Not a Patriots fan, but it sure has been entertaining on both sides of the ball - if you'll pardon the pun.
1) Everyone is looking for every thread - no matter how small - to somehow dismiss New England's accomplishments.
This is so much like Cam Newton to me that it isn't even funny. I have no doubt whatsoever that Auburn (or a surrogate) paid him (or his Daddy) to go there. My God, I even have Auburn fans who ADMIT this openly, even if they parse it with "well, Daddy was paid." So fans console themselves with the old 'they only won because they cheated.'
Problem is, the dollar bills didn't make one single play. For every paid superstar like Cam, there are a dozen 'non-superstars' like Albert Means, Eric Ramsey, or Hart Lee Dykes. Console yourselves with this if it makes you feel better - but Auburn won the national title, and it ain't ever coming down. The bucks didn't make Cam one iota of a better football player. If we had taken care of business on the field then there'd be on less title flying on the Plains. (And don't give me that 'Mark Barron was injured' crap, either - this from the same fans who mock Texas over Colt McCoy, but I hope every honest fan will admit McCoy was FAR MORE important to his entire team's offense than Barron was for the entire defense).
New England won, therefore, they must have cheated.
2) Pats fans, in typical Bostonian fashion, over-react.
I mean, is there a more arrogant city in the USA other than maybe NYC? Throw in the programmed martyr posture thanks to the Red Sox's 86 years of futility and you have a brainwashed fanbase that simultaneously manages to be both arrogant and persecuted at the exact same time. (It's actually quite amazing the more recent Massachusetts candidates for Pres - Dukakis, Kerry, Romney - have all lost; one would think they'd all have quite a bit experience looking two ways at the same time, which is important in politics). And it's all across the board as Boston manages to be both one of the most liberal and yet most bigoted cities in the country, too.
Rather than admitting they've at least been too clever by half, Pats fans naively assert their innocence and borrow the tactics of O.J.'s lawyers by pointing in every which direction without ever really acknowledging that NON-INTERESTED parties can conclude they've been up to something shady. Hell, I'd be happy if just one Pats fan would pipe up and acknowledge that a person looking at the evidence could REASONABLY conclude the POSSIBILITY of Brady cheating. But this goes back to the face-saving tactics and mob mentality as well as that persecuted complex ("they hate us because they ain't us").
3) If you think the Patriots are the only folks taking shortcuts or trying to gain an edge, you are naive as hell.
I suspect what bothers most people is that their particular team didn't think of some of these creative ways of 'cheating' themselves. If you think NFL players aren't trying to injure guys on the other team (a la the Saints), you're naive. Teams are stealing signs now and folks are complaining and it's long been a baseball tradition to steal the catcher's signs. As far as Spygate, SUPPOSEDLY......they knew what the Rams were gonna do in 2002, blah blah blah. Fine.
If this gave them such a huge advantage, anyone want to explain by they missed the 2002 playoffs?
4) If you ascribe to the 'once a cheater, always a cheater' mantra....
What do you do with Coach Bryant, who admitted to paying players at Texas A/M? Are the entire 1970s at Alabama now supposed to go up in asterisk land?
