for the first four games of the 2015-2016 regular season. Three days after this, Brady appealed the suspension and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he would serve the role of arbitrator. During the arbitration hearing, Brady was represented by the NFL Player Association. On June 23, the arbitration hearing was held, and as a result Roger Goodell confirmed Brady's punishment of suspension.
NFL Management Council v. NFL Players Association
As a result of the arbitration, Brady filed a petition to vacate Goodell's ruling, alleging improper notice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Judge Richard Berman, in deciding his ruling, presented four main questions in the arbitration: “(1) whether Brady was on notice that he could be suspended based on a comparison between deflating footballs and steroid use; (2) whether Brady was on notice he could be suspended for being generally aware of others’ misconduct; (3) whether Brady was on notice his specific conduct could lead to a suspension; and (4) whether the CDA’s Article 46 conduct detrimental standard provided sufficient notice.” Judge Berman determined in answer to the first question, that no NFL player who would have general awareness of the ball deflation or noncooperation in the ensuing investigation would reasonably be on notice that their discipline would be equal to using steroids. For the second question, Judge Berman determined that there isn't any NFL policy notifying players that they could be suspended if they knew about the misconduct of others, and further, no player was punished along those lines before Brady. For the third question, Berman found that Brady wasn't put on proper notice, since Brady “had no legal notice of discipline under the Competitive Integrity Policy, which is . . . distributed solely to—and, therefore, provides notice to— ‘Chief Executives, Club Presidents, General Managers, and Head Coaches,’ and not to players.” And finally, Judge Berman determined as to the answer of the fourth question, that Goodell’s use of the Conduct Detrimental Standard in Article 46 as the reason for Brady’s suspension to be “legally misplaced,” as well as inconsistent with past players’ conduct who were not punished for conduct that was detrimental to the league. On top of the answers to his questions, Judge Berman outlined his issues present with the arbitration: “(A) inadequate notice to Brady of both his potential discipline (four-game suspension) and his alleged misconduct; (B) denial of the opportunity for Brady to examine one of two lead investigators, namely NFL Executive Vice President… Jeff Pash; and (C) denial of equal access to investigative files, including witness interview notes.” Due to this reasoning, Judge Berman ruled in favor of Brady, and vacated the four-game suspension enacted by the arbitration.
As a result of the district court ruling, the NFL appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Barrington Parker along with Judge Denny Chin made known that their role is not in determining the specifics of the punishment; whether it should be “three games or five games or none at all.” Further, they made known their role was not to question the exact procedural ruling of the arbitration either. Rather, they recognized that their only role was to determine if the rulings within the arbitration process and results met the legal standard created by the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). With their role in mind, and in response to Judge Berman’s three reasons for vacating the suspension, the court concluded that: (A) Brady received proper notice that deflating footballs could lead to punishment and suspension; (B) Roger Goodell’s decision to exclude the testimony from NFL General Counsel falls under the commissioner’s power on admitting or excluding evidence and raises no question on the grounds of fundamental fairness; and (C) additionally the commissioner’s denial of notes by the investigative team does not present any fundamental unfairness, as the collective bargaining agreement between the league and players doesn’t require it. On April 25, 2016 the Judges decided 2-1 in favor of the NFL, reinstating the arbitration reward. That being the four game suspension without pay.
Issue present, ruling, and impact
The main issue that was looked at during the appellate decision was if the commissioner’s actions followed what was outlined in the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, and in accordance with the Labor Management Relations Act. The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the governing document between the owners of the NFL and the labor union of the NFL Players Association. Article 46 of the document was the specific area in question as it details Commissioner Discipline. The Labor Management Relations Act, also known as the Taft-Hartley Act, was passed in 1947. This law “amended the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to codify in federal law similar restrictions to labor unions against unfair labor practices that apply to employers.” It imposes on unions “the duty to represent the employees of their bargaining unit fairly.” As stated earlier, the court's role was not in requiring perfect arbitration awards, nor disturbing an award if the arbitrator makes a mistake of fact or law, as long as they acted according to the bargain-for authority under the LMRA. Due to this restricted role by the court, since they found that Roger Goodell acted in conformity with his assigned powers granted by the CBA, they found the NFL’s arbitration award as lawful. As a result of all of the legal proceedings during the 2015-2016 regular season, and the court's eventual reinstatement of the suspension, Brady was suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2016-2017 regular season. In addition to Brady’s suspension, the New England Patriots were handed a $1 million fine by the league for deflategate and lost 2 draft picks.
Joshua Hinds is a senior majoring in philosophy and political science.
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