I live in NYC and follow the local and national media on this closely. I think we got so spoiled that most of us forgot what it means to win ONE SuperBowl, let alone three in a few years in this media-driven environment, 14 years into the Cap/Free Agency Era. Everyone who resented us since the Superdome in 2002 is coming out of the woodwork and stretching the significance of this incident up to and well beyond the limits of rationality, including otherwise thoughtful people like Hines Ward and Michael Strahan.
The bottom line is, we're fu*#ed in the short term. Well and truly fu*#ed.
We can either drive ourselves crazy or turn off our TV's and Radios, stop reading all but homer columnists, get a good book and ride out the storm. Here's how I see it:
The sh!t storm will grow in intensity this week until Goodell issues his decision and penalty. If the penalty is excessive, we'll have to deal with boundless gloating. If the penalty is reasonable, we'll have to deal with endless complaints about Goodell's "hypocrisy" and "leniency."
Things will reach a crescendo during Sunday night's game, when we can only hope that John Madden "tut tuts" but otherwise takes a "boys will be boys" attitude. You know that his colleagues in the booth and on the pre-game will draw and quarter us before the kickoff.
If we beat the Chargers, people will quiet down a bit. If we lose, the volume will rise again and the mantra will be that we "can't win without cheating."
After that, the only way we will get this to quiet down to a reasonable level is by winning, winning, winning.
Our most virulent opponents will do their utmost to keep the story alive until the Bengals game on a Monday night when we can look for Turico et al to scour the stands for the cleverest "cheating" posters. That will be good for another storm.
Then, especially if we're winning, things will settle down until the Jets game, which no doubt will be moved to Prime Time. Assuming that we put the biggest possible hurt on Mangini & Co. in that game, things should start to settle down by Thanksgiving.
But things will rev up for the Playoffs when a Patriots loss will be attributed by many if not most to the loss of our "cheating" advantage. The only thing that will settle this whole mess down will be a victory in Phoenix, when Goodell will have to hand the trophy to Kraft and Belichick. Now, THAT would be sweet.