A message from a Colts fan.

Like many Colts fans, the Sunday after the AFC Championship game I was met with anger about the possibility involved in the Patriots cheating during the game by deflating the balls used in the game. I was angry, not only as a Colts fan, but as a fan of a sport that is slowly losing it's grasp on the term "punishment."

A majority of the Colts fans that you talk to about the subject will probably meet your presentation of the situation with a quick "burn them in fire" rebuttal. Many felt the team needed to be thrown out of the Super Bowl and cast into the fiery circle of cheaters.

That would be fun, but that's not realistic. The score proved that no matter what side of the argument you are on, New England was the better team.

With all this in mind, the punishment debate for deflate gate has pushed past the realistic. With fans of any team but New England (which should probably just be a team itself) declaring that the Patriots "should be removed from the Super Bowl." And while many around the NFL are probably thankful that a bad PR story doesn't start with "How the NFL supports domestic violence." This story is probably a gift from the news gods.

Regardless of your stance, we have to look at a number of variables. Most punishments placed on a team or players in sports are minimum on their severity or incorrect in their length. Ray Rice faced only a two game suspension for alleged domestic violence and it was later appealed and the NFL had to deal with the downfall.

This isn’t anything new to sports.

But when we look at the Patriots situation we see a team that has been accused of other cheating-like actions before. The NFL is currently investigating as of this post, but here is what SHOULD be set down as a punishment if the possible Super Bowl winners are to be found guilty:

1. The employee responsible should be fired.
2. The team will be fined $500,000.
3.  The team should lose two draft picks.
4. All transactions and other administrative actions shall be cleared by the NFL for one season.

When a team in college is found cheating, punishments that are placed can be loss of scholarships, wins, loss of national championships, and other things that often cripple programs for years. We often overlook that when we see the pro game as teams have higher amounts of money, higher quality, thus the image of a punishment befitting the crime.

As a Colts fan, I’d love to say the appropriate punishment for New England is for them to lose their spot in the Super Bowl, and the Colts to get to either replay the AFC Championship game or for the team to outright assume a place in the Super Bowl.

That just isn’t realistic. Nor is it fair. What I do hope is an action from the NFL that if they deem the organization to be responsible is befitting of the crime against the game. While I know that not everyone can be happy about a decision, it’s not unrealistic to expect the league to take the proper action for an organization that has been in this situation before.