SAN FRANCISCO — The NFL confirmed on Thursday that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will, in fact, appear in a pregame ceremony at Super Bowl 50 that will honor 40 of the 43 current Super Bowl MVPs. Brady was named MVP in Super Bowl victories over the Rams, Panthers, and Seahawks, and there had been doubt as to whether Brady would appear for the ceremony given his high-profile battle with the NFL over Deflategate.
Former Patriots receiver Deion Branch, the MVP of the Super Bowl win over the Eagles, is also slated to attend.
The three MVPs who are not scheduled to attend: Packers quarterback Bart Starr (Super Bowl I and II), Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley (Super Bowl V) and Cowboys defensive end Harvey Martin (Super Bowl XII).
Kessler takes issue
NFL Players Association attorney Jeffrey Kessler has a whole list of questions for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Goodell said this week that the league did not find any violators to its new rules this season to check the inflation levels of footballs at randomly-selected NFL games. The NFL supposedly recorded PSI data before, during, and after the games, and logged the data with the league office.
But Goodell also said that the NFL isn’t performing a “study’’ on the effect of temperature and humidity on football pressure, and intimated that the league won’t be releasing the data it collected to the public. NFL head of officials Dean Blandino later clarified that the NFL is “evaluating’’ what to do with the data.
But Kessler, who represented Brady in his victorious lawsuit over the NFL to vacate his four-game Deflategate suspension, has a wide list of issues with the NFL’s silence all season long about what it plans to do with the data.
“First of all we don’t know what they recorded,’’ Kessler told the Globe in an interview Thursday at the Super Bowl. “They haven’t even publicly revealed, do they record temperature? Do they record the humidity or whether it’s raining or not? Do they look at any of the information that every scientist agrees you would have to know in order to make any evaluation on this? And when did they do it? Have they done it at the beginning of the games only? Did they do it at halftime? Did they do it at the end of the games? How are the balls selected?’’
“Right now they are intentionally, for whatever reason, keeping the world in the dark. And I think the world can draw their own conclusions about that.’’
Goodell and the league office haven’t said definitively that they will not publish the data they collected this season. What’s unknown is how many games were randomly selected for the new football-testing protocols, plus the number of questions Kessler raised about whether game officials also recorded temperature and humidity data in addition to raw PSI numbers.
Patriots fans are hopeful that the data collected by the league would exonerate Brady, but the NFL hasn’t appeared to be keen on releasing any information that could hurt its appeal of circuit judge Richard Berman’s decision from September.
“Why wouldn’t you publish it? Why wouldn’t you say, here’s a study? Here’s what we learned from our collection of data?’’ Kessler said. “But that’s where we are.’’
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith didn’t put as much pressure on Goodell to release the PSI data, but said his organization is working hard to fight for Brady in the upcoming appeal.
“If we think the [PSI] information is important, at some point we’ll demand it,’’ Smith said. “But the process we’re in right now is fighting and vindicating the collective bargaining agreement.’’
The NFL, NFLPA, and Brady are due in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on March 3 for the appeal. Both sides will get 15 minutes for oral arguments, and the panel of three judges will then take up to several months to render a decision. Only two judges’ decisions are necessary for either side to win.
“You can be sure we will be properly prepared for the appellate argument when it gets there,’’ Kessler said. “When the union fights for Tom Brady’s rights, it’s fighting for the rights of every player in the NFL. If the league can abuse the rights of its biggest stars and there’s no redress for that, what would that mean for the practice squad player, or the special teams player?’’
“It is very important that the union do this, because when you’re vindicated for one player you’re vindicating it for all. So I know everyone in Boston would like to think we’re doing this for Tom Brady and the Patriots, but he would tell you he’s doing it for all the players, not just for himself.’’
Injury updates
The Broncos received good injury news with their three injured players. Safeties T.J. Ward (ankle) and Darian Stewart (knee) and guard Louis Vasquez (knee) were all listed as having full participation a day after being limited in practice.
The Panthers also were completely healthy on Thursday. Defensive end Jared Allen (foot), the only player who was limited on Wednesday, was full participation on Thursday. And linebacker Thomas Davis (forearm) and fullback Mike Tolbert (knee) were full participation for the second straight day.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin
