National Football League

Tom Brady won't continue to appeal his Deflategate suspension

Published Jul. 15, 2016 1:10 p.m. ET

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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady — after losing an appeal in federal appeals court earlier this week — finally has decided to drop his legal fight against the NFL, which suspended him four games for his role in Deflategate.

Brady, who will miss the first four games of the 2016 season, announced the news Friday on Facebook.

Brady, who is entering his 17th NFL season, would have had to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to take his case, and, according to The Associated Press, only about 1 percent of the appeals submitted to the nation's highest court are accepted.

The soon-to-be 39-year-old quarterback will be replaced by Jimmy Garoppolo for New England's first four games, which are against Arizona (Sept. 11), Miami (Sept. 18), Houston (Sept. 22) and Buffalo (Oct. 2). Garoppolo, 24, was a second-round pick in 2014 but hasn't started a regular-season game.

Brady was initially suspended before last season, but a judge overturned the suspension just before the team's first game. That allowed the quarterback to play the full 2015 season, but the NFL continued to press the case. On April 25, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court ruled 2-1 to reinstate the suspension. Brady then lost his appeal to that decision Wednesday.

The case stems from the NFL discovering that the Patriots used under-inflated footballs in their AFC championship victory against the Indianapolis Colts at the end of the 2014 season. Those balls allegedly were to Brady's liking and gave him a competitive advantage. New England went on to win the Super Bowl, but Deflategate became an ongoing saga that has finally ended a year and a half after it began.

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