The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the NFL in their appeal of Judge Richard Berman’s decision to overturn Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game Deflategate suspension, which leaves Brady set to miss the start of the 2016 season pending further appeals in the long-lasting case.
Should the suspension stand, Brady will miss two division games and two nationally televised games along with four paychecks. As we noted last month, those paychecks are going to be smaller under the terms of the restructured deal that Brady signed earlier this year than they would have been under his original deal.
Brady converted a $9 million base salary for 2016 into a signing bonus and a $1 million base salary. That means he’ll forfeit $235,941.17 if suspended this year rather than the $2.11 million he’d miss out on if the deal had not been altered. He’d lose the same amount if the legal machinations somehow stretch the affair into 2017 after trading in a scheduled $10 million salary.
There were other reasons for both sides to re-address the deal this offseason, but the financial protection against a potential suspension looks like it was a useful byproduct for Brady.