The NFL opted to file the first lawsuit in the Tom Brady case, in order to keep it out of the NFL Players Association’s preferred jurisdiction of Minnesota. When the case landed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, it was randomly assigned to one of the court’s 44 judges.
The case went to Judge Richard M. Berman. And his initial reaction was one of confusion.
“Judge, we’ve got the Brady case,” one of Judge Berman’s clerks told him, via the Cornell Sun.
“I had no idea what he was talking about,” Judge Berman said. “I was really busy.”
Berman quickly learned what the Brady case was. He knew it was “unlike anything I had ever done,” so he knew he needed to handle the case a certain way.
“Everyone is watching,” Judge Berman said. “You need to bring your A-game.”
Everyone was watching because pretty much everyone watches football.
“It captured the public’s imagination,” Judge Berman said. “I guess everybody is interested in football.”
But it wasn’t Judge Berman’s first high-profile case. And he had enough experience to know how to handle it.
“The high-profile cases are very different from any other cases you have,” Judge Berman said. “Everyone is watching you. Everyone is reading about it each step of the way, which is vastly different from the typical case, which nobody ever really hears about unless they’re specifically interested. You have to get adjusted to being in the spotlight. . . . If anybody tells you that they’re like any other case, that’s not true.”
Judge Berman didn’t view that as a burden.
“I was enthusiastic about working on the case, both the settlement aspect and the writing of the opinion,” Judge Berman said. “For me, it was a great experience.”
It was also a great experience for Tom Brady, the Patriots, and their fans. It wasn’t a great experience for the NFL, and it possibly won’t be a great experience for the NFL if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reverses the decision and sends to back to Judge Berman for further proceedings -- proceedings that would address unanswered (to date) questions relating to the fitness of Commissioner Roger Goodell to serve as the arbitrator in Brady’s case.