Sirrously...
When the Patriots continue to win, the NFL* will continue to dredge up obscure rules nobody cared about, everybody is breaking b/c nobody cares about them or are trained in them, etc. The NFL* will continue to especially focus on the Patriots off the field and the Patriots will continue to win on the field.
This time the League* even admitted that the infraction wasn't proven, had no effect on the game, and that they couldn't show club knowledge or involvement. They even had to hedge their language in a claim that any player knew about it, and lost in all this -- nobody cared prior to the Colts thinking they can just fling poop and have it stick. And truth be told, the Colts were right... the NFL* will take any complaint against the Pats "very seriously."
But what else happens?
In the cameragate thing, there was close to zero "hold on a minute there" in the sports media, and the average sports fan, with very few exceptions, was in lockstep with the media and the League*
In the defamegate thing, there is a fair amount of "the charge is ridiculous," "they really didn't prove it," and especially "the penalty is excessive... just another example of Goodell handing out random punishments." There's a lot of average fans speculating that the Pats are the scapegoat for the Goodell Reign of Error from Rice/Peterson to Saints to their CTE mess to having officials give games to teams because they have a labor dispute with the refs.
I'm hearing - from non-Pats sources - much more anti-League* reaction than in cameragate.
Let's assign example numbers to reactions to the NFL*'s actions against the Pats
Cameragate...+5
Defamegate....+2
Next................ ____
Complete the series. I think people might be figuring out the trend-line here. They'll all still say "yeahhhh those Pats are shady I dunnooooo..." And let 'em. But the League* is playing with fire at this point, if you ask me.