Audiotaping Key to Patriots' Cheating Scandal

ESPN.com ^ | 9/13/07 | Mike Sando

[NCC-1701]

If the Pats make it to Glendale, I’ll be for whoever the NFC rep is. Hopefully it’ll be Dallas. Two reasons. One, I’m a Cowboys fan. Second, it’ll make allCowboys haters HAVE to pull for Dallas. Look, it’s only for four hours, then you can go back to hating them again. Green Bay or Dallas has a better shot at beating the Pats than either the Giants or Seattle. I hope one of them does.

[discostu]

There’s nothing about the Pats that could ever make me root for the Cowboys. Not while Jones lives, and by the time he’s dead the Cowboys will be a dome team. There’s really only a small fringe of people deeply addicted to sour grapes that have any issues currently with the Pats, and those people always find a reason to whine.

[Shadowstrike]

Agreed. This kind of conduct should have been (and was not) on the front page of every paper in the US. The Patriots should have been sidelined (the whole team) for the entire Season.

[Beckwith]

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a potentially disabling anxiety disorder.

The person afflicted with OCD becomes trapped in a pattern of repetitive senseless thoughts and behaviors that are very difficult to overcome. A person's level of OCD can be anywhere from mild to severe, but if severe and left untreated, it can destroy a person's capacity to function at work, at school or even to lead a comfortable existence in the home.

SmallMary, get some treatment

[VRWCmember]

Has anybody else noticed that the logo on the helmet looks like a profile view of john kerry with a star spangled bicycle helmet.

[Beckwith]

Silly person — that’s “Football Elvis”

[torchthemummy]

"The illegal tactics the New England Patriots evidently employed Sunday against the New York Jets-- capturing signals and corresponding audio with a sideline camera -- might have allowed the Patriots to sniff out blitzes had security officials not intervened, scouts and coaches said."

This is beyond childish. A camera with both video AND audio is just unbelievable! (/sarc) It didn't say there was a separate camera and a separate audio capture device. Get real.

The following comments that go from charging some unfair mystical ability to some complete war room cheating operation is beyond belief. Since their regrettable action in the first quarter of the first game of the first season with the new rule in effect and somehow it is supposedly proof, when combined with their phenomenal season led by a three-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback, that they have accomplished nothing without cheating. Truly childish. Double-childish when the source material is from September and presented as some kind of overlooked coup evidence.

I write this as the Patriots just beat the Jacksonville 31-20. Ha, Ha! GO PATS!

[flintsilver7]

This is why Boston sports fans are just universally adored. You can’t acknowledge that you ever get any breaks. Ever.

The Patriots are a great team. They’re also one of the luckiest teams in the league. If Reggie Wayne holds on to a pass that hits him perfectly and Adam Vinatieri doesn’t miss a chip shot field goal, the Colts are likely 16-0. If Reggie Wayne holds on to that same pass and Mike Carey’s officiating crew does their job properly, the Patriots are 14-2. (You can refer to at least two instances of pure luck against the Ravens, both fourth down failures which were saved, or the holding call on Ben Watson on the last drive.) Now, Mike Carey and his crew did the Seahawks-Packers game yesterday. The Packers played their usual physical pass defense. Penalties were at a minimum. This goes to show you that the same referees can have incredibly different views on what defensive holding is. (Had the Ravens did what the Packers did, which I believe is legal anyway, they probably would’ve been ejected and fined.)

The Patriots’ offensive line is one of the best in the league. They are rarely called for false starts, which shows their discipline. They are also rarely called for holding, which shows luck. Going back eight years this has been a complaint about the Patriots. They often get away with offensive holding. Of course, that breeds fewer calls - teams that are called for holding get called more for holding because the officials begin to look at it.

Randy Moss has become the modern-day Jerry Rice in that he can seemingly throw the defensive back to the ground and, if anything, the DB will be the one penalized. When’s the last time Moss was called for offensive pass interference?

None of this means the league wants the Patriots to win or anything like that. What it does mean is that the Patriots are certainly lucky, and I wish people would acknowledge that.

(I do believe, however, that what the referees did to the Ravens in that game was criminal.)

[mthom]

Is it even worth it to point out that the league didnt make the charge that audio was also taped? Probably not. Sore losers will take the word of some low level and unnamed scout who most likely has no more knowlege of the facts than the posters on this thread. You know it was a Colts or Jets scout too.