Another year, another Super Bowl win for the New England Patriots. However, each year the Patriots win, it comes with a shroud of disbelief that they won with full honesty. This year, however, that honesty was truly put to the test and the Patriots got caught.

The Patriots, following their AFC Championship game win over the Indianapolis Colts, were investigated for deflating the game balls to create a competitive advantage. According to league sources, a slightly underinflated ball makes for an easier catching/throwing experience. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who had stated in the past that he preferred deflated balls to game regulation pumped balls, was the focus of the league investigation.

It’s hard to get too mad about the Patriots playing the first half of the AFC Championship game with footballs inflated below the normal PSI rating. That hardly compares with the great cheating scandals in sports history, such as the 1919 World Series, also known as “The Black Sox Scandal.” According to Bruce Lowett of the St. Petersburg Times, the Chicago White Sox were the best team in baseball that year and expected to be the clear winners of the 1919 World Series. However, a number of key players banded together and put money in front of victory and, essentially, “threw” the series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds.

First off, it is debatable how much, if any, competitive advantage the Patriots gained by playing with the softer footballs supposedly preferred by their franchise QB. His passing actually improved after the underinflated balls were discovered and the team’s offense played with fully inflated balls in the second half. Also, the Patriots’ 45-7 thrashing of the Colts suggests that only supplying the home team with properly inflated balls in the 2nd half might have changed the outcome.

Brady and head coach Bill Belichick have insisted they had no idea how the supply of balls for the Patriots’ offense ended up underinflated. More than a few retired players, knowing how quarterbacks like to control the specifics of their footballs, looked on Brady’s claim of innocence with understanding, but also with a nod to the fact that he most-likely knew the balls were underinflated and gave the go ahead to do so. It’s inconceivable that a Patriots’ employee would deflate footballs without the star quarterback’s knowing, so Brady must be involved.

The punishment for the scandal was Brady was suspended four games without pay, the team lost a first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and a fourth-rounder in the 2017 NFL Draft and was fined $1 million. Brady can appeal his suspension but virtually they still lose.

Personally, I don’t think that the Patriots should be punished at all. Teams get blown out every week, and the Colts just didn’t play up to the standard and were blown out by the Pats. They have no excuse for playing as they did and this is why the Colts’ only excuse has to be some foolish claim that the Patriots cheated and had an “unfair advantage.”