The NFL filed a 59-page brief to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as part of its appeal of Richard Berman's decision to vacate the four-game suspension of Tom Brady.

The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1, which is the Monday of Super Bowl week.

"I find that part to be alarming, that the league office would allow their attorneys to willfully expedite the schedule, so it can be heard during Super Bowl week," union spokesman George Atallah said on Thursday. "I don't think there's the appropriate level of concern there." Atallah added, "I think the league continues to defend an untenable position, by increasing the outrageous claims that have no basis in fact."

Atallah called the comparison made in the briefs to the 1919 Black Sox scandal "utterly insane." Reached for comment via email on the possibility that the hearing lands during Super Bowl week, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello responded, "We will comply with the schedule that the court determines."