TOM BRADY WON'T LET THIS GO, BUT NEITHER WILL ROGER GOODELL

Deflate-Gate Needs to End: How much longer can this go on? It's been nine days short of 500 and counting since the New England Patriots took the air out of some footballs during the AFC Championship game in January of 2015. The Pats were stripped of a draft pick and fined $1,000,000. Tom Brady was given a four-game suspension to open this season. After appeals, a court decision in Brady's favor and then a reversal on appeal that went the NFL's way, it looked like we were going to be able to put the whole thing behind us. But no, Tom Brady has hired the former Solicitor General of the United States as his attorney and they are in the process of getting the full U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take another look at the case. Apparently, three judges weren't enough. At this point, even though I think the entire affair was overblown, it's just time to stop the back and forth and settle this thing like reasonable adults. The aspect of this that's so intriguing is the effort these guys are putting into resolving an issue that has to do with playing a game. Both parties, meaning Brady and Goodell, are rich beyond belief, yet for some reason they have a concern about something called their legacy. Really? Are we talking George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Eienstein, Theodore Roosevelt, Madam Curie, Jonah Salk, Neil Armstrong or Mother Theresa? Now those are legacies. A pretty boy quarterback and an overpaid league commissioner hardly have anything worthy of being called the same thing. Goodell is trying to enforce and maintain the integrity of a collective bargaining agreement between the NFL's billionaire owners and the millionaire players that work for them. It's laughable to put the word integrity in the same sentence as an agreement that basically makes Goodell judge, jury and executioner of player conduct issues. Except for Patriots fans and Patriots haters, I just don't think there's much sympathy from the general public for either side. Even with a ruling by the full court, there's a chance one of these idiots will actually petition the U.S. Supreme Court to adjudicate the case. Again, really? Is this the kind of case our forefathers and crafters of our government put the Court in place to hear? I think not. It was bad enough when Congress decided to interject itself into Major League Baseball's PED scandal in the early 2000's. How exactly did that work out? To spend taxpayer money on this particular episode is ludicrous on its face and downright insane in practice. Maybe I'm just a little testy at hearing about this case for the last year and a half. I'm more concerned about the apparent self-importance these guys have over their respective roles in society and history. Frankly, I'm a sports commentator and fan, but all I have to do is stop watching and these two figures end up having no impact on anything important. Come on guys, it's just a game. Or is it?

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