Now we know the truth...

[ethurst2]

I find it odd one of the worst Head coaches in the NFL and a 6th round QB together has formed an incredible team, and during this run they have illegally video taped opposing teams despite warnings from the NFL they were violating.
So this is adding up to me, its not very sporting to know what the other guy will do next on the field. Belicheat said he didn't know he was breaking the rules, despite being warned it was against the rules and despite the credible accounts of Matt Walsh who said he knew it was wrong and it was cheating.
To me Belicheat is as about as credible as Roger Clemens, which is not at all.
It is ok for him to lie, but not for others to lie. I am hoping for real justice, championships have been stolen, think of all the lost revenue to all those teams that have been cheated against, including the Rams.

That's why this is so odd. The guy is a great DEFENSIVE COACH (and I emphasize defense). Why did he have to cheat at all? This is a guy that on defense, never shows you the same defense from play to play.

[BJL]

I find it odd one of the worst Head coaches in the NFL and a 6th round QB together has formed an incredible team, and during this run they have illegally video taped opposing teams despite warnings from the NFL they were violating.
So this is adding up to me, its not very sporting to know what the other guy will do next on the field. Belicheat said he didn't know he was breaking the rules, despite being warned it was against the rules and despite the credible accounts of Matt Walsh who said he knew it was wrong and it was cheating.
To me Belicheat is as about as credible as Roger Clemens, which is not at all.
It is ok for him to lie, but not for others to lie. I am hoping for real justice, championships have been stolen, think of all the lost revenue to all those teams that have been cheated against, including the Rams.

1) That incredible team with the worst coach in the NFL and a 6th round QB has been beating up on this league for a while, including last season when they almost went undefeated. The cheating helped, but you still have to have the players and the execution to get the job done. There was an article about the Pats and the Bucs during this period. One of the assistants went up to Monte Kiffin (the defensive coordinator) and said they knew what he was going to do, but couldn't do anything against it. So yes, the team did need to actually be talented to do anything with the information they had.

2) I don't know how credible you can call Walsh. There were or weren't tapes of the Rams walkthrough, and the guy wouldn't deny or confirm that. Now, there are apparently collaborating stories that a group was at the Ram's walkthrough in Patriots gear and Patriots credentials (story on ESPN). The guy most likely started these rumors of having a tape. Even if he didn't start them, he did nothing to deny what was apparently not true.

3) That same story about the Ram's walkthrough goes through how stupid it was of the Rams to have a real walkthrough at the Super Bowl site, because apparently there has been a history of teams trying to take a look at the opposing teams walkthrough. That can't be though, right? It can only be the Patriots. So, there is a stupid move on the Rams in this situation. The other stupid move is Walsh and other buddies watching the practice (but not videotaping).

Just saying, you're almost like chicken little right now. And I'm not defending what the Patriots did at all.  The punishment was handed out, there is no new evidence or any reasonable suspicion that there is new evidence (besides the unsupported ones of fans and sports writers). It should be the end of it.

[simeon]

I got this from an article on yahoo.


I didn’t accept Bill Belichick’s explanation for what happened,” Goodell said Tuesday, “and I still don’t to this day.”

In an interview with HBO for “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” Walsh dismissed Belichick’s attempts to minimize the impact of the taping. Walsh told HBO he was coached on how to evade NFL rules, and that team officials instructed him on ways to avoid detection.

“When I was doing it, I understood what we were doing to be wrong,” Walsh said. “Coach Belichick’s explanation for having misinterpreted the rules, to me, that really didn’t sound like taking responsibility for what we had done, especially considering the great lengths that we had gone through to hide what we were doing.”

Belichick denied telling Walsh to hide what he was doing.

“You look at the tape. You see him filming the game,” the coach told CBS. “You tell me how discrete it is.”

Belichick has said he didn’t even know Walsh, who was fired for poor performance and for making a tape recording of a meeting with player personnel director Scott Pioli.

“For him to talk about game-planning and strategy and play-calling and how he advised coordinators, it’s embarrassing; it’s absurd,” Belichick said. “He didn’t have any knowledge of football. He was our third video assistant.”





Who is Belicheat to judge anybodies character ?
The man ignored repeated warnings from his buddy Goddell, and kept on filming with irrogance.
Belicheat was a really bad head coach in Cleveland including going 1-15.
A 6th round QB who couldn't even beat out Brian Griese in Michigan is all of a sudden an all pro QB, but yet these video tapes never helped the Patriots to win a game ? Despite warnings they were viloating the rules Belicheat still had the gull to pull this stunt in week one against the Jets, but yet with warnings he keeps saying he didn't know it was wrong.
Credibilty is what Belicheat is lacking in all of this, he lied to Goddell and got away with it. a $500,000 fine is just a drop in the bucket for Bob Kraft to pay, just think of the revenue they have stolen from teams they cheated against.
The patriot organization has not been punished, they are not held accountable, they got away with stealing championships. I hope Spector gets these guys.

[BJL]

Who is Belicheat to judge anybodies character ?
The man ignored repeated warnings from his buddy Goddell, and kept on filming with irrogance.
Belicheat was a really bad head coach in Cleveland including going 1-15.
A 6th round QB who couldn't even beat out Brian Griese in Michigan is all of a sudden an all pro QB, but yet these video tapes never helped the Patriots to win a game ? Despite warnings they were viloating the rules Belicheat still had the gull to pull this stunt in week one against the Jets, but yet with warnings he keeps saying he didn't know it was wrong.
Credibilty is what Belicheat is lacking in all of this, he lied to Goddell and got away with it. a $500,000 fine is just a drop in the bucket for Bob Kraft to pay, just think of the revenue they have stolen from teams they cheated against.
The patriot organization has not been punished, they are not held accountable, they got away with stealing championships. I hope Spector gets these guys.

Where did Goodell warn Belichick? That would mean he knew about this beforehand.

Yes, Tom Brady sucks. It was a fluke that he's been one of the top three quarterbacks of the league, if not the top. And this year, after the Jets game, when all eyes were on the Patriots, he still put up numbers that set records. Belichick eventually got those Browns into the playoffs, and last year almost took the Patriots to an undefeated season. Ya, these guys are bums that shouldn't be in the NFL. If Hoodie is wearing Patriot tinted glasses, I think you should get a pair so you aren't so damn blind.

What revenue have they stolen? You keep saying they stole revenue. If anything, they help other teams' revenues when they come to town, because they'd want to see the Patriots. If a team wound up going down the tubes, like the Rams, it was their fault. The Patriots don't draft for those teams. They don't decide who to let go and who to sign. They didn't cause the rapid decline of Kurt Warner. They didn't cause the injuries that plagued their line last year. Besides, there is some shared revenue anyway between teams.

If you don't like the punishment, that's the NFL's fault. There is nothing Spector is going to do except waste time looking into a football team's cheating, when so many other things are wrong with the country. The guy is an idiot. I think the Patriots were held accountable. They lost a first round draft pick. It's a huge deal, since wasting first round draft choices usually hurts a team. They could have used another pick to strengthen their defense, but lost it. What about all the other coaches that were involved? You keep focusing on Belichick, but all these other coaches would be involved as well. What about them? And where is your calling for the investigation of this other team? Your focus on the Patriots makes me believe that you are nothing but envious of them.