NEW YORK -- Near the outset of judge Richard Berman's opening remarks in his courtroom on Wednesday, he stressed that no inferences should be made from the tone or tenor of his questions.
"I think there are varying strengths and weaknesses (to each side's case)," Berman said. "I have not made a determination in my own mind as to which side should prevail legally."
Combine that with the opinion of many legal analysts that judges pushing for settlements use conferences like Wednesday's to show each side the flaws with their case, and you might realize that the day may not have been as bad as it seemed for the NFL.
Berman stated near the opening of his remarks that if there is no settlement, the case will be resolved by him in a written document. Berman added that an appeal to the US Court of Appeals Second Circuit would be the next recourse. He also pointed out that the "life of an appeal is two years on average. Nobody here wants to wait that long."
The groundwork for reaching a settlement started at about 10:30 a.m. when Berman met privately with the six-person NFL delegation in his robing room. After 17 minutes, that group returned to the courtroom, and Tom Brady, accompanied by eight lawyers and representatives, went into the room. In the Brady delegation were NFLPA council Jeffrey Kessler and David Greenspan, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and Brady's agents Don Yee and Steve Dubin.
The group emerged from the robing room after 31 minutes. Brady's face was grim, in a near scowl, as he returned to his seat at a long table in the midst of his attorneys.
While there were some winks, nods, handshakes and smiles exchanged between attorneys for the two sides, Brady wasn't seen to make eye contact or interact with anyone on the NFL side. The most he did in open court was whisper with Yee and Greenspan.
New England Patriots
The open portion of the settlement conference ended at 12:45 p.m. At that point Berman summoned the NFL back into his robing room for further discussions, likely aimed at finding out if settlement progress was made. The Brady team was expected to go in later in the afternoon.
It would be interesting to know whether or not the NFL spoke with Berman about his insistence on dredging up details of the Wells investigation. The NFL's stance is that that ship has sailed, and they only asked for confirmation of their ruling here in New York to make sure that they were clear in terms of honoring the collective bargaining agreement.
Given the way that Berman went after the Wells report today, one would be inclined to wonder whether Brady would ever accept those findings as part of a settlement if Berman won't.