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No, the NBC theory sounds like the sort of scenarios that are dreamed up by people like me, people who are looking for a good excuse to treat Cosby as a victim, despite mounting testimony describing him as a callous, self-centered victimizer.

Cosby's trial in Philadelphia ended in a hung jury Saturday. Prosecutors say they will try him again. More than 40 women have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them in dozens of episodes dating as far back to the mid-1960s. But statutes of limitation allowed him to be tried only for allegedly drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. Only one of the other women who accused him of similar deeds was allowed to testify.

The jury was probably as divided as I and countless other long-time Cosby fans feel about his life's tragic turn. After decades of delighting us as an entertainer -- and provoking us as a promoter of self-help values in low-income black communities -- it is painfully sad to see him at age 79 waddling unsteadily in and out of a criminal court, a shell of his former stardom.

Philosopher Georg Hegel's definition of tragedy, I am told, was a moral conflict not between good and evil but between legitimate yet conflicting rights. The tragedy of the Cosby case is that both sides -- the plaintiffs and the defendant -- have rights and seek justice. That's never easy to deliver, but it is particularly hard in a he-said/she-said case that also involves a very popular celebrity.

After a career that spans more than 50 years, Cosby's supporters and critics run along generational lines. We older folks remember his breakthroughs as an actor and comedian in the 1960s. We remember him and his wife, Camille, as philanthropists, particularly in the fields of African-American arts and education.

But a younger generation has produced Hannibal Buress, 34, a rising Chicago comedian who received a big publicity boost when a cellphone camera caught him during a nightclub set in 2014. He mocked Cosby as a hypocritical "rapist" and the video went viral.

Our older generation remembers Cosby as a cultural pioneer. Buress' generation is more familiar with the older, scolding Cosby, telling black youths to "pull up their pants," get proper schooling and take care of their families.

Comedian Michael Che of "Saturday Night Live" turned that back on Cosby during a Weekend Update segment in 2014, saying, "Hey, Bill Cosby, pull your damn pants up." This time the laughter was coming at Cosby's expense. Whether he beats his criminal charges or not, his glory days as a family values role model are over.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2017 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.