AP Photo

Think of all the toil, the burning hell, the practices, the pain, the blood, the skull sessions, the games, the joys, the hugs, the highs, the exhaustion, the coaching stinkeyes. Think of the media interviews, the criticism, the autographs and pictures, the days and nights, the weeks and months. Think of the trips to the training room, the miles of gauze, the X-rays, the limping, the fragility of it all. Think of the air travel, the 3 a.m. arrivals, the room-service food. Think of how they reported to camp in early October and still are playing in mid-June, more than 100 games and tens of thousands of man-hours funneled into 48 minutes on a polished slab of wood in downtown L.A., where Hollywood is the witness and history is prepared to define careers and make sweeping...