Deflate-Gate: Settlement Talks Break Down Between Tom Brady, NFL Union

Aug. 31, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC / Updated Aug. 31, 2015, 7:03 PM UTC

By Erin McClam

It’s up to a judge to decide whether Tom Brady’s four-game suspension in the Deflate-Gate scandal will stand.

With Brady and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell looking on, lawyers told a federal judge in New York on Monday that settlement talks over the suspension had failed, The Associated Press reported.

The judge, Richard Berman, said he will rule as early as Tuesday.

The league suspended Brady, and Goodell later upheld the ruling, after concluding that the star quarterback and two team employees schemed to let air out of footballs before the AFC championship game in January, presumably to make them easier for Brady to grip.

Brady insists neither he nor any Patriots employee did anything wrong.

The Patriots open the NFL season on Sept. 10 at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Erin McClam

Erin McClam is a senior writer for NBC News, responsible for reporting, writing and editing general news for NBCNews.com. Prior to joining the site in January 2013, McClam worked at The Associated Press, where he spent 13 years and was most recently financial markets editor. In that role, McClam was responsible for a team of five reporters and a deputy editor that covered the stock and bond markets, financial regulation and the nation's largest banks.

Prior to that role, McClam held a variety of jobs at AP, including being a national correspondent and an original member of its Top Stories Desk editing operation.

McClam lives in New York.

The Associated Press contributed.