What does everyone think of the New England Patriots? Cheaters or not?

      I think the Patriots have cheated before, that has been proven and they have been punished for that whole spygate scandal.  Here in recent years, I don't think they have cheated, at least nothing to go crazy about.  I do think they skirt the edges of the rule book sometimes to try to gain an advantage when they can.  

There's no denying that the Patriots go close to the edge of the rulebook, but at the same time, I can't say for sure whether they cheated or not this time. One thing I do know though is that we'll find out for sure what the NFL thinks on this issue within a couple of weeks because the draft starts on April 30th, and if they're gonna take any pick from the Patriots in this year's draft, they'll have to announce that very soon.

I think they are cheaters and did deflate that football in the AFC Championship game! They have been caught cheating more then once! And how does that saying go "once a cheater always a cheater" ! And that has proven to be true in many cases! Not just in the sport of football but in other sports to!

I think the Patriots are overrated. They are I a weak division, so a playoff spot is practically guaranteed nearly every year. And then every time they make it far, there is always some kind of legit suspicion.

I don't like them. I don't respect them. I despise them. They are known for cheating, and their fan base can be hypocritical all they want. Sure, other teams have cheated, but they've actually owned up to it and stopped their cheating ways.  

I personally feel that the evidence is pretty apparent that they have cheated on more than one occasion. So there's really no debating that part of it. They just seem to basically get a pass on it all though because the owner of the Pats is best buds with the Commish. At least that's what it seems like.

Zero actual evidence that the footballs were even deflated in the AFC championship game. No evidence that anything other than taping from the wrong location was done during spygate. No evidence that the Patriots did anything to the Steelers headsets or the headsets of any other teams. No evidence that the Patriots took anything from a visiting team. With all the allegations, you'd think that someone would have even a shred of evidence. But there's none.

And another story was written recently by Kravitz about how a ref said that McNally seemed suspicious in the 10-15 games that he officiated in Foxborough. Sounds pretty legit. Except the guy only officiated 6 times in Foxborough, only 4 of those were games that Brady played in, and only 3 of them were games that McNally was the ball boy for. Also the guy worked for the Colts. Just because there have been a lot of allegations with no weight behind them doesn't mean anything.

It's pathetic how many fake stories there are. It's not true that once a cheater always a cheater - all allegations require evidence. They owned up in Spygate. The cooperated during the deflategate investigation. And yet there's still no solid evidence at all. It's to the point that people complain about cheating for anything they don't understand.

I've been a Patriots fan since 2001, so I stand to be a bit biased, spygate was what it was, but deflate gate is a bunch of nonsense, we could've been playing with tiny marbles and still won that game, we had a ridiculous lead over them and it had nothing to do with the ball.

Even if the balls were under-inflated,do you not think it would work in favor of both teams? I think it is just a case of poor sportsmanship and now it has caused more issues and bloated bureaucracy. It is just a waste of time,money,resources and in the end they hurt the credibility of the game and damaged the trust in the fans. 

Well, yeah. I think the Patriots are well known for cheating, being that's pretty much a recurring thing over there. Does it affect me? No, not really. I mean, if you don't get caught, then it was worth it. Now, when you do get caught, you got to be ready for the consequences.

I dare say that I believe most if not all teams cheat or attempt to cheat in one way or another. The Pats just so happened to get caught on theres, multiple times.

"If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying."

I think the first thing that even now has to be done is to assort what's fact, and what's fiction. It seems like every day, I'm hearing another crazy thing that the Pats supposedly did in this Deflategate fiasco. The only thing that seems certain, with evidence to back it, is the actual "deflate" part of this whole scenario. And I'm not informed enough on the rules to know if that's cheating or not.

Alright, this, for me, depends on the incident.
The cameras thing was a low blow and a really bad call. That never should've happened, shouldn't have been let go. You have films for surveillance and scouting, you shouldn't be watching another team's practice.
But the thing is with the deflated balls, Brady had better stats in the second half, which was, of course, after the balls had been pumped back up to get the right amount of air in them.
So, were they cheaters? Yes, the footballs and the cameras both, but ol' Tom Brady couldn't have known about the footballs, because like I said, he had better stats in the second half. Their owner/coaches on the other hand, should be in big trouble for this kind of thing.
Oldschool777: Each team uses their own footballs, even in High School. They wouldn't have been using New England's footballs unless they forgot their own, which would be humiliating for a High School team, much less a professional one, and would probably be using the lower-grade, worn out kicking balls.