There's only a couple ways to look at it. The defense for both the incidents of Patriot's misconduct that came to light basically boils down to schoolyard logic. "Everybody is doing it." "We would have won anyhow."
This is absurd. Saints fans used the same bullshit when they got caught with their bounty crap. It's not good reasoning. Cheating is cheating. I agree, that the Patriots do not win because they cheat. That doesn't make it any less of a organization that is arrogant, classless, and less than ethical. They can hoist the Lombardi a dozen more times and they will not win any respect from me.
Not everybody is doing it. I fucking guarantee it. Brady can act like it's ridiculous but he must have known about it, and as elite as he still is his arm strength is pretty garbage like Manning's is these days. Just look at his attempts on anything 30 yards or more. Even on shorter passes he doesn't have good touch. He's accurate with the ball placement on the dink and dunk shit but he's also basically only got one velocity and he looks like he's trying to gun it with everything he has. Indoor against us I noticed he basically never stopped warming up on the sideline. They are trying to get an edge. They wouldn't have done it if it didn't matter.
Again, not everybody is doing it. I hate the Wilson>Luck circlejerk but Jesus-boy Wilson isn't out there trying to skirt the rules I'm sure. Luck is too much of a goober to try and cheat. Our old coach Tony wouldn't have tolerated guys passing out hundreds to try and break Brett Favre. It's such a tendency to point the finger out at everybody else when you get caught, even when no real evidence exists that "everybody" is doing it. Are other teams cheating? Yeah. Fuck them too. Doesn't make it everybody and doesn't make it ok.
It's blind homerism to not be cognizant or your team's failings. Even as a Colts fan I've noticed the influx of guys with shady pasts like Walden into our team. I'm not really one to decide that guys don't deserve a second chance but these aren't the kinda guys Polian used to bring in and I'm not so thrilled about it. Again, it's just calling a spade a spade.
I don't expect Pats fans to suddenly stop rooting for their team. But I will call a spade a spade. Fuck that franchise and everything about it. Everything they do smacks of bullshit. When Brady got sacked late in the AFCCG throwing a pointless awful bomb to run up the score I would have had 0 sympathy if they had lost him like they lost Gronk on what was it? a pointless 2-pt conversion? Seriously. They beat their chests with pride about their misdirection with personnel and how the Ravens should have known the rulebook better... but wasn't Spygate just a misunderstanding and an oversight of the rulebook by BB? Yeah, right.
I apologize for the rant but this shit has me fired up. I'm surrounded by Pats fans off the internet and I'm fed up.