NFL scores early legal victory with Deflategate lawsuit headed to New York

The NFL scored an early legal victory in its fight over Tom Brady’s Deflategate suspension with the NFL Players Association on Thursday when a Minnesota judge transferred the union’s lawsuit to the New York district where the league filed its own complaint.

In a four-page filing, U.S. District Judge Richard H. Kyle wrote the court “perceives no reason for this action to proceed in Minnesota,” since the NFL’s lawsuit was first filed Tuesday in Manhattan, around the same time Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld Brady’s four-game ban.

“Indeed, the Court sees little reason for this action to have been commenced in Minnesota at all,” Kyle wrote. “Brady plays for a team in Massachusetts; the Union is headquartered in Washington, D.C.; the NFL is headquartered in New York; the arbitration proceedings took place in New York; and the award was issued in New York.”

The NFLPA wanted the case heard by U.S. District Judge David S. Doty, who has ruled in favor of the union in past cases, including a decision in February to vacate the arbitration award that upheld Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson’s 2014 suspension.

Union attorney Jeffrey Kessler told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday that union had designated the Brady lawsuit as a related case to Peterson’s and planned to make some similar arguments, including lack of notice and the arbitrator’s partiality.

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It now appears those arguments will be made in the Southern District of New York, where the NFL’s request for the court to confirm Brady’s suspension has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman.

The union has two weeks to respond.

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Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero