ESPN Report: The Patriots Were Huge Cheaters And Roger Goodell Covered It Up

[ChiTownLion]

Bombshell ESPN Report: The Patriots Were Huge Cheaters And Roger Goodell Covered It Up

Barry Petchesky

I want to hug and kiss this beautiful story from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham and take it out to a fancy dinner. Splendidly reported and brutally damning of both the New England Patriots and Roger Goodell, it alleges that the Patriots’ Spygate scandal was worse than anyone imagined—and was actively swept under the rug by the commissioner and the NFL.

You should read the story immediately, but the thrust is this—citing interviews with 90 sources in and around football as well as primary documents, ESPN reports that Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing teams’ signals from 40 different games from 2000 through 2007. And when the scandal broke, Goodell did everything in his power to protect Robert Kraft, who was one of his strongest supporters and without whom he would not have been named commissioner. The thesis statement in this story is that the cover-up—and if this report is accurate, the league’s actions can’t be called anything else but a cover-up—so rankled other owners that Goodell came down extra-hard on New England and Tom Brady for Ballghazi as “a makeup call.”

Continue: http://deadspin.com/bombshell-espn-report-the-patriots-were-huge-cheaters-1729286402

 

[nits74]

Cautionary note: Take into account the media outlet source for this. Just sayin'.

 

[PennStateNate]

Are we ever going to move on from this.. I actually like NFL Football, but really don't want to hear or read about this all year. NE are cheaters, but what is done is done.

 

[NoVa Lion]

Cautionary note: Take into account the media outlet source for this. Just sayin'.

Agreed, I don't see an ESPN report, I see a deadspin report and no mention of this report from ESPN.

 

[Victor E. Bell]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart

 

[Michael.Felli]

I wish people would write that the New England Patriots are cheaters AND winners. Because, most teams/individuals are cheaters AND losers. It's when teams/individuals consistently are WINNERS that everyone has a freakin' problem.

 

[LionDeNittany]

This type of cheating, imo is what the Seahawks have perfected.

Can't place my finger on it exactly, but the Seahawks defense seems to know what's going to happen. One player even mentioned it at one time.

LdN

 

[Ten Thousan Marbles]

This type of cheating, imo is what the Seahawks have perfected.

Can't place my finger on it exactly, but the Seahawks defense seems to know what's going to happen. One player even mentioned it at one time.

LdN

Perhaps. However, this is about the Cheating New England Patriots.

Somebody has put a finger on that.

 

[Obliviax]

This type of cheating, imo is what the Seahawks have perfected.

Can't place my finger on it exactly, but the Seahawks defense seems to know what's going to happen. One player even mentioned it at one time.

LdN

Twenty years ago I got upgraded to first class on a flight from CLE to KC. I sat next to a scout how was taking notes from a three ring binder and putting them into a laptop (high tech then, not now). The binder had 300 pages of the outline of a guy without arms. Written in pencil were arm motions on each page. I asked what he was doing and he said that they pencil in the arm motions of the guys motioning in the O and D. Later, they put them into Lotus 1, 2, 3 and apply that on top of what play was run. they then try to find consistencies; ie still signs.

This isn't new. its been going on for decades. But if the Pats hired people to sneak into the visiting locker room and grab the playbook and/or scripted plays, that's something else.

We'll see where this goes.

 

[acg116]

Bombshell ESPN Report: The Patriots Were Huge Cheaters And Roger Goodell Covered It Up

Barry Petchesky

I want to hug and kiss this beautiful story from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham and take it out to a fancy dinner. Splendidly reported and brutally damning of both the New England Patriots and Roger Goodell, it alleges that the Patriots’ Spygate scandal was worse than anyone imagined—and was actively swept under the rug by the commissioner and the NFL.

You should read the story immediately, but the thrust is this—citing interviews with 90 sources in and around football as well as primary documents, ESPN reports that Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing teams’ signals from 40 different games from 2000 through 2007. And when the scandal broke, Goodell did everything in his power to protect Robert Kraft, who was one of his strongest supporters and without whom he would not have been named commissioner. The thesis statement in this story is that the cover-up—and if this report is accurate, the league’s actions can’t be called anything else but a cover-up—so rankled other owners that Goodell came down extra-hard on New England and Tom Brady for Ballghazi as “a makeup call.”

Continue: http://deadspin.com/bombshell-espn-report-the-patriots-were-huge-cheaters-1729286402

The cynic in me says ESPN is releasing this now as a make up call for being so blatantly wrong (including mort) on the initial deflategate reporting (ie., we were wrong but the reason was that the NFL really wanted to nail the pats and they fed us the info we ran with).

 

[Bushwood CC]

Bombshell ESPN Report: The Patriots Were Huge Cheaters And Roger Goodell Covered It Up

Barry Petchesky

I want to hug and kiss this beautiful story from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham and take it out to a fancy dinner. Splendidly reported and brutally damning of both the New England Patriots and Roger Goodell, it alleges that the Patriots’ Spygate scandal was worse than anyone imagined—and was actively swept under the rug by the commissioner and the NFL.

You should read the story immediately, but the thrust is this—citing interviews with 90 sources in and around football as well as primary documents, ESPN reports that Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing teams’ signals from 40 different games from 2000 through 2007. And when the scandal broke, Goodell did everything in his power to protect Robert Kraft, who was one of his strongest supporters and without whom he would not have been named commissioner. The thesis statement in this story is that the cover-up—and if this report is accurate, the league’s actions can’t be called anything else but a cover-up—so rankled other owners that Goodell came down extra-hard on New England and Tom Brady for Ballghazi as “a makeup call.”

Continue: http://deadspin.com/bombshell-espn-report-the-patriots-were-huge-cheaters-1729286402

Shocking that this is the "culture" that produced FLO......or that Uncle Fester assisted by Ira Lubert (and their good golfing pal Jaws) and the rest of the Board of misTrust would make a hire from this "culture". It very clearly appears that our corrupt Board of misTrust cut an equally grotesque deal with FLO whereby he would go to PSU, they would pay him huge $$$ on a guaranteed basis and they would help him place himself in a HC position in the NFL as fast as they could and once they found that position for FLO, he was to go into death & destruction mode....

 

[lionroar88]

Perhaps. However, this is about the Cheating New England Patriots.

Somebody has put a finger on that.

And we had a judge just tell us "Move along folks. Nothing to see here. We all know NE cheats, but I am not going to let The NFL punish them."

 

[Bushwood CC]

Twenty years ago I got upgraded to first class on a flight from CLE to KC. I sat next to a scout how was taking notes from a three ring binder and putting them into a laptop (high tech then, not now). The binder had 300 pages of the outline of a guy without arms. Written in pencil were arm motions on each page. I asked what he was doing and he said that they pencil in the arm motions of the guys motioning in the O and D. Later, they put them into Lotus 1, 2, 3 and apply that on top of what play was run. they then try to find consistencies; ie still signs.

This isn't new. its been going on for decades. But if the Pats hired people to sneak into the visiting locker room and grab the playbook and/or scripted plays, that's something else.

We'll see where this goes.

Wait, wasn't it the Patriots which were also accused of electronically tapping the other team's "telecommunications" equipment that operated between the box and the sideline as well as the box/sideline to the QB I believe??? Weren't they sanctioned for it because it is outright against the rules to intentionally "wiretap" the other team's communications equipment? Am I remembering this wrong?

 

[ericstratton-rushchairman]

This sounds more like good scouting than cheating, The whole Spygate thing was legal until 2006 and what got the pats in trouble was they didn't stop.

 

[Mister Magoo]

The Pats played 127 regular season/playoff games from 2000 until 2007 Opener. I'd like to know why Belichick only taped 40 of them. Slacker

 

[BobPSU92]

This type of cheating, imo is what the Seahawks have perfected.

Can't place my finger on it exactly, but the Seahawks defense seems to know what's going to happen. One player even mentioned it at one time.

LdN

Temple must have cheated this past Saturday. They obviously knew what plays Penn State was going to run.

 

[really?????]

I thought Mangini said that they videotaped field coaches at every game.

 

[bjf1984]

Temple must have cheated this past Saturday. They obviously knew what plays Penn State was going to run.

""They obviously knew what PLAY Penn State was going to run"
Fixed that for ya'

 

[Rjyoung317]

This sounds more like good scouting than cheating, The whole Spygate thing was legal until 2006 and what got the pats in trouble was they didn't stop.

