There comes a tipping point in most controversies in which victory becomes impossible for either side. Take the ongoing Deflategate controversy, which today hit New York for a hearing with a judge hellbent on settlement between two sides doing their best to avoid it.
If the league wins, then it’s still the big, bad NFL, pushing around players, even stars, to cater to its random whims of discipline. But even if Brady wins and has the suspension knocked down or nullified, has he won? Will two-to-four football games in 2015 be worth the hit his legacy took the instant he got out of the black SUV in Manhattan this morning, ready to enter the city’s federal courthouse and take on the league that’s made him a star?