Report: Brady will be suspended by NFL; announcement coming next week

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JayWood2010 said:

If this goes to a real court which it should...

Because ________________.

It won't go to a real court, nor should it.

MarkusNaslund said:

Chances are Brady would still lose if this went to court. This isn't a criminal trial. They don't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt because they're not throwing Brady in jail. The standard of proof here is a balance of probabilities (i.e., "Is it more likely than not...") which is the burden of proof for civil cases so it would also be appopriate for non-criminal sports investigations. And as per the investigation, it was more probable than not that Brady was aware of what was going on.

You're mostly right, though I believe the final verdict would actually go the other way. The penalty appears to be in large part due to Brady's non-cooperation with the investigation, not his actual actions, and while you can introduce evidence of such into civil courts in a roundabout manner, juries often prefer to see something more concrete.

That said, the parties agreed to the current disciplinary system. I suspect the NFL is within its rights to draw these conclusions and hand down these punishments, though I haven't gone through the collective bargaining agreement to be sure about that.