This in my opinion is a common myth at this point. It was never legal to videotape signals. It was never legal to sneak around on the sidelines pretending to be working for the media. Belicheck flat out new it was illegal and thus the secrecy regarding the videotaping. 2006 was simply a memo reminding teams it was illegal but of course Belicheck couldn't help himself. Belicheck says he misinterpreted the rule but yet kept doing it after the rule was clarified via the memo. We know Belicheck isn't an idiot but that is the only logical explanation to counter the argument he is a liar and a cheater....IMO he has always tried to blur the line of the rules but in spygate, the formations against the ravens and deflate gate the Pats (Belicheck or Brady) knew they were violating the spirit of the rule.

 

[ericstratton-rushchairman]

This in my opinion is a common myth at this point. It was never legal to videotape signals. It was never legal to sneak around on the sidelines pretending to be working for the media. Belicheck flat out new it was illegal and thus the secrecy regarding the videotaping. 2006 was simply a memo reminding teams it was illegal but of course Belicheck couldn't help himself. Belicheck says he misinterpreted the rule but yet kept doing it after the rule was clarified via the memo. We know Belicheck isn't an idiot but that is the only logical explanation to counter the argument he is a liar and a cheater....IMO he has always tried to blur the line of the rules but in spygate, the formations against the ravens and deflate gate the Pats (Belicheck or Brady) knew they were violating the spirit of the rule.

And yet the Pats have averaged more wins per season since 2007 than before. The fact that the Pats elevated what all other teams were already doing to an art form just shows me they were smarter and more committed.

 

[Talpsu]

First off Im not a Pats fan but could someone explain to me why this is so wrong? If you have a guy on the sideline sending in signals for a play for the entire world to see what's wrong with trying to figure out that signal? If they were sneaking into a locker room or something like that or taping closed practices that's a different story but taping live games I see nothing wrong. Seems to me its a smart move and good prep. Teams should have been more creative with their signals IMO.

 

[NoVa Lion]

OK, I must be missing something here. Supposedly the Pats have been cheating for years and Goodell covered it up and the other owners know this so why haven't they fired Goodell? Something doesn't make sense here.

 

[wbcincy]

And yet the Pats have averaged more wins per season since 2007 than before. The fact that the Pats elevated what all other teams were already doing to an art form just shows me they were smarter and more committed.

Do you give Saban credit for his over signing? Jimbo credit for looking the other way while his players run amok? After all, they're just elevating what all other teams do to an art form.

 

[PSUWeav]

This in my opinion is a common myth at this point. It was never legal to videotape signals. It was never legal to sneak around on the sidelines pretending to be working for the media. Belicheck flat out new it was illegal and thus the secrecy regarding the videotaping. 2006 was simply a memo reminding teams it was illegal but of course Belicheck couldn't help himself. Belicheck says he misinterpreted the rule but yet kept doing it after the rule was clarified via the memo. We know Belicheck isn't an idiot but that is the only logical explanation to counter the argument he is a liar and a cheater....IMO he has always tried to blur the line of the rules but in spygate, the formations against the ravens and deflate gate the Pats (Belicheck or Brady) knew they were violating the spirit of the rule.

It is still legal to tape signals but not from the sidelines. They can tape from the pressbox or stands but not the sidelines. The Patriots were punished for taping signals from the sidelines not taping signals. They were allowed to do that until 2006 when the Memo came out telling NFL teams not to tape from the sideline.

 

[Bushwood CC]

It is still legal to tape signals but not from the sidelines. They can tape from the pressbox or stands but not the sidelines. The Patriots were punished for taping signals from the sidelines not taping signals. They were allowed to do that until 2006 when the Memo came out telling NFL teams not to tape from the sideline.

Don't believe you are correct about that - making such a thing legal would just incentivize teams to dedicate large amounts of capital and manpower to what is effectively "espionage activity" and has jack-squat to do with the actual "game of football actually being played on the field" (unless of course your espionage team got the other teams playbooks, all their plays and signals, etc.... which is effectively the equivalent of stealing a test with the answers for a particular teacher.....which is UNQUESTIONABLY CHEATING with regard to the "spirit" of the game). No way would the NFL want to incentivize teams to dedicate large amounts of resources to activities that amount to "black ops" which is a form of cheating and justified in wars because it saves lives if you are on the morally-correct side, but in the NFL, the league and owners would be insane to incentivize such a thing as it would simply escalate into an "arms race" with franchises employing dubious characters to a dubious agenda and spending a lot of franchise revenues in the process. Beyond absurd to think that the league would want to promote any of these kind of activities - e.g., hijacking an opposing teams communications, filming the other team in games or practice, stealing signal guides, playsheets, playbooks, etc...where exactly do you draw the line once you cross this absurd rubicon especially considering that you are going to be employing some very ethically-challenged, unsavory people in this effort who will be willing to stop at nothing to increase "their perceived value" to the ownership.

