Thousands of words and column inches have already been spent debating Deflategate. People have weighed in from all over about what the Patriots might have known, whether and how they should be punished, and everything else you can imagine. Now, an NFL legend has added his opinion to the mix.

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Jerry Rice is the greatest wide receiver ever to play the game of football, and he also knows a thing or two about the NFL's biggest game, having won three Super Bowls with the 49ers and playing in another with the Oakland Raiders.

According to CBS Sports, Rice has also closely followed Deflategate, and he believes the Patriots knowingly cheated.

"I'm going to be point blank, I feel like it's cheating," Rice said recently. "Because you have an edge up on your opponent and it's unfortunate that it happened.... I've played in cold weather, I know how hard the football is and you can grip the leather just a little bit better [if it's deflated]."

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Rice also said that he thinks that if the Patriots win the championship, their season deserves an asterisk. "I think you have to really put an asterisk on it, because this is going to follow them, you know, for the rest of their lives, because when you look at it, when people go back and they think about the New England Patriots, they're going to think about these controversies," Rice said.

"So it's unfortunate. I've always wanted to do things the right way. I didn't want to take any short cuts or anything like that. It's just unfortunate that we're talking about them using underinflated footballs instead of talking about the Super Bowl."