A federal judge has denied a motion by a group of New England Patriots’ fans to restore the first-round draft pick the team lost as part of the punishment for the Deflategate scandal.
The fans’ motions for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order — which would have effectively returned New England’s pick in time for the NFL Draft later this month — were both denied, according to the Boston Herald.
“After reviewing the complaint, it appears highly unlikely that plaintiffs will succeed on the merits of any of their claims,” Judge F. Dennis Saylor wrote Friday.
Citing “emotional distress,” a group of seven Patriots fans filed the civil suit on Tuesday in federal court in Boston. The fans are being represented by Rumford attorney Seth Carey.
Named in the lawsuit were the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who the fans accuse of not doing enough to get the draft pick back.
“The Court is denying plaintiffs’ motion without the benefit of an evidentiary hearing or an opposition brief,” Saylor wrote. “However, the federal courts are courts of limited resources, funded by the taxpayers, and it would not be a prudent expenditure of those resources to permit the motion to progress to the hearing stage.”
Last month at the NFL meetings in Boca Raton, Florida, Kraft said he asked Goodell in a letter to reconsider the penalties of a 2016 first-round pick, 2017 fourth-round pick, four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady and a $1 million team fine. But Goodell made it clear at the meetings he is not changing his mind because he has not received any new information.
Brady’s suspension was overturned in federal court last year and the NFL has appealed. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York heard testimony on March 3 from both sides, and the three judges might take months to issue a ruling.