Kind of a strange, riding the fence, flip flopping opinion by (surprise) bspn's John Clayton.
To summarize so that you don't have to give him a click, first he says that "no one got hurt except teams that lost close games"; in my opinion he is implying that the Patriots absolutely without a doubt won games that they would not have otherwise won - including their three Super Bowls.
However he then goes on to say that brokering hits to cause damage is worse, and therefore the penalty will be more severe; he speculates a 2nd or 3rd round pick this year plus next year's first will be forfeited.
This is when his column gets twisted. First he says that he thinks Williams could be suspended for "a couple of games"; then he goes on to say that he thinks Goodell acted too swiftly in 2007 and Belichick should have been suspended for more than that four years ago.
Wait, let me try to follow this logic: Clayton thinks what the Saints did was worse, but thinks the suspension handed down to the Pats should have been for a longer period of time? Huh?
Here's what I forecast: bspn and the rest of the sports media world remember what a field day 2007-08 was for ratings, revenues and web hits with the video taping incident; it was a financial bonanza from which they reaped rewards with new speculation and innuendo on a daily basis for nine full months. For them it was liking a winning lottery ticket, and lo and behold they've stumbled across yet another winning lottery ticket.
My concern is that instead of this event making the filming incident look not so bad, all the unsubstantiated rumors will be rehashed, and all the incorrect comments that have been repeated so often they are now accepted as being factually correct will be revisited once again. ***gate was a once in a lifetime revenue bonanza for the sports media world, but the problem is that the Pats are the villians and the Saints are, well, saints. Quick easy answer? Pander to your audience with more Pats bashing, rather than pointing out how badly Goodell overreacted four years ago.
Clayton's bspn link