In a matter of a weeks time, the New England Patriots have gone from the NFL's model franchise to cheats. Who knew that video taping the opposing teams signals could tarnish 3 Super Bowl victories and a coaches legacy. Is it really that big of deal? Do other teams around the league do it too? Is stealing signals just another form of gamesmanship in order to give your team the best chance to win?
At this point, none of those reasons are good enough to excuse the Patriots and Bill Belichick from what they did. People around the country have been waiting for an opportunity to dethrone the Patriots and this is their chance. Belichick has not been liked nationally since he left the Jets to coach the Patriots. I'm sure Belichick haters around the country were salivating when they heard that he was caught. People need to be honest with themselves and realize that they are scrutinizing the Patriots not only for the video taping, but also because of their genuine dislike for Belichick and his team. If it was Herm Edwards caught cheating, would there be as much of a hoopla?
It has been said on ESPN and other media outlets that the Patriots are probably not the only team that has taped other teams signals on the sidelines. However, since they were caught, the Patriots are therefore the cheats and their past wins should be questioned. How does this logic make any sense at all? Yea it is impossible to prove that other teams have been doing this as well, but there have been hints from coaches, players, and former players around the league that this is a more common occurrence then we may think.
Yes the Patriots were wrong to do this and yes Bill Belichick was not very smart to try this stunt on Eric Mangini, but I think fans and the media are blowing this way out of proportion. The Steelers Heinze Ward even had the audacity to say that the Patriots playoff win in 2001 should be questioned. Come on Heinze, you know that your team was beat fair and square, get over it. The Patriots are on the ground, bleeding, and people are taking every chance they can to get a shot at them.
4 comments:
I understand the Patriots need to be made an example of to discourage cheating in the NFL, however, I'm sure this kind of activity is more prevelant in various forms around the league. Moving on...
I wonder if the "Everyone hates Belichick" angle hasn't been overplayed a bit in the reaction to this story. Yes, there's quite a bit of Patriots fatigue out there, thanks to people like Peter King slobbering all over the team (and its coach) at every conceivable opportunity.
But look at it this way. The Patriots have been the most successful team of the decade by far. For that team to be caught blatantly cheating in such an arrogant manner is naturally going to attract far more media attention than if a lesser team had been caught. If this was baseball, it would be the difference between the Yankees being caught cheating and the Blue Jays (or the Royals).
I agree.
Maybe the Dolphins can learn from the Patriots and win some games (if ya know what I mean...wink wink)
I totally agree that it was a bigger story than it probably should have been because it was the Patriots that were caught. Sure, people will talk about it more if it's dealing with a team or coach that they hate. I don't know exactly if their playoff wins should be questioned as much as they have been, because would Belichick really have the nerve to cheat so blatantly in a playoff game with everyone watching? Who knows, maybe he did, but I think it would be tough to do. Like I said in the other post about Belichick, it doesn't seem to have hurt the Patriots as much as it probably would have hurt another team.
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