The Sports Xchange

About 150 New England Patriots fans chanted and waved signs after they filled a Gillette Stadium parking lot in Foxborough, Mass., on Sunday to protest the four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady that resulted from Deflategate.

The event, known as the “Free Tom Brady” rally, was organized on Facebook by Pablo Munoz, a 22-year-old part-time janitor.

Munoz told the Boston Herald that more than 600 people said on the social website that they would attend the rally.

However, Foxborough police sergeant John Chamberlin told the Boston Globe that his estimate of the crowd size on Sunday was about 150.

The protesters, many of whom wore Brady jerseys, held signs asking NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to rescind the suspension.

“Money can’t buy legacy, and that’s what’s being tainted right now,” Munoz told the Boston Herald. “If you take that away from him he could live his whole life with money, but at the end of the day if he goes in the Hall of Fame with an asterisk next to his name, that’s going to be more than defamation. That’s to be just terrible.

“That’s really what this is about. It’s to show him there’s still a nation, a sea of people who believe that he’s the champion that he is. I think it’s going to be great for him. He’s given us so many memories. We just want to give him one.”

The rally was called a ”peaceful rally to protest the unjust football arrest of half God half man Tom Brady.” The planning for the event began on May 14, Munoz said.

The penalty was imposed on Brady after an investigation led by Ted Wells found it was more probable than not that Brady was at least aware of team employees who let air out of Patriots’ footballs prior to January’s AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.

Goodell plans to hear Brady’s appeal of the suspension soon, although no date for the hearing has been announced.

The NFL reportedly has rejected the NFL Players Association request for Goodell to step aside as the arbitrator in Brady’s appeal.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Friday that no final decision has been made on whether Goodell will recuse himself.

According to ESPN.com, attorneys for Goodell have recommended that the commissioner reject the NFLPA’s request that he recuse himself from Brady’s appeal. Goodell still could step aside as arbitrator, but he would be doing so against the advice of his lawyers