Source: NFL thinks time for Tom Brady settlement talks has passed

The NFL doesn't see any need to reopen settlement talks with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the NFL Players Association regarding Brady's four-game suspension, a league source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The source said the NFL doesn't believe the NFLPA or anyone from Brady's camp has provided a reason to renew settlement discussions after the suspension was upheld by a federal appeals court earlier this week. The league believes the time for those talks has come and gone, the source said.

The league and attorneys for the NFLPA engaged in talks for several months last summer in an attempt to reach a settlement in Brady's appeal of the suspension for his involvement in the Deflategate scandal.

They could not come to an agreement, and on Sept. 3, U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman overturned the suspension.

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the suspension. The court ruled 2-1 that commissioner Roger Goodell did not deprive Brady of "fundamental fairness" with his procedural rulings.

Goodell, speaking to reporters Wednesday in Chicago on the eve of the NFL draft, said the league would like to move forward.

"I think the most important thing from the ruling is that the judgment that the district court made last summer was incorrect. They obviously reversed that," Goodell said. "They reinforced our authority here, and they reinforced the fact that we have the facts correct, that it was a fair process and that we came to the conclusion that they supported. From our standpoint, we think that's the right decision and frankly should have been the decision last time."

Goodell told Fox Sports' "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" on Wednesday that he is unlikely to reduce Brady's suspension, even if requested to do so by owners.

"I listen to everybody, but we've had these discussions," Goodell said. "This was an issue just about a year ago. When we make these decisions, it's with a tremendous amount of thought, a tremendous amount of consideration. Our staff worked very hard on it, and I think that we have given that full consideration.

"We're careful -- and this is where the commissioner's authority is important -- we don't allow individual clubs to influence an outcome with respect to discipline because it can affect other clubs. The rules of the league, obviously, the competitiveness of the league, that's handed to the commissioner by the 32 clubs for exactly that reason -- to avoid any club getting a competitive advantage."

Goodell said he doesn't view this week's ruling as a win.

"No, we don't look at it that way at all," he said. "What it is is reinforcing the commissioner's authority and the league's authority that we negotiated in our collective bargaining agreement. It also reinforced the underlying facts of the case, the process we engaged in, the fact we had a fair process, we looked at the facts fairly, including the destruction of evidence, and came to a reasonable conclusion. The courts of appeals made it clear that the district court got it wrong last summer, which we felt from the moment that decision came down. That is why we appealed it."

On Tuesday, NFLPA executive George Atallah told ESPN Radio's Russillo & Kanell that the union is still reviewing the court's decision and weighing appeals options, including an appeal to the full federal appeals court panel or to the Supreme Court. The NFLPA has two weeks to make a decision on an appeal.

"We're not going to sit here and hypothetically talk about what we're going to do," Goodell told reporters. "We had a lot of discussions last year. But the determination by the appellate court was very clear and very strong. We will continue, obviously, to negotiate with the union on the commissioner discipline issue. We've done that in the past. We've made changes in the past, and we're still open to doing that."