It is pointless, that's kind of the (lack of)point. They have to be seen doing something, but they aren't going to shit on the posterboy chapter of their marketing franchise. I still think Brady will appeal the process and get like... 1 game at worst. Which is what he should have got initially for being a tard about the whole thing, instead of letting it get to where it is now.
I don't think that any reasonable football fan thinks that any of these little cheating bits really matters in the long run, as the Patriots are a good team and they would have been a powerful force with or without the bullshit. The problem is that they tried to cover up and hide the information, which is just a shitty thing to do if you are already a good team. Did the balls being different pressures make other teams toss interceptions or really improve receivers' chances of catching Brady's crazy accurate tosses? Probably not enough to warrant a reconsideration of their entire dynasty. But if the main guys in the situation and the team at large are going to be big shitheads about the process when they have been caught doing something incredibly minor but still stupid, it makes the entire team look like assholes and to casual fans "cheating" assholes. The rest of us just go "Yeah, that might have accounted for 10% improvement for the Pats. Which means they would have only blown out other teams 1/10th as often, since they blow out so many teams." I don't honestly think that anyone in this thread thinks the pats wouldn't have won most of the games they did without doing the ball shit. It is just incredibly annoying when they deny doing it, even if it would have had minimal effect on their efficacy. Why lie when you don't have to? That is honestly the real issue.