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Current mood:  grumpy Category: Sports
Wow, and Seahawks fans feel cheated by the Steelers?!
After the rant I did on "Seahawk Fan" I absolutely CANNOT let "Patriots Fan" slide without saying anything. You "Pats Guy" owe us (all NFL fans) an apology.
The entire National Football League should feel cheated by the Patriots! Yesterday, we received confirmation that the Patriots have been filming "stuff" since at least the 2000 season. Since 2000 the Patriots have won 3 Super Bowls and appeared in a 4th.
All season in '07 the question was, "if the Pats go undefeated is the season tainted?" The answer to that is ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY! They did NOT go undefeated. They choked in the final game of the year, so the tainting of 2007 season was prevented by the World Champion New York Giants. But here is the rub. What has been termed "Spygate" taints every one of the Super Bowls that lead to the Patriots so called Dynasty.
This organization is being mentioned with the great teams of all time in the NFL, the 70's Steelers, the 80's 'Niners and 90's Cowboys. That needs to stop NOW. Have the Super Bowls been tainted? Well if you have to ask the question, the of course they have. As a matter of fact the only reason that they are tainted and not completely stripped is because we do not know the actual extent of the cheating that was involved.
Commissioner Goodell says that he is confident that all of the videos and notes from the spying were turned over. That's great. However, I have watched enough "Law & Order" to know that the suspects NEVER give up everything right away. Maybe they did turn over all of the tapes of the team taping defensive signals of their opponents, but did the league ask for anything else NOT related to stealing signals? Is there a cupboard somewhere that has the tapes of the "alleged" intercepted radio transmissions between offensive coordinators and QB's when plays are being called in? Who knows? Let's not forget that the only reason that this was even brought to light was because Jets' Coach Mangini, excuse me, former PATRIOTS Defensive Coordinator Mangini pointed out it was happening against them.
Think of all that has happened since 2000 when the team is admitted to have started its taping.
In 1999, the year prior to the current regime, the Pats finished 8-8 missing the playoffs. In 2000, under current leadership, the Pats, the "Team of the Decade" went 5-11?
Suddenly, 2001 comes along and the Pats go 11-5. That makes sense because the team has been able to clean out the roster and get its system in and get guys to buy in etc. But they go all the way to the Super Bowl? And Win? This is where we have heard that the Pats taped the Rams practice sessions of AT LEAST the final walk through prior to the Super Bowl. Did you realize that in that game, the Pats held the leagues highest scoring offense, "The Greatest Show on Turf" to a series in which there were like 8-9 plays in the red zone? On ONE drive! Rams players have said since then that they literally were drawing plays on the sidelines because "It seemed like the Pats knew EXACTLY what (the Rams) were going to run." For those that don't see the significance here, the final walk through practice is generally going over stuff that the team will do in the red zone (the red zone of course being the area from the 20 yard line going in to score). Pats win 20-17 on the last second field goal.
In the 2003 season opener, the Pats went to Buffalo and got absolutely throttled 31-0. This was the game where even big Sam Adams got an interception and returned rumbled his 380lb behind into the end zone for the Bills. (Nothing but love Sam)They must have gotten some good footage that day, because after going 13-2 into the final game of the regular season, they got their revenge by beating the Bills at home 31-0. They go on in that season to beat the Colts and the Titans (both whom they played and filmed earlier in the year) before beating the Panthers in the big game.
2004 is the season that really upsets me, and all Steelers fans. That was the year that Tommy Maddox got hurt in a week one loss and a young Rookie Ben Roethlisberger stepped in and led the Steelers undefeated the rest of the way to a 15-1 season. What stands out is the week 8 match-up in which the Steelers demolished the Pats 34-20. It wasn't even THAT close. While down 34-13, the Pats scored with just over 3 minutes for the final score of the game. However, the Pats again got good film because come AFC Championship time the Pats used what they learned (illegally) to win 41-27. Everyone remembers that Steelers team. Especially the defense and we are supposed to believe that the Pats suddenly just got that much better? Prior to playing the Steelers that year, the Pats beat the Colts 20-3 after beating them 27-24 in week 1. I am not a huge Colts fan by any means, but that offense gets held to just 3 points with a healthy Peyton Manning? That was the year that Peyton broke Dan Marino's passing Touchdown record. Peyton was burping up touchdowns all year and suddenly held to 0 in the playoffs? Riiiight. That's the year they beat Philly in the Super Bowl 24-21.
There is a reason that the Giants moved their practices everyday to undisclosed locations every day during Super Bowl week. "Plex thinks we'll only score 17 points?" –Tom Brady
Nice. My Cuz was right man, Karma...
So take that info and say what you will but do not try to tell me that taping didn't help, or that all they did was tape defensive signals. That's just naïve. So lets say that taping signals is in fact all the Pats did. People are saying that having defensive signals does NOT give you an edge. Really?
Do you know what the difference between Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf was coming out of college? Work ethic. Not on the field but off of it. While they both worked relatively equal amounts on the field, throwing, running etc. Manning was the one that started studying the offensive playbook as SOON as he found out the Colts were going to take him over Leaf in the draft. Everyone to a man in the NFL says that NOBODY studies more film than Peyton Manning. Why does someone study film? To get an idea of what the defense is going to do against you come game day. Just to get an IDEA of what a team MIGHT do against you! Imagine if there was a way to know what the defense was going to run, like maybe knowing what they were calling as they are calling it?
