I did in fact respond to my friend's thoughts on deflategate, and thought I'd share his response back (I had asked him about his impressions of spygate too, but he didn't quite get into the details):
"You make a good argument for the texts not being conclusive. Fair enough. But the balls were under inflated. Maybe it was accidental that they were underinflated, and had been intended to be 12.5 instead of 11ish. But it's possible to be a stickler for the rules when doing so favors you and a rule-skirter when it doesn't. In fact, that's probably the norm. Moreover, somebody needs to kick Robert Kraft in the nuts.
And you're also probably right that Belichick being (seen as) an a$$ leaves people overestimating his nefarious conduct in relation to his peers.
And I should confess that my contempt for him and for "the Patriot Way" didn't really begin until Scott Pioli came to Kansas City and proved to be not only a poor judge of talent, but a smug jerk who made the lives of lifelong workers at Arrowhead a nightmare. It's no coincidence that when he joined Demitroff in Atlanta, the team took a major dive (in part because he imported his third-rate talent from Kansas City to play with the Falcons). He's one of many many people Tom Brady has made incredibly wealthy.
Yes, of course, everyone is jealous. We all enjoyed Boston when it was a city of lovable losers (except the Celtics), and the City's Football and Baseball run in the last 15 years has been America's nightmare for about the last ten or so. Yes, yes we are jealous. This jealousy is compounded by the fact that, while it's completely natural that you in Boston would hear about Boston sports day in and day out, we in the hinterland are subjected to endless hours about Boston and New York on ESPN and Fox Sports all year long as well, no matter how bad the teams are (Jesus, why must I know every move the Jets make when they've done absolutely nothing of note in the NFL since 1969?). We all understand ratings and market size, but for godssake, spread the love.
And as for Spygate, my understanding of it is that the S.O.B. whose job it was to violate rules and record practices with the Patriots sought to use that against them when he went to the Jets. No honor among thieves. A pox on both their houses. But again, they win because they have Tom Brady. And when he's gone, the laws of probability suggest that it will be a while before they approach dynasty status again, with our without Belichick. And we're all looking forward to that retirement. And we all hope they don't stumble on to the next Tom Brady for at least a decade.
The Chiefs could be a good team this year. Alex Smith isn't good enough to win a Super Bowl, though, without a lot of luck."