Settlement talks between Tom Brady and the NFL are set for Aug. 12.

Richard Berman asked Brady's lawyers and the NFL to file a memo stating their positions on Aug. 7. Berman scheduled a conference for Aug. 12, requesting that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Brady be in attendance. Berman encouraged the two sides to continue to work on a potential settlement. Barring that, Berman also set an Aug. 19 date for both parties to meet again and either continue to conference or hear oral arguments.

The NFL upheld Brady's four-game suspension this week.

Mike Kensil was the “main source” for ESPN’s inflammatory and ultimately incorrect report that 11 of 12 Patriots footballs used in the first half of the AFC Championship Game “were inflated significantly below the NFL's requirements”, reported WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan Show.

Kensil is the NFL's Vice President of Game Operations and was the driving force behind the investigation.

Kensil was the Jets director of operations for nearly 20 years. His tenure overlapped Bill Parcells (and Bill Belichick’s) time with the Jets and he would have been part of a Jets front office incensed by Belichick’s 2000 resignation as Jets head coach.

Kensil suspected the Patriots of tampering with footballs long before the AFC Championship Game, a source says.

Kensil walked up to Patriots equipment manager Dave Schoenfeld on the sideline after halftime and said, “We weighed the balls. You are in big f------ trouble.” 

The “11 of 12” report was born on the Wednesday evening after the AFC Championship Game. It inferred a calculated effort by the Patriots to deflate footballs since, at that time, the media and general public wasn’t considering the fact inflated items lose pressure in cool weather.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN will address his initial story that 11 of 12 New England Patriots' footballs were 2.0 pounds under the 12.5 PSI minimum in the AFC Championship Game. The story turned out to be false.

Mortensen has never addressed or explained the story publicly, but he'll do so Friday morning on WEEI radio.

At a minimum, the NFL failed to dispute or to correct the erroneous report, with the Patriots not knowing the true reading until late March and the rest of us not knowing the truth until the release of the Ted Wells report in May.

Adam Schefter appeared on WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan show on Thursday, and he addressed the criticism of Mortensen’s 11-of-12 footballs report.

“First of all, I’ve never had in-depth conversations with Chris about the story,” Schefter said. “Chris is as good a reporter as there is. And he’s been a pioneer in this industry. So when he decides to do things, he has a reason for doing them. And I’ll just stand behind him as a reporter and as a man. I love him.

“And I don’t know the particulars of what happened. I really don’t, OK?. But I can tell you this, somebody wanted information out. You’re blaming him. But I will say this. Number one, I’m sure he has an explanation. Number two, any reporter in the country, if they have high level people calling them, giving them this information, almost anyone’s gonna run with it.”

Someone must have lied to or misled Mortensen.

“If that is indeed the case that one, two, three high-level individuals intentionally misled him to try to smear the Patriots, I saw more shame on those people than Mort,” Schefter said.

The NFL has quickly corrected other information with which it disagrees, such as Schefter's report that Tom Brady only had four hours to present his case on appeal. But the NFL didn't correct the record on the PSI report from Mortensen.

U.S. District Judge Richard H. Kyle in Minnesota ordered Thursday that the NFLPA's lawsuit on behalf of Tom Brady be transferred to the Southern District of New York.

"This court perceives no reason for this action to proceed in Minnesota," Kyle wrote in his ruling.

On Wednesday, the NFLPA filed suit in Minnesota alleging that Brady's punishment was not fair and consistent. It also claims that the appeal hearing "defied any concept of fundamental fairness" and that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was partial in his decision to uphold the suspension.

The players association filed the suit in Minnesota where they had won previous litigation against the NFL.

Tom Brady released the following statement following the NFL's decision to uphold his four-game suspension:

"I am very disappointed by the NFL's decision to uphold the 4 game suspension against me. I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either.

"Despite submitting to hours of testimony over the past 6 months, it is disappointing that the Commissioner upheld my suspension based upon a standard that it was 'probable' that I was 'generally aware' of misconduct. The fact is that neither I, nor any equipment person, did anything of which we have been accused. He dismissed my hours of testimony and it is disappointing that he found it unreliable.

"I also disagree with yesterday's narrative surrounding my cellphone. I replaced my broken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attorneys made it clear to the NFL that my actual phone device would not be subjected to investigation under ANY circumstances. As a member of a union, I was under no obligation to set a new precedent going forward, nor was I made aware at any time during Mr. Wells investigation, that failing to subject my cell phone to investigation would result in ANY discipline.

"Most importantly, I have never written, texted, emailed to anybody at anytime, anything related to football air pressure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January. To suggest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giving the NFL information it requested is completely wrong.

