It has been ten quarters since the NFL decided that anonymous rumors were suddenly to be taken seriously and that the Patriots' footballs needed to be looked at. Tom Brady has been spectacular since then.
Ah, Deflategate. It is likely that nothing ever happened, yet the sports world focused on it for the better part of the last seven months. New rumors, new leaks and new allegations every week made sure that this focus would not slip away from arguably the most baseless scandal in the history of professional football.
While nearly everyone outside of the Patriots organization was engulfed by this (non-)story, the people within didn't.