Great post. The thing is, any Pats fan who tries to defend the Patriots is going to be considered a homer, even if they make a fair point, which many of you have. However, I am going to take a larger view. I see this as part of a larger problem with recent NFL justice in general. The biggest problem is that it is completely fan/mob driven.
The recent Michael Vick scandal is a good example. People hate him for what he did, and rightfully so. However, the league has not set down any hard and fast rules regarding punishment for those who committ crimes outside the game. That means Leonard Little, who killed another human being while driving drunk (and drove drunk again afterwards) can still play in the NFL because everyone forgets that he did, but Michael Vick is unlikely ever to play again because the mob is against him.
Everyone has speculated why the Pats did this. I'll tell you why. They thought they gained a significant enough competative advantage that it outweighed the risk of getting caught. They probably never thought in a million years that the league would crack down on them like they did, because NO ONE had ever been punished like this for trying to steal calls. The fact they will probably lose a first rounder never crossed their mind, because the league never told them that that was a possibility. If the league had defined its punsihment beforehand, maybe the Pats never do it. Can you blame a team for breaking a rule when they have absolutely no idea what the punishment will be....and have been given every indication beforehand that the punishment will not be severe? The Pats should be punished, don't get me wrong, but they should be punished fairly. I stiff fine for Belichick and the Pats (as was done) and maybe a loss of a lower round draft pick, followed by a strict definition of punishment for this rule violation. H*ll, the punishment can even be as severe as it turned out to be, but it would have been nice to know that beforehand, don't you think.
What the league should do is specifically define a punishment for each rule violation. You get a DUI, your suspended two games. You get caught stealing signals, you lose a draft pick and get a specific fine. The league does this for drug violations, why can't they do this for every other rule violation? The way Goodell handled the problem of NFL player/criminals severely worried me before, because no strict rules of punishment were given. Now I see that policy killing my favorite team, and I know why I was so worried in the first place. Until the NFL solves this problem, the mob will continue to sway justice in the NFL. The witch hunt is stringing up the Pats today....who comes next? That is something every fan should worry about.