I think your being a little to hard on the organization. It's the media who perpetuates the cheating organization myth.
You already said "haters gonna hate", that all it is. It's good business in the media to trash the New England Patriots these days. Nothing gets the common football fan worked up into a frenzy than associating a scandal to the Patriots. It doesn't even need to be accurate, it just has to be thrown out there.
Let me give you an example:
I believe it was the 2005 season. The Miami Dolphins admit they had purchased ISO tapes with the Patriots offensive audible calls. They then use this information to shut out the Patriots in a regular season game, bragging that they had our audibles. It's not illegal to purchase these tapes mind you, but they essentially stole our calls through the use of electronics. So, what we can gather from this is that there was tangible proof that Miami technically cheated, and that had an effect on the game played. The national media's reaction? Meh! Gamesmanship.
Spygate. Camera pointed at the opposing teams sideline. Filming multiple coaches signaling defensive signals to the field (wonder why every team has multiple coaches who throw dummy signals out, seems strange since the Patriots would be the only team that attempts to steal signals
). Now it is illegal to film signals.....FROM THE SIDELINES. NOT to film signals, or even steal signals. So, granted they broke the camera placement rule, but what gets me is this.....There is NO proof, none, that the filming of the signals had any affect on a game. Matter of fact, it was admitted by the Commish, and that fink Matt Walsh that the tapes were definitly NOT used within the same game. National medias reaction? CHEATERS!!
The history of the game is filled with countless stories of coaches who have bent the rules to get an edge. The difference is who decides whats Gamesmanship vs Cheating.
Dolphins don't win that much, they steal our audibles, win a game. Hey, sometimes you gotta stretch the rules to get over the hump.
Patriots win all the time. They film signals, that must be the smoking gun to there success.
Haters gonna hate. It really is that simple.
Oh, and about the tripping incident. The video they have of the Patriot player, if they want to punish for that, fine. But the Jets had inactive players form and illegal wall, the Patriots did not. Secondly, everybody can kill the Patriots for Spygate, but they took that scandal on the chin. I'm sure if they wanted to drag other teams into that mess they could have. I wish the Jets had at least that much integrity.