Dungy and those guys were getting their asses handed to them. He's always been a hypocrite anyway (don't get me started). Football guys like Bill Cowher (one of those who could have complained having directly lost to the Pats) have always thought it nonsense:
“We didn’t lose the game because of any Spygate, because of them having any additional things,” Cowher said. “I think if they’re guilty of anything, they’re guilty of arrogance, because they were told not to do something. But it was something that everybody does. The only thing they got caught [was] doing it with a camera. We had people that always tried to steal signals. Stealing someone’s signals was a part of the game, and everybody attempted to do that.
“Part of the things we had [were] wristbands that we were using to do it. It’s not even an element anymore because of the communications that take place on the field to the quarterback, to the linebacker. So it’s an element of the game that doesn’t exist, and really, what happened when we lost that game is they outplayed us, and it has nothing to do with stealing signals, or cheating, or anything else. They were a better football team on that day.”
There's plenty of articles that pertain to the same stuff. But one thing I do know is that people LOVE to write hit pieces about the Pats. Why? Because they get clicks. People have made
careers by doing this.
For another example of the hypocrisy of owners driving this stuff, take John Mara again (when they skated on the walkie talkie scandal):
Source The Giants unwittingly, and ironically, have done plenty in the past two Sundays to exonerate the Patriots for #DeflateGate. Yes, Giants co-owner John Mara is believed to have lobbied (along with others) for unreasonably stiff punishment of the Patriots. … [T]he Giants forced the NFL into a clumsy, awkward spot by complaining about Pittsburgh footballs under circumstances that could have been easily explained by natural deflation on a cold day. The NFL couldn’t say that without indirectly clearing the Patriots, so the NFL initially circled the wagons — and then eventually veered off script with a comment that later had to be described as the product of a misstatement.
As to the walkie-talkie scandal, the looming decision to give the Giants a relative slap on the wrist for a blatant and brazen violation of a known rule shows how bizarre it was to hammer the Patriots for a rule that was, essentially, the exact opposite.
You'll notice how it's openly stated that the owners drive these things? That's a well known secret. Spygate was driven by Jerry Jones, Woody Johnson and a few others.
Here's another example of what I'm talking about. Everybody gets morally objectionable when it comes to others, but deep down, they are all trying to beat the system in their own way. Even 'honorable' legends like Jerry Rice (this one cracks me up):
Rice On Deflategate: “I’m going to be point blank, I feel like it’s cheating. Because you have an edge up on your opponent and it’s unfortunate that it happened. I’ve played in cold weather, I know how hard the football is and you can grip the leather just a little bit better [if a football is deflated].
“I think you have to really put an asterisk on it, because this is going to follow them, you know, for the rest of their lives, because when you look at it, when people go back and they think about the New England Patriots they’re going to think about these controversies,” Rice continued. “I’ve always wanted to do things the right way. I didn’t want to take any short cuts or anything like that.”
At a later date, Rice On His own career: “I know this might be a little illegal, guys, but I just put a little spray, a little stickum on them, to make sure that texture is a little sticky,” Rice said. Talking about his gloves.
Poor Jerry forgetting the fact that stickum was highly illegal at the time.