Tom Brady will get to play more football this season now that a U.S. district judge has overturned a four-game NFL suspension levied against him. The New England Patriots quarterback will also get to make a lot more money.
Brady was supposed to be sidelined without pay for a quarter of the regular season for using underinflated balls in a playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts in January. Brady’s base salary for the 2015 is $8 million, so he earns $470,588 per week (NFL teams play 16 games but players are paid for their team’s bye week as well).
Sitting out four games would have cost the quarterback a total of $1,882,352, according to Spotrac, a website that tracks sports contracts.
But Judge Richard Berman ruled that the NFL had mishandled its investigation and its punishment process. Now, the star athlete will earn $13 million overall in 2015 between salary and signing bonuses, bringing his total career earnings, not including endorsements, to nearly $163 million.
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