The NFL continues to await the pending punishment to be handed down to the New England Patriots for - someone's - decision to decrease the inflation levels of footballs used in their AFC Championship Game victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
If NFL commentator and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Troy Aikman, has his way, the penalty will be a severe one - something akin to and even more severe than the punishment doled out to the New Orleans Saints in the wake of the Bountygate scandal in the late 2000s.
"Now twice, under Bill Belichick and possibly a third time, they've cheated and given themselves an advantage," Aikman said on his weekly interview with The Ticket's Musers on SportsRadio 1310 AM, according to The Dallas Morning News. "To me, the punishment for the Patriots and/or Bill Belichick has to be more severe than what the punishment was for the New Orleans Saints."
Aikman, who has vehemently sided with the Saints and Sean Payton in the Bountygate scandal, contends that the Saints did not cheat, and yet the eventual punishment they faced was extreme.
Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, GM Mickey Loomis was suspended the first 8 games of the 2012 season, the team was fined $500,000 and stripped of their second-round draft picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts.
Bountygate involved the discovery of a bounty pool for Saints defensive players under Williams, who joined the Saints in 2009, wherein payment was given to players who made plays, delivered big hits or, worst of all, injured opponents.
At the time, Goodell said that "ignorance is no excuse," in reference to his decision to hand down such a severe penalty and, as Aikman notes, Payton and the Saints "did not give themselves a competitive advatange," like the Patriots.
Aikman believes that in light of Spygate and the Patriots' other questionable actions in the past, this issue will prove to be a watershed moment both for the NFL and for Goodell's tenure as commissioner.
"There's a great deal of pressure on Roger Goodell, in light of everything that's happened this year, and the way that he's handled all of these situations, and hasn't handled them particularly well by the way, and on this particular case, because there's a lot of coaches and a lot of people that look upon the Patriots as a team that's been favored in some of the things that have happened -- I thought the punishment he got for Spygate was a slap on the wrist, was next to nothing -- so we'll see."
