Boston Globe: Patriots brought this on themselves

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It’s pretty simple, really.

The Patriots were driving 68 miles per hour in a 65 m.p.h. zone. They got caught. Instead of doing what most would do — “Sorry, officer, you got me, I won’t do that anymore’’ — the defiant Patriots flashed two middle fingers at the police and said, “Come and get me! You’ve got nothing!’’

And so here we are. Loss of a first-round draft pick. The largest fine in the history of the NFL. And worst of all, Tom Brady gets a four-game suspension and his reputation is tarnished.

It’s not over, of course. It’s never over with this thing. Injunctions, stays, appeals, and settlement talks will carry into the next few weeks, months, and (maybe) years.

But Monday’s ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was a loud smackdown of Fanboy Judge Richard Berman’s ruling that initially wiped out Brady’s suspension and allowed the greatest quarterback of our time to play a full season in 2015.

Bottom line: The Patriots were doing it. They had a system of deflating footballs after the balls were inspected by officials. Any agenda-less person who reads the Wells Report would come away with no other conclusion. The texts were unexplainable.

It is not the reason the Patriots win. In all likelihood, it gave them virtually no competitive advantage. The Patriots win because they are better than you are. They are better prepared. They are smarter. They beat you fair and square.

But that is not enough for the Patriots. They are like the Nixon White House in 1972. They do not have to break into Democratic National Committee headquarters and engage in dirty tricks in order to beat George McGovern in the general election. But they did it anyway.

This is the Patriots. They leave no stone unturned. They go the extra mile. That’s what Spygate was about. That’s what this is about.

And when caught, they deny, then accuse. They do the deeds of guilty men. Brady destroyed his cellphone on the day he was supposed to speak with Ted Wells. Deflator Jim McNally was prohibited from meeting with Wells after his texts with John Jastremski were uncovered.

Waffling, pathetic Bob Kraft — the man who wants to be loved by his own fans and his fellow NFL owners — arrived at the Super Bowl and demanded an apology. Then he caved at the owners meetings in San Francisco in May. Then he told Patriots fans he made a mistake putting his faith in the league. Then he asked for his draft picks back. Then he said that — Deflategate not included — Goodell is still doing a swell job.

Please.

Meanwhile, we have the preposterous “Wells Report in Context,” in which the Patriots contend that McNally called himself “The Deflator” because he was trying to lose weight. Throughout the process, the Patriots unleashed their formidable media cartel (which stretches to Washington and beyond) to recite the gospel of Foxborough.

Through amazing good fortune, the Patriots got a star-struck judge to overrule NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s overpunishment of Brady. Locally, Goodell was painted as a buffoon who might lose his job. When the NFL appealed Berman’s verdict, it was largely characterized as a Hail Mary. Why would the league even bother?

But a couple of little issues keep getting in the way. One is the labor law. Patriot Nation has a blind eye on this.

Unfortunately for Brady and Patriot fans, it all goes back to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, which the players willingly signed. In it, they ceded all punishing powers to the commissioner. Sorry, Patriots fans, but Goodell gets to be unfair. He gets to overpunish the Patriots because the agreement says he can do it.

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