Here's why Tom Brady won't give up in deflate-gate fight

If Tom Brady was prone to giving up or giving in, he probably never would have made it out of the University of Michigan, where he was forced to platoon at quarterback with local prep star Drew Henson (Brady would play the first quarter, Henson the second and then at halftime, the coaches chose who would play the rest of the game).

From that unorthodox system, Brady was forged. It would have been no surprise if he'd lost focus, struggled, transferred (which earlier in his career he considered, but instead rededicated himself).

Forget going from sixth-round draft pick to four-time Super Bowl champion. That Brady battled through season after college season of doubts and depth charts, quietly and without public or even much private complaint, head down yet focused on the long game, will explain why he is continuing the fight against his deflate-gate suspension and likely will until every last legal remedy is exhausted.

Tom Brady isn't giving up, not then, not now, not ever it seems.

On Monday afternoon his legal team will ask for Brady v. NFL, which centers on a four-game suspension, to be heard by the entire Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Last month, a three-judge panel from the court overturned, by a 2-1 margin, a previous district court ruling in Brady's favor that allowed him to start all 16 games of the 2015 season.

Brady will need a majority of the 13 judges to rule that a re-hearing is warranted – and then he has to convince them he's right. It's anyone's guess on his chances to even get a chance. Such requests are granted at a low rate, but this is a high profile case and it was the court's chief justice, Robert A. Katzmann, who wrote a forceful dissenting opinion in favor of Brady.

"The Commissioner was doling out his own brand of industrial justice," Katzmann wrote in April, channeling the broad labor arbitration issue that makes the case, at this point, far beyond whether the New England Patriots footballs were ever unnaturally deflated in the January 2015 AFC championship game, let alone whether Brady had anything to do with it.

It's little wonder that much of Brady's appeal for the en blanc hearing centered on that very phrase – industrial justice – and tried to make this about a lot more than footballs.

"The facts here are so drastic and so apparent that the court should rehear it," Ted Olson, one of the layers of lawyers Brady has added of late told ABC News. Olson is as prominent of an attorney as there is in America, a former U.S. Solicitor General and veteran of Supreme Court cases, including winning no less than Bush v. Gore, which merely determined the presidency of the United States.

That's how far this has gone. And how far it will go … no matter what happens with the Second Circuit someone – either Brady or the NFL – is going to try to take this to the Supreme Court in this forever battle.

Even then Brady could still sue Goodell for defamation of character, arguing his reputation has been damaged based on this nonsense scandal. In doing so, he'd perhaps bring the argument back to more intriguing populace ground – the facts, or lack thereof, from the night in question. Industrial justice may get him back on the field in Week 1, but it won't help too much in the court of public opinion.