Tom Brady will miss the first four games of the upcoming NFL schedule. Unless he doesnt.Deflategate has crept into a third NFL season, and with the federal courts rejection on Wednesday of the New England quarterbacks appeal of his suspension, it certainly appears that Brady will be sidelined into early October.Brady still has the option of taking his case to the Supreme Court -- one legal analyst called that nothing more than a Hail Mary -- and getting the suspension for his role in the use of underinflated footballs in the 2014 AFC title game overturned or stayed. Given how aggressively Brady, the NFL Players Association and all the lawyers involved have pursued the case, trying to get the Supreme Court to hear it could be the next step.Meanwhile, its up to the Patriots to figure out the best approach to opening the season at formidable Arizona before a homestand against Miami, Houston and Buffalo.One thing for sure: super-secretive New England wont be giving out any hints.Among the Patriots biggest dilemmas is how to split reps and game time in the preseason. Normally, Brady would take a huge number of reps, but would play sporadically in the exhibition matches. Jimmy Garoppolo would get the majority of the game snaps.Now? New Englands coaches must get Garoppolo prepared for his most significant pro action. Yet offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels must be careful not to get in the way of Bradys prep.While Brady is among the most accomplished winners in sports, and no one knows his craft better than the four-time Super Bowl champion, this is uncharted territory for him. Staying sharp when you are barred from any interactions with your team for a month is a huge challenge even for Brady.That makes the Patriots August very intriguing. Watch for lots of photos and video of Brady working with backups and rookies whenever that occurs on the practice field. Sort of like Leonardo DiCaprio doing a cartoon.The Patriots also must begin considering their overall quarterback situation. Rookie Jacoby Brissett would be the only backup to the untested Garoppolo, hardly an ideal situation for anything except a rebuilding team. So bringing in a veteran QB for at least the four games Brady will miss makes some sense.Except, of course, how does that quarterback get any practice reps in light of the urgency of preparing Garoppolo and keeping Brady somewhat sharp? He doesnt. So finding someone willing to be nothing more than a camp body would be the Patriots chore.In a way, though, the Patriots are fortunate that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued its decision Wednesday. Barring that Hail Mary in DC, the team can move ahead with concrete plans for preparing Garoppolo, who has thrown all of 31 passes in two NFL seasons.Envision a scenario where the deflated footballs issue remained unsettled and Brady received a stay of his suspension while the courts considered its merits. He would play in those first four games and many others until a decision was made.Imagine then that Brady still loses on appeal and is forced to sit out the final four games of the schedule. Or the section when the Patriots play Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Seattle, their most formidable four-game stretch.Or -- New Englanders shudder at this thought -- he has to sit out the playoffs. After all, the genesis of all of this hot air was what the NFL says occurred in a conference championship game.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Javi Martinez Bayern Munich Jersey .J. -- Josh Cribbs was in the Pro Bowl in February and out of a job six months later. Jan Kirchhoff Jersey . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. http://www.soccerfcbayernshop.com/kids-rafinha-bayern-munich-jersey/ . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Thiago Alcantara Jersey . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. Felix Gotze Bayern Munich Jersey . -- Nate Robinson has played for seven teams, so beating one of them is no longer a rare occurrence. TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Youre going to hear a lot about risk versus reward this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, especially when it comes to the 10 drivers battling for six remaining NASCAR Chase playoff transfers.Rightly so.Risk versus reward comes into play anytime late in a championship campaign when theres a seasons worth of effort on the line. But balancing aggression and temperance also always has been an integral part of racing at NASCARs most daunting superspeedway, especially in the restrictor-plate era.No other track fosters more of a win or bust attitude among competitors in the Sprint Cup Series. And this year, Talladega has been positioned as a cutoff race between rounds of the Chase, meaning that for a handful of racers, perhaps only a win will suffice.Sure, anything can happen at Talladega, and a driver could still qualify to move on in the Chase by being in the top eight of the point standings on Sunday