INDIANAPOLIS -- Spygate?

Really?

That's the best the some of the folks (Bob Ryan and Mike Felger, among others) in Boston sports media can do this week? I guess the bashing of the defense was getting a little stale. Throw in the fact that the Giants aren't going to hand out any bulletin board nuggets and it's time to take out an oldie but goodie for a quick spin.

Look, on this we can all agree: The Patriots are the most hated team in the NFL. Outside of New England, for the most part, people look at Tom Brady and Bill Belichick the same way Alex Rodriguez and LeBron James are seen by Sox and Celtics fans. 

Part of that is because of success, of course. Most of it, actually. A buffet of 6-10's and 7-9's gets you apathy and a pink slip, not the role of national gridiron villain. Part of it also is because the perception of Tom Brady went from America's underdog to Uggs and Gisele and long hair and bitching out teammates. And Bill Belichick makes for an easy heel (and you and I know he embraces it, even).

And part of it is absolutely because of Spygate. 

I don't want to enter the "every team does it" debate here. Bill Belichick cheated and got busted, plain and simple. Roger Goodell docked the Patriots $750,000 and took a first-round pick away for whatever was videotaped. I had no problem with that, and frankly I find it difficult to believe that the Seahawks, Rams or Team X were doing exactly what the Patriots were doing. This wasn't a five thousand dollar punishment doled out for a fifty buck crime. No excuses.

If you are so offended or felt the actions of Belichick and his crew during Spygate wipes out the 2001, 2003 and 2004 Super Bowls, there is nothing I (or anyone else) can write or say to convince you otherwise. It's an extreme take, I think, but that's how some people are about this. There are members of the media who have made a healthy living -- and we know who they are -- as professional Belichick haters. Why? Because he doesn't put his arm around them when no one else is around and whisper secrets. That's it, nothing more and nothing less. And when Spygate happened -- and just to be clear, it was a disgrace and Belichick deserved to be destroyed by the national and local media for it -- all the hatred for Belichick was given a name, voice and face.

Spygate will always be a black mark on Belichick's legacy. No arguments here. The size of that black mark is a legitimate debate, but to pretend it doesn't exist is to look at the Hall of Fame resume of, say, Andy Pettitte and just toss the HGH issue aside. 

But Spygate is about as relevant a storyline to Super Bowl XLVI as the Snowplow Game, Tony Eason, Rod Rust, Chuck Bednarik's hit on Frank Gifford and Zeke Mowatt's package. 

I know this will be a swift kick in the twins to some, but a Patriots win on Sunday over the Giants ends any serious discussion about Spygate. It's over, all references will have to be in the past tense.

Since the Patriots were tried and convicted after the Jets game in 2007, they have a record of 67-19 (regular season and playoffs), best in the NFL. Four division titles in five years, two AFC titles. Bill James once wrote that if you split Pete Rose's career in half you'd have two Hall of Famers (minus the Dowd report stuff, of course). With a win on Sunday, couldn't you almost say the same about Belichick from a Pre-Spygate and post-Spygate perspective? Any questions about his coaching greatness are border on lunacy at this point. For me the argument is already closed -- if a team can win 17 straight games and have a 14-10 lead in a Super Bowl with a couple of minutes left in the fourth quarter there was never a reason to cheat in the first place.

(I know the timeline is more than a little tricky and in the minds of many Spygate started in with Matt Walsh in 2001, but we're going to use the actual Mangini whistle blowing as Day One.)

Can we all get together on the idea that neither Belichick nor Goodell are complete morons? Biases to the side, these are two bright guys that have at least one eye on their legacy. And it would be titanically, historically, Manny Ramirez flunking a steroid test for the third time kind of stupid for Belichick to be cheating at the level he did before Spygate blew up. If he were caught again his reputation would be shot, all that had been accomplished would be heavily tainted at best. And Goodell would have to suspend him for at least a season, and he'd be right to do it.

I'm going to take a leap of faith and assume that Spygate 2: Videotaping Boogaloo isn't happening. No one really does, media schtick and "Belicheat" jokes aside. And if it were, I'd have to think Goodell would know about it, right? Aren't the Patriots the team that is (correctly) most closely examined in this regard? If there was even a whiff of videotaping the Patriots would be barbecued by Goodell. 

No matter where you stand on the issue, Spygate was inarguably the low point of Bill Belichick's coaching career. And that's the major reason why a Super Bowl win without any stink of Spygate would be the high point of his coaching career. A lot of the greatest hits would be off the shelf with a victory on Sunday. Can't do it without Romeo and Charlie. Can't do it without Scott Pioli. Can't do it with this defense. Can't do it without Richard Seymour. 

But the biggest one of all is an easy call.

The death of Spygate.