Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman feels that the New England Patriots should suffer a harsher punishment for 'deflategate' than the New Orleans Saints for 'bountygate' in 2012.

The Patriots are being investigated by the NFL after a report suggested that 11 of the 12 balls they used against the Indianapolis Colts in their AFC championship game were not inflated to the NFL's regulations regarding PSI.

Aikman feels that New England should face a sterner punishment to the one handed to the Saints for 'bountygate', when players were rewarded for knocking opposing players out of the game. Their head coach Sean Payton, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and general manager Mickey Loomis were suspended for a year, while they also saw their second-round Draft picks in 2012 and 2013 removed.

Bill Belichick and his side were penalised in 2007 for the 'spygate' scandal in which they were caught videotaping the defensive signals of the New York Jets, which resulted in the docking of a first-round Draft pick and a £500,000 fine for the head coach.

"This whole comment by Roger Goodell based on the Saints when Sean Payton got suspended for the year, and he says 'ignorance is no excuse,' that's going to come back to haunt him again," Aikman told radio station 1310 The Ticket.

"That haunted him during the whole Ray Rice situation with he, himself, and now it's going to haunt Roger Goodell in terms of what the punishment is for the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick. If ignorance is no excuse, and it wasn't for Sean Payton. [The Saints] did not give themselves a competitive advantage.

"Now twice, under Bill Belichick and possibly a third time, they've cheated and given themselves an advantage. To me, the punishment for the Patriots and or Bill Belichick has to be more severe than what the punishment was for the New Orleans Saints."

The NFL is reportedly struggling to find evidence that the Patriots tampered with the footballs during the game, which could see them go unpunished for the incident.