I once believed that there would be a kind of justice to come out of this, but I no longer believe it. I have come to believe that, unfortunately, the ownership group is made up more of the Irsay'Snyder type than the Kraft/Mara type. I really truly believe that the majority of the league owners have a bead case of Patriot fatigue. Our continued success is ultimately a huge slap in the face to their own management acumen, or lack thereof. EVERY year the Pats trot out another 11-12 game winning season, and another playoff run make their own efforts look small and unimportant.
And NONE of those 32 guys come with anything less that massive egos. The fact is that their panties are in an uproar, and any knock on the Pats and their legacy just makes it just that much easier on them when they have to deal with their own fan bases. So when a fan asks his owner, "why can we be like the Pats?" The owner can smugly say. "Well its just harder to be so consistent when you demand we follow the rules and keep our integrity"
I also think this jealousy from the other owners is marginalizing Kraft as a critical owner. Bob is more like a former speaker of the house, whose party just lost their majority. The cameras and reporters still find him, but he has no real power any more.
Roger Goodell has set out an anti-Patriots agenda that has been carefully being followed for many years now. There is no other reason for what happened in "defflategate". It came from the top, and with Goodell knowing he had support from a majority of the owner. How else could all those well timed leaks keep coming from the league. How else can these "sources" keep appearing and disappearing at will. How else can you explain, after ALL the ineptitude, why Roger Goodell still has a job?
There will likely be no justice n Deflategate. There won't be a revisiting of "cameraplacementgate". There won't be any picks coming our way for the tampering by the Jets. In fact I wouldn't be shocked it the league reprimanded Kraft and took away our 3rd round comp pick.
I've fought the good fight like SO many others here for many years.l But I've come to believe that it was to no good end. I'm beginning to think that our only choice is to own the bad rep and learn to embrace it. We can become the outlaws of the league, the Raiders of the 2010's. Because the alternative is to continue to shovel sh!t against the tide, because its the LEAGUE who is sanctioning the smear campaign
BTW- if it is true an the league wants to save some face and force the Pats to pay a fine, I'd love if Bod took it real personally, and told those jealous hypocrites to stuff it. And he'd be fine to shut down the team and sit out a year, rather than pay a fine, regardless of how small for something they didn't do. Christ Bob, its only money and you can't take it with you