Ben Roethlisberger expected Tom Brady to win Deflategate appeal

Some people may have been surprised when a federal judge overturned Tom Brady's four-game suspension by the NFL, but Ben Roethlisberger was not one of them.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback said he expected his New England Patriots counterpart to win his Deflategate appeal all along, adding that commissioner Roger Goodell hastily concluded judgment.

"I just felt like the league had done something without really - you know, and I wasn't big in looking at all the details, this and that," Roethlisberger told reporters on Sunday.

"Maybe just more of a feeling of an inkling and knowing that the commissioner jumped to a pretty harsh punishment."

Roethlisberger's Steelers will meet Brady's Patriots on Thursday in the NFL's opening game.

He feels that it was in the NFL's best interest to reinstate Brady, despite the fact that it issued the punishment in the first place.

It"s the way that NFL football should start, and that"s maybe one of the reasons I knew that Tom would be out there, because I knew the NFL doesn"t want to start a game without him out there," said Roethlisberger, who had a six-game suspension in 2010 reduced to four games for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

"Nerves will be running, jitters will be running for everybody. For young guys, I think it"s fun that they get to experience this, and even old guys like myself, I"m sure I"ll be nervous.