Tuesday delivered the latest episode of "As the Patriots Turn," and it was pretty eventful, even by New England standards – "New England Standards" being that having a former star tight end convicted of murder this offseason was like the franchise's 14th biggest storyline.

It began with Tom Brady appearing on WEEI and discussing everything from the emotional toll of deflate-gate ("tough, challenging"), to the state of his marriage ("we're in a great place"), to whether he hoped two currently suspended locker room employees are allowed to come back to work ("of course"). He even gave his thoughts on Donald Trump ("a great friend"), although he wouldn't say if he'd vote for him.

It concluded about an hour later with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on ESPN's "Mike & Mike" expressing his fatigue with the disciplinary process after losing to Brady in federal court. Goodell said, in a rather newsworthy nugget, that he is interested in revamping his responsibilities: "I'm very open to changing my role in that."

This is a good news month for most places.

Not in New England, though.

View photos Tom Brady and Roger Goodell in happier times. (AP) More

Interviews with the chief deflate-gate protagonists were overwhelmed by the middle of the show when an ESPN report broke that concluded that Goodell's willingness to quickly sweep the 2007 spygate scandal under the rug to the benefit of the Patriots led to a vast overcorrection when presented with deflate-gate, hence the expensive and expansive investigation that hurt the Patriots.

So Goodell botched the first call and the makeup call? Of course, he did.

No one really cares about that, though, because many suspected as much already, and much of it is a rehash. The big news is in the details, of which ESPN has many. Most notably:

"Several [Patriots coaches and employees] acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team's offense. (The practice became so notorious that some coaches put out fake play sheets for the Patriots to swipe.) Numerous former employees say the Patriots would have someone rummage through the visiting team hotel for playbooks or scouting reports."

Wait, wait, wait … so the Patriots were flat-out breaking into locker rooms and visiting team hotels to physically steal play sheets and other material?

And we just spent millions of dollars on PSI levels? These acts are possible felonies and, by far, the most damning thing ever alleged against the team, or maybe any NFL team. This isn't videotaping opposing coaches from the sideline rather than the stands, which was allowed. This isn't a question over whether the Deflator just needed to take a leak.

This is straight up, big-time cheating, like holy-smokes-level cheating.

If true, there are no excuses or explanations for this. Every other item ever brought against Bill Belichick and the Patriots is minor compared to it. This is a monster of a charge.

Which speaks to how wild the "As the Patriots Turn" soap opera really is? That item – that bombshell item – came 2,834 words into the ESPN story.

When it takes nearly three thousands words to get to that, you're having quite a morning. But, hey, it's the Patriots – nothing and everything makes sense at the same time.

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