By Dave Hyde/Sun Sentinel

Harsh but fair. Tough but just. That’s the verdict on the NFL’s ‘Deflategate’ verdict, in which quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for four games and the New England Patriots were taken to the woodshed for the underinflated footballs scandal.
Right is right. Wrong is wrong. And everyone knows the difference, even if Brady and the Patriots did their best to muck up the investigation into the secret and systematic deflation of the game balls. Which only added to the penalty.
This wasn’t just about Brady, even if he was front and centre. It was equally about, “The Patriot Way,” that signature catchphrase the team so proudly uses to describe how they work and why they win.
“The Patriot Way?” Serial cheating. Regular stonewalling of investigators. Loud proclamations from owner Robert Kraft, first in “Spygate” and now in “Deflategate,” which range from demanding a league apology to calling investigator Ted Wells’ findings “incomprehensible.”
For all their trophies, for all their slogans, and for all the manner Kraft has built a winning organisation on and off the field, there’s only one way to view the Patriots now:
They’re this generation’s Al Davis Raiders. “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying,” those Raiders said.
Well? Has any team in pro sports been caught cheating more than the Patriots? They were caught videotaping teams’ signals in 2007, which led to one round of penalties in “Spygate.”
Now their quarterback led an end-run of rules to deflate footballs, which was uncovered during New England’s win over Indianapolis in this year’s AFC championship game. And he refused to cooperate with the investigation. And the team declined to have all employees cooperate fully. And they loudly proclaimed this was based on jealousy.
Praise their winning. Praise their consistency. But praise their methods?
This is what rankles old-timers, such as Dolphins legend Don Shula, who has referred to Patriots coach Bill Belichick as “Beli-cheat” and pointedly said Saturday, “We never deflated any balls.”
From “Spygate” to “Deflategate,” with the unseemly story of murderer Aaron Hernandez thrown in, the once-smug idea of “The Patriot Way” takes on an entirely different meaning.
The Raiders at least embraced this rogue motif. They were outlaws and roughnecks and led by Davis, who fought the NFL and commissioner Pete Rozelle openly in court or privately in any back alley he could find.
The Patriots want it both ways. They want to be praised for their winning and their Fortune 500 ways. They want to be seen as titans of football and leaders of corporate America.
This ends that idea. They win better than anyone. Give them that. And this penalty, stiff as it is, doesn’t spell the end of the Patriots, or even probably more than a speed bump in the upcoming season.
They took a punch beyond losing Brady for the first four games. They lose a first-round draft pick in 2016, a fourth-round pick in 2017 and were fined $1 million. That’s not all for “Deflategate,” you can bet. “Spygate” doubled the fine.
Still, if you’re picking a favourite in the AFC East today, it’s New England. If you’re picking a team to win the AFC, it’s New England or Baltimore. They’ll be there in the end, just as they always have been for a football generation.
No one ever said Belichick and Brady aren’t great. They are. But that just adds to the mystery of why they cheat like this. Videotaping signals? Deflating footballs? They should be above that. They instead define, “The Patriot Way.”