Knowing the defensive signals doesn't help? Peyton Manning (again as my example) calls 3 plays every huddle. From what they have told us, he calls 2 pass plays and 1 run play every huddle. In some scenarios he calls 2 run 1 pass. How does the team know which one to run? Well, Manning looks over the defense and chooses which one he will run based on what the defense looks like they are going to do. Now imagine if Peyton KNEW already. The defense signals their play in right away. The offense of course takes a little longer to call. A defensive call might be as simple as "Base Cover 2" while Peyton might call out "Trips left open Z over 974 X cross H flair –alert- 315 A zip X disco –alert 25 trap." Three calls just in case, but if he already knew what the defense was going to be just by waiting long enough to see the signal for "Base Cover 2" Manning would throw 60 TD's easily. That's doesn't even take into account the "automatics."
In an "automatic" what you do is, if you get a certain look from a team you immediately switch to a certain predetermined play. This is usually done with hours upon hours of film study and hoping for that one look or one player or one "tell" (like in poker) that will allow you to run a certain play. So if you are the Patriots, and you figure out that in a certain defensive play The defense will blitz 7 guys and Randy Moss will be one on one, you go to the "automatic" which would keep 8 guys in to block and automatically throw, oh I don't know, say… 23 TD passes to Randy in one season? They should try that… wait…
So that's how this has affected the NFL. What about others outside of the NFL? Well lets look at the University of Notre Dame and former Patriots Offensive Coordinator Charlie Wies. The man got his job based on what he did while at New England where since at least 2000 he was the beneficiary of all of that illegal taping of signals. When he got the job in South Bend he smugly stated that the team will win not just because of the talent they will lure to the school but because of the schemes that he is bringing with him. Like he is the first NFL coach to go to the college level. So in 2006 he goes 10-2 (using Ty Willingham's recruits) before being stomped 41-14 by LSU in a bowl game. Then Chuck and his team bumble their way through a season in which they are lucky to win 2 games while getting shut out twice! Its Notre-FREAKIN-Dame! Love them or hate them that is not "Golden Dome" football. So… where are those schemes that were going to win games?
This is not to say that Wies will not be a good coach. He managed to get the top QB in last years recruiting class in Jimmy Claussen (if you get a chance check out his High School stats, unreal!) and they got another good class this year so they should be alright. But you HAVE to ask, how much of his success was based on that little edge of knowing what the defense was going to run as the same time that the Linebacker calling the defensive huddle did.
Not to mention, do you realize how much money the Vegas Casinos lost because of the game against the Rams in the Super Bowl? How upset do you think the "Wise Guys" that are "loosely interested" with the game results? How mad will they be to find out that the underdog that won cheated? Hmmm?
So what should the league do about it? Well, that is hard to say. Honestly, if it were me, I would have sat Belichick for at least a few games along with a fine like he got. If we do find out that there was more after this Walsh character gives his deposition about the extent of taping it may get worse. I think that if he is taping practices such as the Rams walk through (or the Panthers or Eagles) prior to their Super Bowl wins or AFC Championship games then I say BAN HIM, Pete Rose Style. Pete was banned for betting that his team would win. Think of all of the AFC coaches that lost jobs because they lost games to the Pats or because the Pats were able to get Pats assistants. The Patriots (and I blame Bill for this not Robert Kraft or the organization as a whole) have taken 7-8 years of football and made everyone question the results. If the Patriots did cheat they may have stolen 2-3 rings from one of the NFL's truly GREAT men in Tony Dungy. If the Steelers get that win in the '04-05 AFC Championship game then Ben, The Bus and The Steelers have 2 rings already including that one for the thumb (maybe more). We would be talking about Peyton Manning and his 2,3,4 rings (?) and he is being talked about up there with Montana as one of the best ever, rather than Brady.
Quarterback Coach Wade Wilson was suspended for 4 games for using HGH due to a physical illness that he has. This was medically documented. Again, 4 games, 25% of a season and 4 game checks for using a substance that could help him deal with his physical pain. How the hell is that worse than CHEATING!?!?!?! For 8 YEARS!
Alright, that's my rant but I had to get it out before I blew up. Keep in mind that the players didn't have to know. Only the guys taping, the guy that told him to tape and the guys breaking down the tape had to know. I hope that the Pats didn't cheat more than we know. I have respect for Bob Kraft and a lot of the Pats players. They did get a whole generation of young football players and kids to believe in "team" again. In an era where guys point at the name on their backs when they make plays rather than the name on the chest of the jersey, and write books titled "Throw Me the Damn Ball" before retiring to the studio and trying to tell other guys how they should act, they did things in (what seemed like) the right way, spotlighting the team rather than the individuals. But I just think that all of that was superficial because all that they accomplished, all the rings, all the bonuses, the "America's Game" episodes are all fake. All tarnished, sullied, and marred in shadow. Who knows, they may have won without the cheating, but we will never know will we?
Thanks for listening.
JPR III
4:03 AM
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