night.Chase Elliott faces the longest odds in that regard. The Hendrick Motorsports rookie is 25 points behind the eighth-place cutoff, meaning that risking it all in an effort to win the Hellmanns 500 is his only realistic strategy for advancing.It puts us in a pretty simplistic situation this weekend, of having to have a really good run, if not have to win, Elliott said. But were looking forward to the challenge.By contrast, the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards seemingly looks comfortable, running 1-2-3 among winless drivers in this round of the Chase. With a cushion of 24 to 29 points between themselves and Joey Logano and Austin Dillon -- the drivers currently on the cutoff -- the Gibbs guys could theoretically run around at the back and try to dodge the accidents en route to the conservative top-20 finishes they need to move on.But history shows that playing it safe is nearly as dangerous as risking it all at Talladega. Cruise and collect often translates into cruise and get collected.I have wrecked here racing up front, wrecked in the back and wrecked while I was running in the middle, recalled Edwards.I know you cant make a plan that is foolproof here, he added. We just want to stay up front all day.Two drivers who have little to worry about Sunday are Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who already have their spots reserved in the next round by virtue of their wins at Charlotte and Kansas, respectively.Kyle Busch knows how quickly things can turn at Talladega. In 2014, he arrived as the points leader, but a wreck and subsequent 40th-place finish were the biggest factors in his failure to advance into the next round. Last year, Busch was below the cutoff line heading into Talladega, but an 11th-place finish was enough to bump him into the top eight.Even though the defending Cup series champion can advance in this years Chase with a 26th-place finish on Sunday, he knows he cant take even that for granted.You never can have any comfort and you do what you need to do in order to transfer through, Busch said. Its aall about the racing gods when it comes to the story of Talladega, and Ive been on both sides of it in the first two years of this [playoff] format.ddddddddddddIt doesnt always help to push too hard and try to advance yourself, and sometimes you just have to relax and take what the race gives you, he added. The key is to somehow stay out of trouble.Some drivers will argue that theres no point in trying to be defensive, that flat-out aggression is the only way to go -- no matter where they stand in the points race.Logano, who is on the bubble holding a tiebreaker over Dillon, vows to race for the win rather than points.I dont really think about how people are trying to knock me out; I think about how Im gonna knock other people out, said the driver of Team Penskes No. 22 Ford.?Thats my attitude. If Im on defense, were not gonna win. So we better stay on offense.?Everyones situation is different, but the last time I checked, this thing is called a race and I believe racers race, he continued.? Ive seen people ride around the back and crash. Ive seen guys running up front and crash. It happens, so being aware of your surroundings becomes very important throughout the race.Dillon hasnt been a threat to win a restrictor-plate race, but he has consistently avoided trouble and racked up top-10 finishes. In his first Chase, Dillon doesnt plan on doing anything different than usual on Sunday.Do we want to be aggressive, like we usually are, which works out for us, or do we want to wait and ride and try to make it to the end and try to make it through there? Dillon pondered. It just depends on your points position there.If youre out of the top-eight-points position and you need a win, youre going to go for broke, he noted. If youre sitting comfortably where you need to be and you can guard a top-5 finish, you just need to take that top-5 finish and go on, I think.It stands to reason that the drivers above the cutoff in the points -- Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Edwards, Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. -- can afford to be more conservative than they guys on the bubble (Logano and Dillon) and especially those below the cutoff (Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Elliott).Kurt Busch is yet another driver who has experienced both sides of the risk versus reward equation. He knows that playing it safe isnt always the safest option, but he admitted kicking himself for years after aggressively going after a Chase win only to be spun out in the late stages.Winning versus finding a consistent finish is such a razor-blade edge versus wrecking, said the 2004 Cup series champion. Its a matter of just trying to understand your surroundings early in the race. If people are getting crazy, youve got to get out of there, or youve got to get up front and be in that top three.Honestly, though, Lady Luck is really the dictator of how well you are going to do at Talladega.