Latest Allegations Against Patriots Proof They Will Never Shed 'Cheater' Label

The New England Patriots can walk the straight and narrow for as long as Bill Belichick is their head coach and Tom Brady is their quarterback. 

No matter how close they come to achieving choir-boy status, there will still be those who cling to the idea that the Patriots have cheated their way to the top. In the eye of the public, the smoke has been billowing from Gillette Stadium since 2007, and people will continue to see that smoke no matter how many times the flames are extinguished.

It's truly a case of "guilty until proven innocent." Right or wrong, this is the reality the Patriots face.

There have been four home games since the start of the 2015 regular season, and twice a team has come close to accusing the Patriots of cheating—if not actually cheating.

The first of those allegations came on opening night against the Pittsburgh Steelers, when head coach Mike Tomlin said he was hearing the Patriots radio broadcast of the game in his headset instead of being able to communicate with his quarterback and coaching staff. The NFL reviewed the matter and released a statement, per Ben Volin of the Boston Globe.

Week 7 brought the second and third controversies against the New York Jets. The league reportedly swept the Jets locker room for bugs in advance of the game, according to Ben Volin and Michael Whitmer of the Boston Globe. The Jets also "made an inquiry with NFL security regarding the presence of two individuals wearing headsets and Patriots attire, who were positioned outside of the bench area on the Patriots sideline," according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com.

The alleged locker room sweep—supposedly done "at random"—came up empty. The league also found "nothing inappropriate" regarding the conduct of the Kraft Sports Productions employees in question.

You think that's the end of it? Think again.

Call it sour grapes from losing teams. Call it "Patriots paranoia," like CBS NFL analyst Boomer Esiason did. Call it whatever you want to call it. Get ready for this to be the norm. 

Of course, that paranoia is at an all-time high on the heels of Deflategate and the Wells Report, as well as the report from Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com with too many details to boil down in this space. The paranoia has spread so thick and runs so rampant that it even permeates into the Patriots organization, per Florio:

"

As one source has explained it to PFT, the Patriots have become concerned that a team eventually will plant bugs on its own and claim that the Patriots put them there. This has prompted the Patriots to ask the league to certify before each game that the visiting locker room is clean before an opposing team enters. Per the source, the NFL has declined to do this.

"

Honestly, who could blame the Patriots for their concern? It seems that no matter where they turn, the Patriots are faced with someone who is just dying to catch them in the act—whether or not there's an act to catch them in. The league-wide vendetta against Belichick and the Patriots doesn't appear to be coming to an end anytime soon. 

There's a quote Belichick has on a sign in a hall on the way to the meeting room from Sun Tzu: "Every battle is won before it's ever fought." The Patriots can take comfort knowing that they are in the heads of their opponents to such a ridiculous extent, to the point where it creates an advantage before the Patriots even take the field.

But they shouldn't expect these allegations to stop anytime soon, and likewise, they shouldn't expect people to stop shouting "cheaters" no matter how many times those allegations fall on deaf ears.