Spygate: An Inconvient Truth Posted on: May 14, 2008 10:23 pm Score: 89 Recently, it has become painfully obvious that most people are quite irritated at the NFL and the New Patriots for their "scouting" of NFL team's Offensive and Defensive signals. At first, as a fan, I was crushed too. As the story broke, it started to make less and less sense to me. Members of the press core who were former coaches, Jimmy Johnson most notably, started to admit and even imply that the Patriots were not the only teams to video-tape other teams. Furthermore, in great detail, information started to arise that this was an NFL wide problem. Most recently, Roger Goddell said that "scouting NFL signals is commonplace and legal." Obviously, the use of a camera in certain spaces makes it more illegal than other places, but that's not what's troubling. Keep in mind, the punishment of the Patriots was a 1st round pick in the 2008 NFL draft and a 750k dollar fine (500k to be paid directly out of Bill's own pocket).The punishment wasn't for spying. As a matter of fact, the spying is completely legal as pointed out above. It's merely where you spy from. If the Patriots had taped signals from the press box, a fine would have never been imposed. As Jimmy Johnson said though "it's not possible to tape signals from the press box when the team is on the wrong side." In other words, you can't tape their signals but they can tape yours, and it's 100% legal. Jimmy Johnson also went on to elaborate by saying that the idea was given to him by then KC Chiefs sideline coach to tape from the sidelines. "You merely have to put an extra camera man beside the rest of them." What has become painfully obvious is that the above is not only very unfair it is also very speculative. I won't attempt to convince you that Belichick believed in what he was doing was justified. I will attempt to merely justify it. Now remember, if you are the team under the press box, the other team is completely in viewing range of the box. Cameras can be pointed in their direction and signals can be easily recorded. You are protected from this because the NFL prohibits you from taping from anywhere that is not enclosed by walls. There are no other places like this than 1 press box. Well, you might be thinking that the tape recorded from the press box can't be very good. You obviously don't have an HDTV. HD Cameras (used to record games in High definition) have optical zoom levels exceeding 16x. What does that mean? It means that you can record video from the Press-box at nearly the same quality zoomed in as zoomed out. Imagine, High definition video of the Jets coordinator or the Chargers cheerleaders. Surely the NFL coaches would be able to get one such camera. 50k$ (not sure of the price, but that'd be absurdly expensive for a camera - my dad is a professional photographer. I'm positive the top cameras might go that high, but most do not) What Belichick could have been thinking is that if it's legal for one team to do it (the home team) then it must be legal for another team to do it when they are on the road. I'm not saying he thought it was legal, but that it should be legal. It just doesn't seem to promote a competitive advantage to allow the home team to tape signals for future games. I mean, at one time, the Jets made the playoffs. If they taped the Patriots signals, they could possibly beat them because of it. I'm not condoning the practice of breaking rules (I actually believe in strict enforcement), highlighting the obvious discrepancy is a must in this situation. While most fans are tired and ready to move on, I really suggest they take a hard look at what really happened instead of listening to the "but they cheated" 'Hatriots'. (I hate that name, but it seems to become standardized). This isn't a conspiracy theory. It's a reminder that the rules aren't always set up to be fair. Sometimes they are unfair and it's just not convienent to talk about where they fall short. The people that challenge the laws are often ruled as heretics or unclean, but history often stands on their side. Maybe Belichick is nothing more than a coach looking to bend or break rules or maybe he didn't want to be victimized by a practice he saw as common and biased. Just a thought.
Yep, we're looking at the same thing. I did forget about Walsh's turning over the other tapes. Have to admit, I gave no credibility to him, as he was almost " taunting " the NFL with is... I will... I won't.... I have... I don't have. Maybe that's a little homer-ish, but I'd like to think some one who didn't come out of the gate as a straight shooter and put his momey where his mouth is... I would think the same of. Foxy
I hope both the steelers and the jets stand in lines on the sidelines...just to show how dumb this fake issue is.
It's a ridiculous story. And now, the Post is running with the league issuing more sanctions against the Jets for Westhoff pointing a finger at the Pats. http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/jets_could_be_punished_for_tying_w4JX1RJfQtCJhNHl0Id3NM What I love about this is, it seems the league is taking Billick's word on it that Ryan would have to know, but is ignoring Billick when it comes to him saying other teams do it. This is one of the dumbest stories I have ever seen. It should have been about the trip and the sanctions afterward. That's it. Why the media and the league are keeping this alive is beyond me.
Which is why I'm saying the best thing for the Jets to do is shut up, don't try to spin this any further, accept the punishment and move on. There are forces in the NFL that want to make the NFL "family entertainment" so while the tripping offends everyone, this "human wall" is now being jumped on as well. Sort of why Ryan got chastised for cursing like a football coach and how Spygate became a crime against the "sanctity of football". Fun isn't it?
Then you should mention that the explanation that they gave was that the Pats players all had helmets on and were grouped together because they were ready to take the field after the change of possession.
I agree strongly with the 1st 2 paragraphs. Westhoff didn't have to be a tattle-tale. The 2nd paragraph reminds me of reading the James Carville/Mary Matalin book about the 1992 Presidential election. You should shut up if possible, because any explanation that is anything short of pristine and undeniable will only keep a story going, when the 24-hour news cycle would chew and up and spit it out in just a few days if you let it die.
This is all very retarded. There's no secret every team "cheats". Some teams just get away with it more often. Then you get this dildo Alosi who brings attention to it by doing something absurd, and the whole NFL ruleset needs to be revisited. THe only benefit to Alosi tripping the dude is it took some of the attention away from how bad this team sucks lately. Again, Rex should stfu with all the jokes that are mildly entertaining and win some fucking games by preparing his team better.
Men Men- those who take risk, get caught, and keep their mouth shut. Rats - those who take risk, get caught. And start pointing fingers at those who didn't get caught before.
I'm not sure it's the Jets spinning it anymore. It's the Post. It's the NFL. It's ESPN. Anything that happens with the Jets now gets magnified.
This is probably the stupidest non-scandal scandal in NFL history. Its hilarious how little the sports media wants to cover actual sports and how much they would rather ask questions about people standing in a line on the sidelines.
anyone can go thru the archives and find a player from a specific team committing a penalty. but finding the staff doing it is another thing. this is only a big deal because the media is making it so. fans and alike could care less. it was one guy doing the stupid!
