The Sports Xchange

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s appeal of his four-game suspension reportedly will not be heard by the deadline Wednesday.

The appeal was supposed to be heard within 10 days of filing, according to terms of the collective-bargaining agreement, but sources told The Associated Press that a hearing has not been scheduled. It is possible the NFL and the NFL Players Associated have agreed to delay it.

Brady was suspended by the league on May 11 after league-appointed independent investigator Ted Wells determined that Brady “was at least generally aware of” deflated footballs in the AFC Championship Game. Brady was banned for the first four games of next season, and the Patriots were fined $1 million and penalized two draft picks.

The NFLPA formally appealed Brady’s suspension on May 14, pushing for an independent arbiter to hear the case. After the NFL said commissioner Roger Goodell would hear the appeal, the NFLPA asked that Goodell recuse himself, and the NFL reportedly declined — although the league said Friday that no final decision had been made, which might explain the delay.

At the conclusion of the NFL owners’ spring meetings in San Francisco last Wednesday, Goodell said he looked forward to hearing from Brady.

“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” Goodell said. “I look forward to hearing directly from Tom. … I have great admiration and respect for Tom Brady. But the rules have to be enforced on a uniform basis. They apply to everybody in the league. … We put the game ahead of everything.”

The union called Goodell a “central witness in the appeal hearing,” adding that he is not impartial.

“The players also believe that the Commissioner’s history of inconsistently issuing discipline against our players makes him ill-suited to hear this appeal in a fair-minded manner,” the NFLPA wrote last Tuesday. “If the NFL believes the Ted Wells report has credibility because it is independent, then the NFL should embrace our request for an independent review.”