My old landlord in San Diego played a few season in the NFL and has stuck around as mentor for some younger players on the Chargers. I hung out with them on several occasions. I asked them about Spygate and they all just laughed and shrugged it off. Every single one of them said that as far as they know, that **** had always been happening. Most hypothesize that it was just Eric Mangini (a former assistant of Belichick) losing his cool and trying to bitch slap the master.
The Patriots weren't doing anything that the other organizations weren't also doing. There was just a bitch with hurt feelings.
And, Brady didn't do anything. So, yeah.
Every NFL player (15-20 of them) that I have talked to have told me that other teams were doing it to a much lesser extent and had some unspoken lines not to cross and the patriots crossed that line by a lot and bugged lots of other coaches. They took it too far and were clearly cheating.
Facts still are that Manning has better stats in every way possible in his NFL career. Manning has beaten Brady 3-2 in head to head playoff games and Brady did not win after the spygate scandal came to light and they stopped until the deflategate year. Say what you want about them stopping for the super bowl but it got them there and it definitely helped that team. They set historic records all of a sudden for fumbles.
The only thing Brady has that is better than Manning is Super Bowl wins but those all need an asterisks next to them.
Manning took a low talent Colts team with a poor line, poor defense and poor running game to the super bowl and won it. Brady took teams with great defense and great talent to the super bowl.