According to ESPN's Sal Paolantonio, Tom Brady and his camp are pretty confident in their appeals strategy. The NFLPA sent a letter to the NFL highlighting four main points that would hopefully lead to the league overturning their initial verdict. The points of note are based "procedural and matter of fact", stating that there were both procedural issues during the investigation and administration of punishment, and that the penalties are just way beyond reason.
The letter states that punishment is rooted in "dubious, contradictory and mischaracterized circumstantial evidence."
Brady's camp will challenge the four game suspension because the rule book states that the penalty for tampered footballs is $25,000 for a team- so how does this translate into a penalty for the player? Additionally, they'll likely bring up the fact the Panthers/Vikings GloBall Warming incident warranted just a letter of notice for the teams.
The NFLPA would love for the NFL to say the penalty is for not cooperating with handing over Brady's personal phone, so the NFLA can retaliate with the precedent set by Brett Favre's monetary fine of $50,000 for not cooperating back in 2010.
"Brady wants the entire suspension removed and he wants to be exonerated," Paolantonio said on video. "He feels that he has done nothing wrong."
All of the actual evidence points to Brady's innocence. I've always highlighted that the league needed to find that the evidence more probably than not implied Brady's guilt, but instead they found circumstantial evidence that they hoped was more probably than not considered evidence.
"If you listen to Bob Kraft," Paolantonio continued. "It's pretty clear that the Patriots believe they will have Tom Brady available for the opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers."
Brady's appeal will be heard next Tuesday, June 23rd.