A decision Thursday by a federal judge to overturn the NFL's four-game suspension imposed on New England Patriots' star quarterback Tom Brady provides valuable lessons for Georgia employers.

Although the NFL has announced it will appeal the decision by Judge Richard Berman—who ruled that the league couldn't discipline Brady for his team's alleged use of underinflated footballs in order to make them easier to throw—employers can avoid their own courtroom drama by focusing on four key takeaways from the ruling.

First, some brief background for those who haven't breathlessly followed what has become known as “Deflategate”: During the January 2015 AFC Championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, the league became aware that the footballs used by the Patriots were underinflated, below league standards. The NFL hired a law firm to conduct an investigation into the irregularities and, several months later, the report concluded that it was more probable than not that Brady was at least generally aware that someone had deflated the footballs.