UPDATED 1:55 p.m.: NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says that while the league is appealing the federal judge’s decision in “Deflategate,” it isn’t seeking an emergency stay.

That frees New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to play while an appeals court considers the case. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman overturned the NFL’s four-game suspension of Brady on Thursday.

The Patriots open Sept. 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

UPDATED 1:45 p.m.: A person with knowledge of Greg Hardy’s plans says the NFL Players Association will be consulted over whether the Dallas defensive end will challenge his four-game suspension in court after a federal judge tossed Tom Brady’s punishment.

The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because a decision hasn’t been made, said Thursday that Hardy would seek a recommendation from the union.

Hardy was suspended for his involvement in a domestic violence case in North Carolina while he played for the Carolina Panthers. He was on the commissioner’s exempt list for all but one game last season while his case was still in the legal system. He received his $13 million salary.

A 10-game suspension from Commissioner Roger Goodell was reduced to four games by arbitrator Harold Henderson in July.

Goodell suspended Hardy after the NFL saw photos and other evidence that led the league to conclude the 27-year-old player roughed up ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder in his apartment in May 2014. He was convicted by a judge, but the case was thrown out on appeal when Holder couldn’t be located to testify.

UPDATED 1:15 p.m.: Patriots owner Robert Kraft says his team can finally return its focus from “Deflategate” to the game on the field.

Kraft said in a statement Thursday that he is grateful for the “thoughtful” decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman to overturn the NFL’s four-game suspension of Tom Brady over underinflated footballs in a playoff game last season.

Kraft says Brady is of the “highest integrity” and represents everything that is great about football and the NFL.

Kraft says the league’s lawyers insisted on imposing and defending unwarranted discipline, despite having no evidence of wrongdoing.

UPDATED 12:20 p.m.: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league will appeal a federal judge’s ruling striking down Tom Brady’s four-game suspension in “Deflategate.”

Goodell said in a statement Thursday that it’s paramount to protect the integrity of the game and his office’s responsibilities under the collective bargaining agreement with players.

UPDATED 11:45 a.m.: The executive director of the NFL Players Association says a judge overturning Tom Brady’s four-game “Deflategate” suspension shows that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to act fairly.

DeMaurice Smith said in a statement Thursday that the players contract does not allow Goodell to be arbitrary and misleading when he uses his power to discipline players.

Smith says the decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman should signal to all NFL team owners that collective bargaining is better than legal losses, leading to “far better results.”

UPDATED 11:25 a.m.: Sports books in Las Vegas are shifting their odds on the Patriots now that a federal judge has ruled quarterback Tom Brady can play right away.

Odds compiled by gambling expert R.J. Bell of Pregame.com show New England’s chances of winning the Super Bowl at 8-1, compared with 10-1 before the resolution in the “Deflategate” scandal.

The ruling erased a four game suspension dished out by the NFL in the dispute over underinflated footballs in the AFC championship game last season.

Las Vegas casinos moved the Patriots from a 2.5-point favorite to a 7-point favorite in their opener Sept. 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Had the suspension been upheld, the Patriots would have started Jimmy Garoppolo instead of Brady.

UPDATED 11:15 a.m.: The Patriots are letting a photo do their talking on “Deflategate.”

Team owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick have not yet commented on a judge overturning the four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady on Thursday, but the team tweeted a celebratory photo of its star.

The photo (http://bit.ly/1L7rnN2 ) shows Brady pumping his right fist and celebrating during the Patriots’ Super Bowl win last season.

NEW YORK — A federal judge let the air out of “Deflategate” Thursday, erasing New England quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for a controversy the NFL claimed threatened football’s integrity.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman criticized NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for dispensing “his own brand of industrial justice.”

Berman said Goodell went too far in affirming punishment of the Super Bowl winning quarterback. Brady has insisted he played no role in a conspiracy to deflate footballs below the allowable limit at last season’s AFC championship game.

The suspension was “premised upon several significant legal deficiencies” including the failure to notify Brady of potential penalties, Berman wrote in his opinion, noting that an arbitrator’s factual findings are generally not open to judicial challenge.

“Because there was no notice of a four-game suspension in the circumstances presented here, Commissioner Goodell may be said to have ‘dispensed his own brand of industrial justice,'” Berman wrote, partially citing wording from a previous case.

Berman’s ruling does not necessarily end the dispute. The league can appeal. Neither side’s top lawyer immediately responded to an email seeking comment.

The judge said Brady had no notice of his possible suspension for general awareness of ball deflation by others or participation in any scheme to deflate football and for not cooperating with an investigation.

“Brady also had no notice that his discipline would be the equivalent of the discipline imposed upon a player who used performance enhancing drugs,” Berman said.

Brady was also denied equal access to investigative files, including witness interview notes, and didn’t have a chance to examine one of two lead investigators, the judge said.

The written decision frees Brady to prepare for the Sept. 10 season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The ruling was a surprise to some legal experts who believed Berman was merely pressuring the league to settle when he criticized its handling of the investigation and discipline over the last eight months.

The league brought the scandal to Berman’s Manhattan courtroom immediately once Goodell upheld Brady’s four-game suspension, blasting the quarterback for arranging the destruction of his cellphone and its nearly 10,000 messages just before he was interviewed for the NFL probe. The union countersued, said Brady did nothing wrong and asked the judge to nullify the suspension.

While the league investigation found it was “more probable than not” that two Patriots ball handling employees deliberately released air from Patriots game balls at January’s 45-7 New England victory over the Indianapolis Colts, it cited no direct evidence that Brady knew about or authorized it.

Goodell, though, went beyond the initial investigation report, finding in late July as a result of testimony from Brady and others that the quarterback conspired with the ball handlers and tried to obstruct the league’s probe, including by destroying his cellphone.

The commissioner said he concluded Brady “knew about, approved of, consented to, and provided inducements and rewards” to ensure balls were deflated.

Berman attacked the league while questioning one of its lawyers at two hearings, citing a lack of proof against Brady and asking how Goodell settled on a four-game suspension instead of other discipline.

He warned the league that he had the authority to overturn its punishment of Brady if he found the NFL acted unfairly by refusing to deliver NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Pash as a witness even though he worked on the NFL investigation.

Berman had repeatedly urged both sides to settle and tone down their rhetoric. At a hearing Monday attended by Brady and Goodell, the judge announced that both sides had “tried quite hard” to reach a deal in morning talks. But the case was left for him to decide.

As they negotiated, the sides attacked each other in court papers.

In one August court filing, the union said the four-game suspension displayed “a clearly biased agenda — not an effort at fairness and consistency,” and it criticized Goodell’s ruling upholding the suspension as a “smear campaign,” a “propaganda piece written for public consumption.”

In its papers, the NFL said there was “ample support” in evidence for the commissioner to conclude Brady was involved in efforts by the Patriots equipment personnel to deflate footballs.

NFL v. NFLPA by Doug Mataconis

Read the decision: Ruling of Judge Richard Berman in NFL v. NFLPA

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