A delightful subplot to the whole Deflategate mess, which makes neither the Patriots nor Roger Goodell look good, is the idea that a surefire Hall of Famer might, in fact, sue the league over this whole thing. But should Tom Brady do that?

I found the back-and-forth discussion at Above the Law to be fairly entertaining, even as someone whose only legal background involves either evading arrest or listening to Rocket's endless blather.

Along the way, some pretty practical things are covered, such as:

The legal system is certainly not perfect. So why should we expect sports leagues to be better at it on an ad hoc basis, making up procedural rules as they see fit on the fly?

I do not think it is incompatible to say, I don't like cheating, criminality, etc and also say, you know, a predictable, truly neutral, fair punishment process is good for the game and good for the fans.

That's true. So is the fact that Tom Brady almost certainly cheated. So is the fact that the NFL over-punished him and is going down a strange path with punishment in general.

Please give the entire (long) post a read, but remember: Brady wore these red pants more than a year ago and maintained his freedom, so in some ways he's been living on borrowed time.