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For better or worse, Deflategate is over.
Tom Brady has decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court and will thus accept his four game suspension. He won't be taking the field until Week 5 against the Cleveland Browns.
Whatever his reasons for his decision, this is where it stops. This is where Deflategate officially ends.
As I mentioned before, the narrative is now going to be that Tom Brady has finally admitted guilt, that he knew that he'd been caught cheating and there wasn't anything he could do about it. The narrative is going to be that he would have fought it until the bitter end if he was actually innocent and his decision to just roll over like a pathetic loser is all the proof that anyone needs that he's as guilty as it gets.
Such is the price of success. Such is the price of being a Patriots fan. The Patriots are held to a different standard in every possible sense of the term, and because of that there's not much you can do here but accept it. The haters are going to have a field day with this, somehow spin the story to make it seem like justice has finally been served, and it will be another season of cheaters and Cheatriots and asterisks. We've all been there before; not much else you can do except keep in mind that football doesn't matter in the slightest and try to remember that this sport is supposed to be fun.
As this is probably (hopefully) the last piece I'll write on Deflategate for quite some time, I'll leave you all with the following:
For Patriots Fans - it may not seem like it, but you're going to miss nonsense like this. The Patriots are going to be terrible at some point, and when they are you're going to miss the days when your team was relevant enough for something as insane as deflated footballs became a national story for two years. It could come out tomorrow that the Cleveland Browns have been playing with jacked up aliens for the past 20 years and nobody would care. Take solace in the fact that the only reason everyone is so happy right now is because we win a lot. No matter what anyone says, New England's success is the reason behind the joy.
For Patriots Haters - I say, with all sincerity, that I hope Roger Goodell never comes for your team. You may be enjoying this now, but precedent has now been set and Goodell has planted his flag deep into the concrete. He can do whatever the hell he wants. May the players on your team never do anything wrong on a day where Goodell is feeling grumpy, or who knows what will happen. I say this with as much candor as possible: I hope this never happens to you. Enjoy it now, but know that you could very well be next. Science and sworn testimony don't matter. Facts and evidence don't matter. If your team gets really good while the current CBA stands as-is, pretty much anything goes. It's fun now, but it can turn on a dime. I really hope that you never have to deal with something like this.
We're on to Jimmy G and 2016.