At long last, this whole dumb national nightmare is (hopefully) over.

In a shocking announcement on Thursday morning, Judge Richard M. Berman ruled against the NFL, nullifying Tom Brady’s four-suspension for his role in the Deflategate scandal.

His ruling confirms what many of us have long thought — that the NFL overstepped its bounds in suspending Tom Brady, doing so with nothing but circumstantial evidence.

Do I think Tom Brady was totally innocent in Deflategate? Probably not. He knew something. Destroying his cell phone was a bad look, no matter the reason. (And there are plenty of good reasons — I wouldn’t want to hand over my phone to the leak-machine NFL.)

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

But the NFL just didn’t have enough. There wasn’t enough evidence. They presented their case terribly. The Wells Report was filled with discrepancies and sections that didn’t add up or make sense, and instead of digging to find the truth, or admitting that maybe they wouldn’t ever know the full truth, the league barged ahead with the Brady suspension.

And that was Berman’s ruling: It had nothing to do with whether or not Brady was innocent. It was about the bungling of the investigation by the league.

Even when the players didn’t seem to care, and the owners were wondering why on earth this was still going on, the NFL charged on. It wasn’t about deflating footballs anymore. It was about pride. It was about protecting the power of Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Judge Richard M. Berman (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

Judge Berman saw right through that. From the start of the case, he openly questioned the NFL’s disciplinary policies, seeming to mock the league’s inability to give him straight answers.

In the end, it all came down to the CBA. Anyone in the court room could see that Berman was leaning toward Brady’s side of the argument, but no one knew if he would be willing to strike down Goodell’s ability to suspend anyone for anything, which is more or less given to him by this CBA.

In the end, he decided he had enough to do so. The judge found that Brady wasn’t informed of the punishment he faced, the NFL didn’t allow anyone from Brady’s side to question NFL executive Jeff Pash during the appeal, and Brady’s side never had the chance to examine the evidence against him.

The NFL will keep fighting this. Shortly after the decision was handed down, Goodell announced the league’s plan to appeal. This isn’t the last we’ve heard of old Deflategate.

But for Tom Brady, this is a big win. He can play.

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