And you thought the residual effect of Deflategate was the biggest odor wafting from Foxborough last week.

Please.

The Patriots* cheating? Duh. It's what they do. It's even in song by Sonny and Cher:

The cheat goes on. The cheat goes on. Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain. La de da de de. La de da de da.

Now on to more relevant news about Pinocchio's favorite football team.

Their fans are among the most vacant in the NFL.

No, really.

I even have an algorithm to prove it.

Ooooh. Algorithm. Mathematics, baby. The good folks at Grammarly, an automated proofreading company, can use algorithms to check writing for more than 400 types of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. The Wall Street Journal put Grammarly to work recently, asking it to rank each NFL fan base on writing skills.

Per the Journal story: Grammarly reviewed 150 reader comments that were at least 50 words long from the news section of each NFL team website (12,728 total words, on average, per team).

Guess which fan base finished fourth-worst in the league?

The New England Patriots.*

The only fanbases more obtuse: Redskins, Saints and Dolphins.

New England loyalists made an average of 11.9 spelling/grammar mistakes per 100 words.

Here is an example from our own website:

"Um, I have heard so many different reports on the Colt's ball pressures that I'm not sure what is real and what is make-believe is anymore."

Note the misplaced apostrophe. The Colt's ball pressures. Which Colt would that be? Andrew Luck? Anthony Castonzo?

For the record, the Detroit Lions own the smartest fan base (4.2 mistakes per 100 words). The New York Football Giants check in at a solid 12th at 6.2. And fans of the Giants must negotiate the occasional "Amukamara."

Grammarly found that NFL fans make 9.9 mistakes per 100 words, on average, more than MLB and NHL fans (each 8.2) but fewer than fans of the NBA (10.3) and NASCAR (10.5). (I'm going to count to 10 and resist an auto racing joke here.)

And it's not just that Patriot* fans have legions still unprepared for the Times Sunday Crossword. It's the hypocrisy. They'll resort to comedic levels of minutiae to defend Deflategate – including the immortal "Ideal Gas Law" – but 30 seconds later can be heard mocking Alex Rodriguez. Fact: A-Rod has never officially failed a drug test. Yet who among us is gullible enough to believe he's spent his career clean?

This just in: The Patriots* ... A-Rod ... they've all cheated to varying degrees. So how come circumstantial evidence works in the A-Rod case but not for Tom Brady* and his series of curious text messages to a couple of schmoes in the equipment room?

Then there's this: If every Patriot* fan who says he or she suffered through the late 80s/Rod Rust days actually did so, the franchise wouldn't have had a 17-game home blackout streak from 1988-90. That means the home games weren't on local television from 1988 until the Giants played in Foxborough on Dec. 30, 1990. Why? Nobody went to the games.

Now we're supposed to tolerate all the yahoos masquerading as diehards? As one writer said: "If you only support the team when things are going well, that makes you a fan of winning, not a fan of the team."

But by all means, Patriot* fans, continue with the moral outrage. It's terribly entertaining for the rest of us. Just try harder at subject-verb agreement.

Bottom line: Deflategate only fortifies our predispositions. You were either convinced they were cheaters well before you knew the name John Jastremski (no, he didn't pop up to Nettles on Oct. 2, 1978) or you are a groupie/sychophant who waves the flag and believes that winning trumps all.

Maybe the Patriots* should just go ahead and embrace the cheating thing. We're all good at something. Ask Ken Patera, the former actor and wrestler, to unveil the latest championship banner. Patera's best line, given to "Mean" Gene Okerlund a time or two: "win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat."

Now come on, Pats* fans. Keep those misspelled cards and letters coming.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius