Still won't admit that your McNally allegations were totally unfounded, can you, Gatsby? Come on...show a little class...admit you were wrong. You'll feel better afterwards.
How about you admit that the Pats are cheaters. I don't know if you'll feel better; but at least you won't come off as a fanboy tool.
I readily admit that the Patriots broke an NFL rule regarding how teams were allowed to video tape an opposing side line. It's rather amusing to me however that such a big deal was made of what they did when it was legal to take as many photos of the opposing side line as you wanted and it was also legal to videotape the opposing side line from fixed positions above the field. The "proof" that the Patriots gained little from what they were doing is that they went undefeated for the rest of that season before losing on a miracle play in the Super Bowl. Obviously they weren't winning because they were "cheating"...they were winning because they were a really good team with really good coaches and a really good quarterback.
It's the same with "Deflategate". The Colts complained to officials before halftime about the Patriot's balls being under inflated...and the Patriots respond by beating the ever living shit out of the Colts in the second half! So why didn't the Patriots play worse if the under inflated balls gave them such an advantage? How did they manage to beat the Seahawks when they were playing with status-quo balls? This entire controversy has been ridiculous right from the start.
Legal to videotape? Give me a break, dude. What the Pats did was completely against the spirit of the rules; and the league and them covered it up. When you know the other team's first fifteen plays and whatever else, you're at a huge advantage.
And the deflating goes back to the Ravens game and before. You know the advantage of an under-inflated ball. It can help the QB's to grip. It can help the RB's to hold onto the ball, and it can help WR's catch. This was huge. In fact, they have stats that show pretty much when the Pats likely started to under inflate.
Just stop making this about people just hating. The Patriots are offensive to sports fans. That's the bottom line. Enjoy your two asterisk bowls. Hell, I'd put an asterisk on all of them from a sports fan's perspective. This is just the cheating that's been exposed.
1. It is absolutely legal to videotape the other teams sideline. It is also absolutely legal to steal signals. It is not legal to videotape from the sideline.
2. There is zero, and I mean ZERO evidence that currently makes the statement "the Patriots intentionally deflated footballs" a fact. For the record, the Ravens supposedly complained about k balls being underinflated. You know, those balls that are entirely in the hands of NFL officials and which the Patriots have no access to.
3. Stats have shown no such thing. The Warren Sharp statistical analysis you're referring to has been largely debunked. It is massively flawed. For example, Sharp eliminated ALL INDOOR TEAMS from the data set. Not all indoor games, all teams who play indoors were left out. In fact, when you correct that to include all teams but only look at games played outdoors, the Patriots aren't even the best in the league over the 2010-2014 span Sharp chose to analyze. In fact, the Patriots were ranked 21st in the league in 2013 in plays per fumble in outdoor games.
Finally, the Patriots are offensive to uninformed fans who have no desire to know the truth of anything, they just enjoy hating a team that has accomplished more than any other. It's super pathetic, actually.