integrity of the game was main point of all of this, if the nfl didn't come down hard on the pats, other teams might start do things to give them an edge, who know what teams might come up with. secondly, like someone mention above, fumbles, not a lot of people in media are talking about the reduction of fumbles with a deflated ball as an advantage, they keep making excuses or even saying how insignificant deflating a ball is. im ok with the punishment as long as stays the same w/o overturn after an appeal, i'm surprised that bilcheat "didn't know" about all of this, b.s.