quitesanemax

YOu know, Prof, I know this is going to come across as an insult to you, and I apologize ahead of time for that, but there is really no way I can respect your opinion anymore. Simple as that. YOu either know nothing about football, or your one of those trolls just trying to get on Patriot's fan's nerves... and whether you would want to admit it or not, that would only be because you hate that they are a team that wins.

Anyone who knows anything about football realizes that the whole spygate incident was just something the media made into a big deal to bring up ratings. You sound like you actually believe that the "cheating" was what caused the Patriots to win Superbowls, and thats just not likely, and practically impossible. You can bring up any number of arguments to help your cause, but if you truly believe that the Patriots were bringing videotapes to the lockerroom at halftime, and in that small amount of time, figuring out the signals for the second half, that just shows a true ignorance of the way football works. They would have to hire about 100 people (maybe an exaggeration, but you get my point) to get this done, and that would be too dangerous, as likely one or more of them would leak this out to the public. Also, if you truly believe that if the Patriots were doing something as horrible as this, they would make it as obvious as they did in Week 1 of this season, your just being gullible. If Belichick was doing something as bad as what you are talking about, he would have been trying to hide it. He also probably would have been using more modern equipment than that guy was using in spygate.

Bill Belichick has claimed that he misunderstood the rules, and not only does that make sense because of what I mentioned above, but since this is a country where someone has to be proven guilty of something before they are prosecuted, it is all we can blame Belichick for. Misunderstanding the rules is not cheating, plain and simple. In fact, breaking the rules is not really cheating either, otherwise, everytime an offensive lineman holds a defensive lineman in a play and is called for holding, that team would have to be considered cheaters, which is just plain stupid.

The rules were created a year before (I might add, this was after the Patriots won their Superbowls, so even if the Pats were doing this impossible task you seem to think they were doing during the Superbowl, it was perfectly legal to do it back then). The league pointed out this rule about a week before it happened, which is why the Patriots, and Bill Belichick were punished so stiffly. Also, the league wanted to make sure no one else did it. If teams know this is how they will be punished, hopefully they will be smart enough not to do it in the future.

You seem to believe the reason why the evidence was destroyed was because something was found on it that would prove fatal. Not sure what you think that is. What was probably on those tapes were the signals of offenses that everyone thinks was on it. That doesn't prove they were using them in the same game. What I think is more likely is that they really didn't find much, and if they showed the public this, then they wouldn't be able to punish the Pats as harshly as they did, and thus no example would have been made, and teams would continue to do it.

Lastly, the Patriots filming of the signals on the sidelines IS NOT BREAKING THE RULES in the NFL. What was breaking the rules is having someone on the sidelines doing this. Another words, it is perfectly legal for someone in the stands (15 feet back) to do the same thing the Patriots were doing in Week 1.

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Tedy Bruschi '05