The NFL's Deflategate saga emerged with a single tweet shortly after midnight.
Just hours after the New England Patriots thrashed the Indianapolis Colts in a crucial playoff game in January 2015, Indianapolis TV sports columnist Bob Kravitz tweeted that the league was investigating whether the victors had gotten an edge by deflating footballs.
The ensuing brouhaha, which now is once again in the news, prompted the league to suspend Patriots' star quarterback Tom Brady, supermodel husband, UGG boots spokesman and, oh yeah, four-time Super Bowl winner. Three months after he won his latest Super Bowl, the NFL published a 243-page report arguing Brady was "generally aware" the balls had been deflated in the game against the Colts.
Propellerheads sped to the library in search of textbooks explaining PV=nRT. (Hint: It's the Ideal Gas Law.)
The drama, intrigue and scientific formulas reached a new height of craziness Monday when a US appeals court reinstated the original suspension imposed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, which had been overturned by a lower-court judge.
"We hold that the commissioner properly exercised this broad discretion," two appellate judges said in their opinion. Brady wasn't deprived of "fundamental fairness."
Goodell said Monday the suspension was warranted all along. Not surprisingly, the NFL Players Association disagrees.
The Patriots declined to comment. It's unclear whether Brady will appeal again, perhaps all the way to the Supreme Gas Law.
Kravitz was back on Twitter Monday shortly after the decision interrupted his time on the links:
The columnist later said in a phone interview he was "surprised in a sense" the lower court's decision got overturned. He believes that Goodell did have the authority to suspend Brady and that appellate court made the right decision.
"We'll see where it goes from here," he said. "This maybe the end, but, hey, you never know."