With regard to NFL, what's a "heavy fine"? Because the Pats--as an organization--don't seem to bat an eye over dollar signs or even a draft pick, when it comes to punishment.
Sure, one can reasonably say it had no impact. But if the game hinged on a miraculous last second throw and catch by the Pats, might it have an impact? Who can say.
But imo, that doesn't matter. The rules either mean something or they don't.
Well, the rules mean something, and the punishment reflects what the league thinks of the rule. Just like any other penalty. The league thinks a blow to the head is worth a 15-yard flag, while a false start is just 5-yards. Either one, if not flagged or caught, can give the offending team an advantage. In this case, they think under-inflated footballs warrant a fine and
maybe lost draft picks. That's how much the rule means to them. The rulebook starts off with a $25,000 fine for altered or non-reg footballs. That's what the NFL thinks of the situation.
I also think it plays into the general nature of most organized, professional sports. Everybody's looking to get away with something. If one player fouls another in a basketball game and the ref doesn't call it, he don't go to the ref and say "hey, I got him on that last one, give him his free throws." If a lineman in football gets away with holding, he doesn't tell the ref, "move us back ten yards; you didn't see it, but I held the sh*t out of that guy." When Gretzky got away with high-sticking Gilmour in the Finals, he didn't go ahead and put himself in the penalty box anway, even though none the refs claimed to see it. So on and so forth. Golf is the one sport where players are expected to police themselves honestly, and sometimes in soccer when it comes to handballs, it seems. Everything else, we seem to be pretty complacent with players getting an illegal edge here and there in game. So at the team level, to me, again it's kind of "meh." Punish the Pats and then keep it moving.
Ultimately, I think the NFL's punishment system isn't really all that severe for this sort of thing, or any other on-field cheating / gamesmanship really. Take, for example, PED's. You get 4 games or so, then you're back on the field. The team doesn't forfeit any games you played and you can be back in time for the playoffs, as was the case with the Ravens' Ngata this season. Compare that to college, where you can get entire championships voided if it's proven you had ineligible players on the team during your season. Not apples to apples, but it illustrates a bit of a point. The NFL has had this sort of activity going on for years. The late great George Allen used to talk about spies being in the trees during NFL Films specials and it was treated as a joke. Granted, times change, but the whole "cheating" thing just doesn't appear to be that big of a priority, regardless of whatever statements they may make claiming otherwise.
I think the NFL sort of likes this kind of thing--anything
on-field related that keeps people talking about the sport. And they can get away with it. If nothing else this whole year has pretty much proven to them that their league is virtually scandal-proof. The masses will watch, regardless. The Super Bowl will do its usual ridiculous numbers. The advertisers will pay out their usual riduculous checks for a minute of airtime. Short of a revelation that the Super Bowl is completely fixed or something, there's apparently very little that can dent the popularity of the game.