This is very similar to baseball - do players attempt to steal signals from the catcher when they are on 2nd base and relay the information back into the batter via simple, non-obvious signals? Yes, I suppose it happens occasionally, but everybody knows it is illegal and if an umpire see what he believes is a clear signal between the batter and base-runner related to "signal stealing" the offending team is supposed to be rung up for it (ditto, spit balls, scuff balls, corked bats, etc....).

 

[lionroar88]

First off Im not a Pats fan but could someone explain to me why this is so wrong? If you have a guy on the sideline sending in signals for a play for the entire world to see what's wrong with trying to figure out that signal? If they were sneaking into a locker room or something like that or taping closed practices that's a different story but taping live games I see nothing wrong. Seems to me its a smart move and good prep. Teams should have been more creative with their signals IMO.

The problem isn't having someone standing on the sideline and watching the opposing sideline to try to figure out what the signals mean. They had people taping them so they could monitor the hand signals, then match that to the plays (formations) run over time. They look for patterns to determine what is being called. The entire league was told multiple times that it wasn't permitted and Belicheat and The Patriots kept on doing it.

 

[PSUWeav]

Don't believe you are correct about that - making such a thing legal would just incentivize teams to dedicate large amounts of capital and manpower to what is effectively "espionage activity" and has jack-squat to do with the actual "game of football actually being played on the field" (unless of course your espionage team got the other teams playbooks, all their plays and signals, etc.... which is effectively the equivalent of stealing a test with the answers for a particular teacher.....which is UNQUESTIONABLY CHEATING with regard to the "spirit" of the game). No way would the NFL want to incentivize teams to dedicate large amounts of resources to activities that amount to "black ops" which is a form of cheating and justified in wars because it saves lives if you are on the morally-correct side, but in the NFL, the league and owners would be insane to incentivize such a thing as it would simply escalate into an "arms race" with franchises employing dubious characters to a dubious agenda and spending a lot of franchise revenues in the process. Beyond absurd to think that the league would want to promote any of these kind of activities - e.g., hijacking an opposing teams communications, filming the other team in games or practice, stealing signal guides, playsheets, playbooks, etc...where exactly do you draw the line once you cross this absurd rubicon especially considering that you are going to be employing some very ethically-challenged, unsavory people in this effort who will be willing to stop at nothing to increase "their perceived value" to the ownership.

This is very similar to baseball - do players attempt to steal signals from the catcher when they are on 2nd base and relay the information back into the batter via simple, non-obvious signals? Yes, I suppose it happens occasionally, but everybody knows it is illegal and if an umpire see what he believes is a clear signal between the batter and base-runner related to "signal stealing" the offending team is supposed to be rung up for it (ditto, spit balls, scuff balls, corked bats, etc....).

Whether you believe it or not it is accurate. Tapeing and stealing signals is not illegal. Doing it from the sidelines is.

 

[L.T. Young]

And yet the Pats have averaged more wins per season since 2007 than before. The fact that the Pats elevated what all other teams were already doing to an art form just shows me they were smarter and more committed.

Super Bowl record:

3-0 before Spygate > 1-2 after

Lets be honest, they should be 0-3 if not for the worst call in NFL history.

 

[MAJoePa]

Super Bowl record:

3-0 before Spygate > 1-2 after

Lets be honest, they should be 0-3 if not for the worst call in NFL history.

That's lame. Still had to win a heck of a lot of games to get to the last 3 SBs.

Fans are more up in arms about this then NFL teams and players (understandable as fans is sure for fanatic). I look at Cowhers statement:

We didn’t lose the game because of any 'Spygate,' because of them having any additional things, [If] they’re guilty of anything they’re guilty of arrogance because they were told not to do something but it was something everybody does. They got caught doing it with a camera.”

I do not doubt there is a large amount of arrogance coming from the head coach that trickles down...

 

[ericstratton-rushchairman]

Super Bowl record:

3-0 before Spygate > 1-2 after

Lets be honest, they should be 0-3 if not for the worst call in NFL history.

DUMB DUMB DUMB. if it weren't for two incredible pass catches they'd be 3-0 last 3. Stop qualifying and backing yourself into a corner to justify your contempt. They have a better overall record since 2007.