Goodell must punish Belichick and the Pats , how reamains to be seen. But any leniency will be severly scrutinised and bought up time and time again. How insiders within the NFL are looking at this episode involving one of the leagues most respected coaches also remains to be seen. One thing is for certain , once the dust settles , Like Vick , people will start to distance themselves from the incident and people involved. BB will soon find out who is friends really are. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=3016267 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>:gpc:
Agreed. As this article says the tape was confiscated during the first qtr , but how much of that info crossed enemy lines. Losing draft picks is a step in the right direction , forfeiting the game? Quite possibly , maybe , maybe not that they would have gone on to beat us in the way they did , the game is VOID.
"During parts of the 2003-05 seasons, opposing scouts were convinced the Boston Red Sox were stealing signs using a center-field camera." I guess all of Boston is a bunch of cheaters
I have a feeling they will take the past's first round picks, suspend Belicheat for 4 games and fine the pats 1 mil. I truly think Goodell is going to come down HARD.
I guess so The problem that would come up with a forfeit is if the Jets made the playoffs by 1 game the other teams would probably complain pretty heavily
Well heck if Goodell is going to do that, he might as well just give the Jets a win as well! fine by me, and to be honest, it wouldnt bother me in the least if all of this happened to the Pats, Bellicheck and Brady. Matter of fact, i'd prefer they made Bellichek's four game suspension be non successive, and that he be suspended for 4 division games!
I think what the Patriots did is deplorable. I don't find sign stealing in baseball to be as big of a deal. So what if the batter knows a fastball is coming? Most baseball players with half a brain have a pretty good idea what type of pitch they're gonna get anyway. It's a matter of hittin' it where they ain't. With football, however, if a team knows the LOLB is going to blitz and the SS who is creeping to the line is not going to blitz but is actually going to back off and drop into coverage, that is a huge advantage to a team.
The second tape? Maybe 17 missing minutes on the first one? I wonder if Belichik's secretary knows anything about that...
It's too hard for me to valuate the punishment; what I'm more interested in is if the NFL looks at this as a one time incident for the day the Pats got caught red handed, or will consider this as systemic or a part of the culture of the team given past and current allegations. If they do that, I think it would be fair for the NFL to enforce a parole period. lets say two seasons where an neutral NFL official is required to specifically monitor the teams meetings, communications, and planning. I'd think the mindset of the ends justify the means that this whole mess seems to have exposed regarding the Pats should be treated like an addiction, instead of to a drug to winning at all cost. If the allegations are true, at some point Pats fans and management have to realize the culture of the team has turned astray from a healthy desire to be succesfull.
