I sort of have a problem with the NFL as much with the Patriots with much of these so-called "cheating" events.
While I certainly agree the Patriots pushed and bent the rules to their liking more-so than many other teams, there was also a clear lack of enforcement of the rules by the NFL and it's referees for DECADES.
It's easy to jump up and down and yell "Cheaters!" now but I sort of feel Brady (and likely many other quarterbacks) were tampering with the football long before any of this became a story. To what degree and extent each quarterback in the league tampered with the footballs, I have no clue. I'm sure there was a wide spectrum.
But the lack of enforcement and lack of interest on many, many issues (including the video tape issues, communication issues, etc.) by the NFL league office and the game day referees and the lack of consistent discipline (many things got slap on the wrists for years), doesn't feel fair to me that now the league decides to change course and consider minor infractions (asI consider spygate and deflategate and artificial noise and texts to the sideline and warming up footballs) to be very serious infractions.
In many ways, this whole situation feels like when the league all of sudden decided to ramp up it's penalties for illegal hits. We (i.e. Steeler Nation) complained strongly about the sudden increase in fines/suspensions for many Steelers players that got caught in that first year for illegal hits. I think if I was a Patriot fan, while I would agree to the fact of breaking the rules (just like I agreed that Harrison DID illegally hit some players that year), I might disagree with the sudden, drastic increase in the penalty as compared to similar ball tampering events in the past.
Again, the league is deciding fates based on the which way the public wind is blowing. That's their right. Just not sure I agree with it (now or when it happened to Harrison or when it happened to Roethlisberger).
I know they are different events, but the punishments all seem similarly dictated more by public opinion than by fair, historic comparisons.