The implications are stunning. The best team of the 2000s has been caught cheating. All the second half heroics, all the times Belichick would dominate a team the second time he faces them in a season, all three Super Bowls -- all have to be considered tainted.
Now some NFL pundits will make you think this is not a big deal, that all NFL teams do it, the Pats were just the first to get caught. But I will argue until I am blue in the face that the reason they have been the only ones caught is because they are the only team going to this extent to steal signs.
There are ways, within the NFL rules, to gain knowledge of a team's defensive signals. Game footage without audio is available for every team to use to study other teams. I find it hard to believe that these tapes cannot be searched to find out some kind of defensive signaling.
Take Peyton Manning for instance, it is almost unanimously agreed upon that he is the best quarterback (if not player) in the NFL today. He notoriously spends hours and hours in the film room breaking down film. Now as the quarterback he doesn't have time to look over and see what kind of defensive signals the coaches are throwing up, but he does things the right way, the legal way. And he wins.
Rumors have been flying that Bill Belichick mics up his defensive linemen to get the offensive audibles and snap counts and such and then distributes them to his defense at halftime. That would surely explain all those "halftime adjustments" Belichick is so known for. If these rumors turn out to be true (the NFL has questioned New England about a strange radio communications setup on the sideline recently) then New England should automatically be labeled as the kings of cheating. The Barry Bonds of the NFL. There have been rumors throughout the NFL that the Pats cheated. Just like there have been rumors throughout MLB that Bonds cheated. But unlike Bonds, the Patriots got caught.
This brings up the question of how long this has been occurring. One season, two seasons, throughout Belichick's whole tenure in New England? Consider this, in 2004 the New England Patriots signed former Steelers defensive back Hank "I Got Beat" Poteat. Poteat, who was fucking terrible and sucked worse than probably anyone else the Pats could have signed, was a surprise signing by the Pats. What could they possibly see in him? Did they not watch the playoff game against Cleveland in which Poteat got burnt deep on more than one occasion? Well maybe, just maybe they had other plans for Poteat. Maybe Hank was brought in to help decipher their video footage of the Steelers defensive signals. Although the Steelers say they changed their signals when they would face the Pats. But then again, maybe Poteat knew those signals.
And those rumors about New England cheating, they have been going on for years. And like Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said "where there's smoke there's usually fire." Now do not get me wrong, I am not condemning the Patriots to a fate worse than that of the Cleveland Browns, I am merely being the devil's advocate and saying that if these rumors are true, then the true Asterisk Bowl will be, well, all three of the Super Bowls won by New England.
But if, contrary to the rumors, all this cheating and George W. Bush wiretapping is a new issue why did Belichick feel the need to go that route? Maybe he felt that his team wasn't good enough any more. Maybe all those years of taking an injury-riddled defense full of nobodies and making them great year in and year out simply became too much for him. Maybe Bill just decided to take the easy way out. We may never know and this whole issue may get swept under the rug as time goes by.
But from now on, I know I won't watch a Patriots game and think "Wow, those bastards did it again. What a great team."
Now some NFL pundits will make you think this is not a big deal, that all NFL teams do it, the Pats were just the first to get caught. But I will argue until I am blue in the face that the reason they have been the only ones caught is because they are the only team going to this extent to steal signs.
There are ways, within the NFL rules, to gain knowledge of a team's defensive signals. Game footage without audio is available for every team to use to study other teams. I find it hard to believe that these tapes cannot be searched to find out some kind of defensive signaling.
Take Peyton Manning for instance, it is almost unanimously agreed upon that he is the best quarterback (if not player) in the NFL today. He notoriously spends hours and hours in the film room breaking down film. Now as the quarterback he doesn't have time to look over and see what kind of defensive signals the coaches are throwing up, but he does things the right way, the legal way. And he wins.
Rumors have been flying that Bill Belichick mics up his defensive linemen to get the offensive audibles and snap counts and such and then distributes them to his defense at halftime. That would surely explain all those "halftime adjustments" Belichick is so known for. If these rumors turn out to be true (the NFL has questioned New England about a strange radio communications setup on the sideline recently) then New England should automatically be labeled as the kings of cheating. The Barry Bonds of the NFL. There have been rumors throughout the NFL that the Pats cheated. Just like there have been rumors throughout MLB that Bonds cheated. But unlike Bonds, the Patriots got caught.
This brings up the question of how long this has been occurring. One season, two seasons, throughout Belichick's whole tenure in New England? Consider this, in 2004 the New England Patriots signed former Steelers defensive back Hank "I Got Beat" Poteat. Poteat, who was fucking terrible and sucked worse than probably anyone else the Pats could have signed, was a surprise signing by the Pats. What could they possibly see in him? Did they not watch the playoff game against Cleveland in which Poteat got burnt deep on more than one occasion? Well maybe, just maybe they had other plans for Poteat. Maybe Hank was brought in to help decipher their video footage of the Steelers defensive signals. Although the Steelers say they changed their signals when they would face the Pats. But then again, maybe Poteat knew those signals.
And those rumors about New England cheating, they have been going on for years. And like Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said "where there's smoke there's usually fire." Now do not get me wrong, I am not condemning the Patriots to a fate worse than that of the Cleveland Browns, I am merely being the devil's advocate and saying that if these rumors are true, then the true Asterisk Bowl will be, well, all three of the Super Bowls won by New England.
But if, contrary to the rumors, all this cheating and George W. Bush wiretapping is a new issue why did Belichick feel the need to go that route? Maybe he felt that his team wasn't good enough any more. Maybe all those years of taking an injury-riddled defense full of nobodies and making them great year in and year out simply became too much for him. Maybe Bill just decided to take the easy way out. We may never know and this whole issue may get swept under the rug as time goes by.
But from now on, I know I won't watch a Patriots game and think "Wow, those bastards did it again. What a great team."
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