Tripped up: Drew Brees, shown here in happier times. wearing Charger Blue, holding up a finger indicating his future as the number one passer of all time, and carrying a yellow diamond he thought was a lot more valuable than it turned out to be.

Court proceedings began last week for the case of Drew Brees vs. La Jolla’s CJ Charles Jewelers. Brees claims that owner Vahid Moradi sold him and his wife Brittany $15 million worth of diamonds over the course of four years and claimed that the stones would serve as a reliable long-term investment, sort of like a second-round draft pick out of Purdue at the dawn of the new millennium. Unfortunately, the Brees got a nasty surprise that made them question their relationship with Moradi, sort of the way you’d question your relationship with a coach who decided to put you on the field over backup Philip Rivers on the final game of the season when your team had no shot at the playoffs. Recently, they received news that the stones were worth only about $6 million, and the deception hit them the way Gerard Warren might hit your shoulder while you were scrambling after a goal-line fumble: a heavy, wrenching blow that left them with an uncertain financial future. Included among the stones was a ring that they claim Moradi said was worth $8.1 million, but which was actually worth just $3.75 million. Brees compared the pain caused by the discrepancy to the pain of being offered backup quarterback money while working as a starter, and told the court that in the future, he would take his business elsewhere, rather than get caught up in the shady machinations of a money-mad San Diego operation. “I can get a ring just as easily in some other city,” he assured the court.