"To try and reconcile the record and fully cooperate with the investigation after I was disciplined in May, we turned over detailed pages of cell phone records and all of the emails that Mr. Wells requested. We even contacted the phone company to see if there was any possible way we could retrieve any/all of the actual text messages from my old phone. In short, we exhausted every possibility to give the NFL everything we could and offered to go thru the identity for every text and phone call during the relevant time. Regardless, the NFL knows that Mr. Wells already had ALL relevant communications with Patriots personnel that either Mr. Wells saw or that I was questioned about in my appeal hearing. There is no 'smoking gun' and this controversy is manufactured to distract from the fact they have zero evidence of wrongdoing.

"I authorized the NFLPA to make a settlement offer to the NFL so that we could avoid going to court and put this inconsequential issue behind us as we move forward into this season. The discipline was upheld without any counter offer. I respect the Commissioner's authority, but he also has to respect the CBA and my rights as a private citizen. I will not allow my unfair discipline to become a precedent for other NFL players without a fight.

"Lastly, I am overwhelmed and humbled by the support of family, friends and our fans who have supported me since the false accusations were made after the AFC Championship game. I look forward to the opportunity to resume playing with my teammates and winning more games for the New England Patriots."

The NFL leaked to ESPN that Tom Brady destroy his cell phone as they announced they would not reduce his four-game suspension.

The following, however, is in the Wells Report:

“After the hearing and after the submission of post-hearing briefs, Mr. Brady’s certified agents offered to provide a spreadsheet that would identify all of the individuals with whom Mr. Brady had exchanged text messages during [the relevant time] period; the agents suggested that the League could contact those individuals and request production of any relevant text messages that they retained. Aside from the fact that, under Article 46, Section 2(f) of the CBA, such information could and should have been provided long before the hearing, the approach suggested in the agents’ letter — which would require tracking down numerous individuals and seeking consent from each to retrieve from their cellphones detailed information about their text message communications during the relevant period — is simply not practical.”

The NFL refused to attempt to track down the people Brady communicated with.

The NFL also leaked the 11-of-12 footballs had a deflated PSI to ESPN, which was not true.

Robert Kraft called the decision by the NFL to uphold their four-game suspension of Tom Brady "unfathomable."

"I continue to believe and unequivocally support Tom Brady," said Kraft.

Kraft expressed regret stepping aside in May and accepting the NFL's penalties for the New England Patriots. Kraft said he had hoped accepting penalties for the Patriots would lead to a better outcome for Brady.

"I was wrong to put my faith in the league," said Kraft.

The NFL offered to reduce Tom Brady's suspension to two games and possibly one if he did the following things:

1. Admit to having knowledge of whatever John Jastremski and Jim McNally did to the footballs.

2. Admit to failing to cooperate with the investigation of Ted Wells.

3. Apologized. 

Settlement talks can continue independent of litigation.

Tom Brady and the NFL were moving towards a one-game suspension settlement, but Brady reportedly wanted the records sealed. The NFL wouldn't relent on that issue and so the four-game suspension was upheld and it will be taken to the courts.

Brady was initially reportedly unwilling to accept any suspension though he would have given up his fight if he were to be simply fined by the league.

Tom Brady's agent and attorney, Don Yee, released the following statement in response to the NFL upholding his four-game suspension:

"The Commissioner's decision is deeply disappointing, but not surprising because the appeal process was thoroughly lacking in procedural fairness.

"Most importantly, neither Tom nor the Patriots did anything wrong. And the NFL has no evidence that anything in appropriate occurred. 

"The appeal process was a sham, resulting in the Commissioner rubber-stamping his own decision. For example, the Wells investigative team was given over 100 days to conduct its investigation. Just days prior to the appeal hearing, we were notified we would only have four hours to present a defense; therefore, we didn't have enough time to examine important witnesses. Likewise, it was represented to the public that the Wells team was 'independent'; however, when we requested documents from Wells, out request was rejected on the basis of privilege. We therefore had no ideas as to what Wells found from other witnesses, nor did we know what those other witnesses said.

"These are just two examples of how the Commissioner failed to ensure a fair process.

"Additionally, the science in the Wells Report was junk. It has been thoroughly discredited by independent third parties.

"Finally, as to the issue of cooperation, we presented the Commissioner with an unprecedented amount of electronic data, all of which is incontrovertible. I do not think that any private citizen would have agreed to provide anyone with the amount of information that Tom was willing to reveal to the Commissioner. Tom was completely transparent. All of the electronic information was ignored; we don't know why. The extent to which Tom opened up his private life to the Commissioner will become clear in the coming days.

The Commissioner's decision and discipline has no precedent in all of NFL history. His decision alters the competitive balance of the upcoming season. The decision is wrong and has no basis and it diminishes the integrity of the game."