Court says Brady must sit

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's last best chance to avoid serving a four-game suspension to start the new NFL season was flatly rejected by a US federal appeals court on Wednesday.

The Manhattan court issued a one-sentence rejection of requests by Brady and the NFL Players Association to reconsider an April decision that reinstated the suspension of the star quarterback for his role in a scheme to doctor footballs used in a 2015 playoff game. .

"We are disappointed," the NFLPA said in a statement. "The track record of the league office when it comes to matters of player discipline is bad for our business and bad for our game. We have a broken system that must be fixed."