Opinion: Roger Goodell needs to kick the cheating Patriots out of the playoffs

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell believes in escalating punishment when cheaters in his league keep breaking the same rule. That’s what happened earlier this season when recidivist headhunter Vontaze Burfict of the Oakland Raiders took aim on Colts tight end Jack Doyle’s cranium and was suspended the rest of the season. And it’s what should happen now with the New England Patriots.

At this point, the Patriots are almost Keystone Kop cute. They’re too good to cheat, but they cheat anyway because it’s what they do, and who they are. They might even be good at it, because cheating falls under the Cockroach Theory: For every disgusting little vermin that is spotted, every violation that gets caught, there are hundreds that aren't.

In New England, it starts with the owner and filters down to the head coach, the quarterback, the ball boys, even the film crew, which was stone cold busted filming the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline shortly before the Patriots visited – no! – the Cincinnati Bengals.

LATEST CONTROVERSY:Patriot Way is not just winning as latest rules scandal reminds

NFL POWER RANKINGS:Seahawks return to top five after reclaiming No. 1 seed in Week 15

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

The leaked footage to Fox Sports was clear; the Patriots weren’t working on a story on an advance scout, the fiction they supplied to get access to the Bengals’ press box. No, the Patriots were working on the Bengals’ sideline, whether it was the way the Bengals’ signaled plays or … well, I can’t guess with the Patriots. Belichick is too smart for me, yes, but more than that, he’s too warped for me. He’s a guy whose team deflated footballs for an edge it didn’t need before the 2014 AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts;  legendary Patriots cheater, I mean quarterback Tom Brady, using those flattened footballs to run up a 45-7 victory in a game where the score was a formality anyway.

Belichick also is the guy whose franchise was stone cold busted taping the New York Jets’ signals in 2007.

In 2007, after the Spygate scandal, the Patriots were fined $250,000, Belichick was fined $500,000, and the organization was docked its first-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. That was historically harsh.

In 2016, after Deflategate, the Patriots were fined $1 million, Brady was suspended four games, and the organization was docked two draft picks: their No. 1 selection in the 2016 NFL Draft and their fourth-rounder in 2017. That was historically harsher.

Escalating punishment, remember. So what happens to the Patriots now?

Here’s a start: Dock them a game in the standings for the sake of 2019 NFL playoff seeding. I’m not suggesting forfeiting or vacating that 34-13 win Sunday against the Bengals. Let’s not use NCAA logic on an NFL problem, but let’s use justice. And converting that victory into a loss for the sake of playoff seeding feels like justice.

But it feels like justice for a first-time offense.

How about for a third-time offense by an organization whose owner and coach/GM have presided over all three of these ridiculous, unnecessary, very real cheating scandals?

How about this: Kick them out of the 2019 NFL playoffs.

Oh, I know. That looks ridiculous. I can hear talk-show idiots in Boston now, sending readers my way on Twitter and blasting me on the air, calling me obsessed with their team, missing the irony of their own obsession with me. But whatever. Idiots are going to idiot. Be Boston, Boston.

Here, I’ll be real: Roger Goodell needs to hit the Patriots so hard, they never cheat again. I mean, this is getting ridiculous. All those fines haven’t done a thing to an NFL franchise printing money. All those docked draft picks haven’t deterred a team whose coach and quarterback are so good, they can plug-and-play anybody, anywhere, and keep rolling.

No, at a minimum, it’s time to take games from the Patriots. At a maximum, it’s time to take the 2019 playoffs from them. What’s the alternative? Forcing Goodell to give Kraft the Vince Lombardi Trophy when they most likely win another Super Bowl in a few months?

Please. Enough’s enough. It would be justice for Goodell to send the Patriots to bed without their playoff supper, and see if they’re still so naughty going forward. He won’t do it, and I realize that, so he might as well do this:

Nothing.

It’ll have the same effect as whatever punishment Goodell does give the Patriots. They’ll keep cheating. Maybe they’ll even get caught again, like a stupid cockroach dumb enough to walk across the kitchen counter.

At this point, Belichick and Co. aren’t cheating for a competitive edge. They’re cheating because that’s The Patriot Way.

And The Patriot Way is good for business, right Roger?

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.