Tom Brady finally throws in the towel on 'Deflategate'

Congratulations, America. Your national nightmare is over.

No, not that one. The 2016 presidential campaign will drag on until November. But "Deflategate" -- as we've known it for the past year and a half -- is finally over.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady announced via Facebook on Friday that he will "no longer proceed with the legal process" in challenging a four-game suspension levied against him by Roger Goodell for allegedly deflating game balls to gain a competitive advantage during the 2015 NFL Playoffs.

Brady's most recent appeal of the suspension was rejected by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. Pressing his case further would have meant appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court -- yes, that's right, the actual U.S. Supreme Court in an argument over deflated footballs.

But Brady said in his Friday Facebook post that he's done fighting.

Thus ends a convoluted saga that took seed in the playoffs following the 2014 NFL season, hung like a rotten cloud over the 2015 NFL season and will now finally see Brady serve his four-game suspension at the beginning of the 2016 NFL season.

Finally, we can all exhale.

The Patriots are expected to start Jimmy Garoppolo, a 2014 draft pick out of Eastern Illinois, in Brady's stead to begin the season.

But wait! Deflategate is like Monty Python's knight who just won't die.

Brady says he's done fighting, but the Deflategate battle long ago morphed from a debate over Brady being suspended to one about the limits of the NFL commissioner's power. In that context, the NFL Players Association is still leaving the door cracked to petition the Supreme Court.

"We will continue to review all of our options and we reserve our rights to petition for cert to the Supreme Court," the union said Friday, per ESPN.com.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no.

Let's all hope this is really actually over, once and for all.