My two cents:
1. If this were the Pats it'd be national news...but rightly or (obviously) wrongly the Pats have the 'cheater' label now, Kraft sealed that fate when there was no pushback during Spygate to control the narrative, and obviously accepting the team penalties during Deflategate.
2. The dichotomy between this and deflategate is interesting. Past penalties for football tampering were $50K fine (Chargers, stickum towels); nothing, but ballboy suspended (Jets K-balls); and nothing but warning issued (Vikings/Panthers cold-weather game). Past penalties for cell phone use were $10K fine (Polumalu, maybe Wilson too? no headset on but using phone on sideline); and a 4-game suspension and $250K fine (Ray Farmer, cell phone use in the booth). In other words, the league has treated cell phone use/booth communication far more seriously than ball tampering.
3. Whether or not that's a phone, it certainly LOOKS more like a phone than a wristband. And it certainly LOOKS like Ben got a heads up in his headset and put it away mighty quick then looked around guiltily. Rightly or wrongly he looks like he was caught using what looks like a cell phone...is that any worse than Brady 'more probable than not' having 'general awareness' of a 'possible' deflation scheme?
This should be investigated, and a fine should be levied if he was, in fact, using his cell phone, per the league rules and past precedent--maybe a 1-game suspension because he was using it with a headset on, there's a non-zero chance he was communicating with the booth/watching a game feed/whatever and thus calling into question the 'integrity of the game'. Nothing more, but it should be investigated.
Finally, it's hilarious that people don't understand why Pats fans would be angered by situations that LOOK like possible cheating/breaking rules that aren't investigated/penalized, when their two cheating incidents--one of which most likely didn't happen--turned into national stories and were blown so incredibly out of proportion they defied anything resembling logic.
EDIT: to add, this is the team that accused the Pats of messing with headset comms and using an illegal D-line shift during week 1--hell, the player that called into question the D-line shift. Again, why anyone is wondering why Pats fans would be pissed about this is beyond me. This could actually be illegal, per the rulebook, it could even be cheating as a way to derive a competitive advantage (though that's incredibly, incredibly unlikely). Yet the media spent days breathlessly talking about headset comms and the D-line shift and are already either ignoring this or turning it on the 'angry Pats fans' as a non-event.