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Super Bowl LI Odds: New England Patriots Still Favorites In Las Vegas Despite Tom Brady’s Suspension

By Jason Fletcher
Published on: 02:37 PST, Jul 15, 2016

On Wednesday, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan, New York, rejected New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s request to reconsider an April decision that found NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acted within his power to suspend Brady for four games for doctoring footballs in the 2015 AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts.

“IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition is denied,” read the ruling from the court.

“We are disappointed with the decision denying a rehearing, as there were clear violations of our collective bargaining agreement by the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell,” the NFLPA said in a statement issued Wednesday. “Despite today’s result, the track record of this League office when it comes to matters of player discipline is bad for our business and bad for our game. We have a broken system that must be fixed.

“We will review all of our options carefully on behalf of Tom Brady and all NFL players.”

Following the ruling in April that Brady’s four-game suspension would go into effect for the first four games of the 2016 season, Las Vegas oddsmakers removed the Patriots as Super Bowl favorites and moved the Seattle Seahawks to the top of the pack. A few weeks later, New England was reinstalled as the favorites despite Brady’s potential absence.

One would assume that after Wednesday’s ruling, the Patriots would’ve been dropped again out of the top spot, but that wasn’t the case, according to Boston.com. New England remains the favorites to win Super Bowl LI despite likely being forced to start Jimmy Garoppolo for the first four games of the season. Garoppolo has never started a game in the NFL and only attempted four passes last season for the Patriots.

New England’s first four games will feature a road game against the Arizona Cardinals, followed by three consecutive home games against the Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills. It’s obviously a huge advantage that the Patriots will play three of their first four games at home as Garoppolo won’t have to deal with the crowd noise of opposing stadiums.

Even if Brady were to take his suspension to the Supreme Court, and somehow play the first four games of the season, the road game against the Cardinals could very easily be a loss. With Garoppolo at the helm, there’s an even better chance that the New England Patriots will open the season with a defeat.

The next three games are winnable for the Patriots, even with Garoppolo running the show, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a slam dunk that New England will start the season 3-1. The Dolphins are going to be much improved with Adam Gase in charge, the Texans are expected to be one of the best teams in the AFC after some impressive offseason additions and the Bills possess one of the best defenses in football.

As long as the Patriots can go 2-2 through the first four games, they should be fine. Brady will return without too big of a hole to dig out of and New England should be right there as one of the top seeds in the AFC by the end of the season. But if Garoppolo only goes 1-3 or doesn’t win a game, it could lead to an extremely disappointing season for Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

[Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images]

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