It bothers me most that people keep saying on TV, radio, in print
"Well, this is just what you get because of spygate. It is a cheating culture up there in Foxboro and they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt."
If anything, the spygate issue & the Patriots response THEN VS. NOW tells you that this is something else altogether.
There is no way Kraft, Brady, and the Patriots are fighting this to THIS EXTENT unless they know that they are completely innocent.
Think back to 2006-2007: They did not deny the spygate allegations for one single second.
They said “This is what we did, this is the wording of the rule that made us think it was OK to do it that way. But we now know that we were completely wrong. We are sorry, we fully accept the harsh punishment, and we won’t do it again”. Kraft even called BB an idiot, taking a risk on rule interpretation with so little to gain.
The spygate reaction is NOT your response, though, when NFL executive and ex-Jet Mike Kensil smugly sets up a “gotcha” operation driven by in part because he doesn’t even understand that footballs naturally lose pressure as they cool down, or that you don't measure pressure in footballs by "weighing them"
It’s scorched Earth time now, Mr. Goodell.
For that reason, everyone should see the difference. It is not subtle in the least.