NFL Blitz: Belichick denies Jets had permission to film
Spy games subplot continues to grow as game approaches
By Tom Curran
NBCSports.com
Updated: Dec14, 2007, 03:40 PM EST FOXBOROUGH, Mass.
Bill Belichick told NBCSports.com on Friday that the Jets weren’t given permission to post a second camera in the end zone during last year's playoff game between the clubs.
"I was never asked for permission nor was anyone in our video department asked for permission for a second end zone camera," Belichick said after his morning press conference.
Earlier this week, it was reported that, during the AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Jets and Patriots at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots had a Jets cameraman removed from the mezzanine level where he was taping an end zone view.
When asked about the report on Wednesday, Jets head coach Eric Mangini told the New York media, "We had asked for permission, it was granted, then that changed and we respect their decision. It's their stadium."
Asked Friday about Belichick's stance that permission hadn't been granted, Jets spokesman Bruce Speight said, "We stand by our earlier comments that we received approval from the Patriots. We will just have to agree to disagree."
Belichick has kept his agitation with the Jets and his quiet exasperation with the so-called "Spygate" scandal close to the sweatshirt.
But it's clear that, in this case, "It is what it is" doesn't apply. There’s a New England side of things that hasn’t been stated. It may never be. But bad feelings simmer between teams and staffs that know each other well. So many bad feelings for a decade straight that the Jets and Patriots make the Hatfields and McCoys look like the Rubbles and Flintstones.
It began in early 1997. That's when Bill Parcells' dalliance with the Jets began even as his Patriots prepared for Super Bowl XXX. Parcells' eventual hiring by the Jets, the Patriots legal protestations and the wrangling for draft choices (eventually frittered away by the Pete Carroll-Bobby Grier regime) were the foundation. Then came the Jets swooping in to take restricted free agent Curtis Martin by signing him to a so-called poison pill contract. The Patriots' late 90s decline and the Jets ascension -- aided by a boatload of ex-Patriots -- continued.
Then in 2000, when Parcells moved upstairs, Belichick refused to succeed the Tuna. He resigned from the Jets and went to the Patriots. His hiring had its roots in conversations he had with the Kraft family while Parcells was wriggling free from the Patriots three years earlier. The Patriots had to compensate the Jets with a first-round pick, much like New York had to when Parcells left New England.
Then came Mo Lewis.
In the fourth quarter of the second game of the 2001 season, Lewis' hit on Drew Bledsoe landed Bledsoe in the hospital with a sheared artery and put Tom Brady into the starting lineup.
Super Bowl wins in 2001, 2003 and 2004 followed. So did coaching staff defections including Mangini's flight to New York after the 2005 season. The Patriots were OK with Mangini leaving for a better job. But it wasn't long before he was trying to reopen the pipeline from Foxborough to Hempstead, signing away Patriots players and even -- as the Patriots alleged -- tampering with disgruntled Pats receiver Deion Branch during his 2006 holdout. The Jets were cleared, Branch went to Seattle and the new era of bad feelings between Belichick and his former protégé, Mangini was ushered in.
Then came the fateful season opener in 2007 when a Patriots video guy was pinched for taping the Jets defensive coordinator in the first quarter. The fallout from that moment is still wafting down. The context of New England's historic 2007 season is still being grappled with.
LINK
http://www.nbcsports.com/portal/site...gnextrefresh=1
Belichick denies Jets had permission to film
Belichick denies Jets had permission to film
Linear Mode
