The involvement of the Patriots serves only to complicate matters for the league. As legend has it, the Spygate-related information given to the NFL by the Patriots that was destroyed by the league office consisted of evidence of cheating not only by the Patriots but also by multiple other teams in multiple other ways. As the folklore also goes, Patriots coach Bill Belichick vowed to go public with chapter-and-verse detail about cheating throughout the league if the league were to mess with the Patriots again.
To be clear, it’s not known that Belichick delivered to the league office proof of cheating by other teams, but that would help explain the league’s curious decision to quickly destroy the evidence. It’s also not known that Belichick threatened/promised to blow the whistle on league-wide cheating issues, but it would make plenty of sense for any team disciplined for violating the injury-reporting rules to be strongly tempted to point out that other teams routinely do the same things, or worse.
