I don't think the game would have turned out much different than it did, but cheating is cheating and should be punished if caught.
I agree with this, but only if you also call a duck a duck. The little yellow flag that refs throw around isn't for decorative purposes, it's there to enforce rules when a team breaks them. By definition every time a penalty flag is thrown the refs have CAUGHT someone cheating (and we all know that they don't catch everything and sometimes blatantly let things slide). But we don't give a fuck about THOSE rules being broken. Those rules are DIFFERENT. Because y'know... reasons and stuff.
Again, the two most penalized teams in the league are in this year's superbowl, but only one of them is being called a cheater right now. This isn't about "WE NEED TO PUT AN END TO CHEATING".
You're not wrong when you point out the hypocrisy in fussing over the balls and seemingly ignoring PEDs, but I'm sure it's more complicated than we realize. Ball inflation is something incredibly simple that is hard to manipulate and easy to watch for when they care to. It's also on a much smaller scale, seeing as how there are 12 balls used for a given game as opposed to several times more active players.
Obviously there are always going to be instances of cheating that are not caught, and every team breaks the rules in one form or another. However, deflating the balls is a much more overt tactic.
I think dismissing it as a "witch hunt" and being based "entirely" on hate and not out of respect for the game is a massive overreaction. You're upset and passionate because your team is being attacked and that's fine, but don't let it cloud your judgment. Your team got caught cheating, regardless of how minor you think it is, and they will ultimately be punished for it somehow. Trying to justify it or downplay it is an equal indictment of the game's integrity, so you're contributing to the same problem you are complaining about.
To be clear, the Patriots should be punished for this, and the rulebook states that a $25,000 fine is the standard punishment for this breach of rules. For perspective on how severe the rulebook itself thinks this breach is, Marshawn Lynch just got fined $20,000 for grabbing his crotch after the game tying touchdown. But apparently what the Patriots did was an egregious and overt act of cheating so sinister and so evil that everyone is up in arms for them to get punished by losing draft picks and a fined multiple times over what the rulebook recommends. Let us be clear here, the Patriots are about to get the NFL equivalent of Life in Prison for what effectively amounts to shoplifting with a previous record. Why? For what possible reason are the Patriots and ONLY the Patriots being persecuted? Aaron Rodgers has said he prefers his balls overinflated, but the league is not launching an investigation into him. Nor are they launching investigations into kickers who would also prefer their balls overinflated. They are targetting one team and one team only, entirely because another team complained. This tells us that the NFL has no real want of true agency in prosecuting cheaters, and they only acted because a team or teams forced them to act. To try and paint this as anything other than haters gonna hate is disingenuous. Because god knows that the NFL has built itself in the past decade or more on NOT going after cheaters, and only stepping in on the ones other teams complain about. WHICH, surprise surprise, is gonna be the most consistently successful franchise possibly in sports history.
Like seriously, filming defensive signals from the wrong location (Because keep in mind you could actually film them from other locations legally)? Slightly under-inflated balls? Both times brought to the attention of the masses because a team who lost complained about it to the NFL and informed their beat-writers?
Meanwhile, we have bounty-gate with the Saints which is literally about injuring other players, and people are calling for a similar punishment to be brought about for the Patriots... Like seriously... 2 PSI under is equivalent to a coach telling his players to injure opposing players for monetary gain? Please tell me more about how this is REALLY about the integrity of Football.
