Tomorrow is the final chapter of the now infamous Spygate. The saga that hit the headlines in week one last year but has been going on for the entire run of Patriots success. Basically after several memos from the NFL the "genius" that is Bill Belichick says he misunderstood the rule. The same Belichick, who we all thought was re-writing how an NFL team should play defense and runs an organization had problems interpreting a simple memo that said, "Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches' booth, in the locker room or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game.'' Yeah that memo would take a Mensa genius to understand.
This is a time line of the events leading up to Spygate:
September 9, 2007: Camera and videotape seized from a Patriots employee who was stationed on the New England sideline and suspected of filming New York defensive coaches who were relaying signals during the Patriots' 38-14 victory at Giants Stadium.
December 18, 2006: CBS analyst Charley Casserly alleges that Patriots were warned by League to stop using a camera to steal opposing signals.
November 19, 2006: Packers catch Patriots employee Matt Estrella with a camera on the sidelines and tell him to leave the sideline. Packers later catch Estrella filming from a tunnel and remove him from the stadium completely.
February 2005: Patriots defeat Eagles in Super Bowl. Players on the Eagles now say they were amazed at the Patriots' ability to know which defensive calls were coming.
January 27, 2002: Patriots defeat Steelers in AFC Championship Game. Steelers WR Hines Ward now says the Patriots "knew a lot of our calls."
What does this all mean? It means the Patriots cheated, but it is a common opinion that every team looks for any edge any way it can. To what extent other teams do this is not widely known. The Patriots were simply caught. Which leads to the question why were they caught?
It is a head scratcher that after several close calls of almost being exposed the Patriots still continued videotaping. But why would they videotape a former coach, who knew exactly what to look for? Did Belichick's pride so blind him that he would risk being exposed by his former protege? What is clear is that the Patriot's success increased against the teams they videotaped. Too bad they didn't tape the Broncos because they could have used any help they could have gotten.
Finally tomorrow Matt Walsh, the former Belichick dirty deeder, will meet with Commissioner Goodell. Walsh has already sent in 8 videotapes of what most people have said is consistent with what the NFL punished the Patriots for. However one new detail was revealed: the videotaping also contained opposing teams offensive signals not just defensive signals as was previously reported.
What more can Matt Walsh do to the situation? Probably not much. The Patriots have already distanced themselves from him and will just deny everything he claims to be new relevant information. It remains to be seen whether Matt Walsh sheds more light on the subject such as saying all the Patriots staff met in a dark smoke filled room and laughed about how they thought they were getting away with videotaping. Goodell will most likely try and bury this, but Sen. Spector will most likely not allow this to just simply go away like any good Eagles fan who feels wronged by losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl would do.
2 comments:
Bill is a lying cheating son of a bitch and he makes me ill. Sports hero's like the almost undefeated patriots are supposed to set an example of good sportsmanship to the world. Instead he lies lies lies. Now if video taping were not already established as a form of cheating I would have said more power to him. But he knew the rules and willingly broke them. I hope he looses his job, but sadly as I've said all along he will likely only get a slap on the wrist. It was such poetic justice when they lost the super bowl. Not even cheating could help them. It soured all of their wins. I'm also disgusted with Patriot fans like my father who somehow justify Bill's actions. No justification can make his wrongs right. My advice: pick a new team. Burn baby burn.
Spencer your picture of the sesame street muppets scares me. It just doesn't suite cookie monster to look like that.
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