They were close games , but
how were they cheating in those games?
are we sure no other teams have been deflating balls? the refs obviously have not been checking this.
And did they cheat all year to win div, playoff games, and AFC championship?
you know I just thought the Ball romo fumbled in the 2006 seattle game was not only slick but probably OVER inflated.
That was cheating too, after that a rule change was made on balls for pat.
It appears that the cheating for the underinflated footballs took place in 2007 which coincides with the rule change, Brady having his worst year of fumbles per sack and right after Belichick wrote the foreword to the book
Football Physics which dealt with things like changing the properties of the football and the surrounding environment and how that affects the aerodynamics of the football.
This caused an incredible drop of the team's fumble rate to the point where the 2nd best fumble rate from an outdoor team versus the worst rate of an outdoor team was only by about 2 plays. That's a very low deviation, yet the Patriots were at a rate 20 plays better than the 2nd best outdoor team. This coming from a team that plays in some of the nastiest conditions in the entire NFL.
So when you factor in the importance of turnovers in the game, perhaps they don't win a game in October that is the difference between them getting HFA or having to travel on the road. Perhaps they don't win that divisional playoff game because an early fumble gets returned for a TD and completely changes the complexion of the game.
And the fact is that there appears to be a clear advantage of underinflating a football whereas outside of kicking a football, it is a disadvantage to have an overinflated football. The Vikings got 'caught' trying to heat their football which was probably done with the intent of not having an underinflated football. So the intent was not there to gain an advantage and there's the other nasty fact that the Vikings haven't blatantly cheated like the Patriots did with SpyGate.
As far as the Romo football, they ended up making a change to the rule and giving a 'K-Ball' to teams instead. IIRC, part of the issue was that the *Seahawks* were in charge of that football and because it appeared slick (Romo was never a great holder anyway), there was a worry that teams could fool around with the field goal football.
Meanwhile, the league did have the chance to measure another team's footballs....the Colts. And the Colts' footballs were within the limit that they were supposed to be.
The Patriots do not have a leg to stand on. They were caught with getting a huge advantage before by cheating in SpyGate. Their coach wrote the foreword to a book that dealt with things similar to underinflating a football and what it could do. Their QB was caught in texts paying equipment guys to underinflate the balls. The timeline of when they started to underinflate the footballs coincides with a massive improvement in their fumble rate, so much so that it became a clear outlier.
Essentially, the Patriots have pulled out all of the stops to cheat before, they had a motive for cheating again, the cheating coincides with a massive improvement in their fumble rate and the league has evidence from texts, the footballs themselves and video of McNally going into the bathroom by himself with the footballs (not supposed to do that).
It's just cold, hard facts that Patriots fans have to face and it really bothers them that the legacy of Kraft, Belichick and Brady will forever be tarnished.
YR
. The rest, not so much . . . . 
