2015 NFL thread

[Tiberius]

The fact is, they were notorious for cheating in other, more effective ways.

In fact, many former New England coaches and employees insist that the taping of signals wasn't even the most effective cheating method the Patriots deployed in that era. Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team's offense. (The practice became so notorious that some coaches put out fake play sheets for the Patriots to swipe.) Numerous former employees say the Patriots would have someone rummage through the visiting team hotel for playbooks or scouting reports. Walsh later told investigators that he was once instructed to remove the labels and erase tapes of a Patriots practice because the team had illegally used a player on injured reserve. At Gillette Stadium, the scrambling and jamming of the opponents' coach-to-quarterback radio line -- "small s---" that many teams do, according to a former Pats assistant coach -- occurred so often that one team asked a league official to sit in the coaches' box during the game and wait for it to happen. Sure enough, on a key third down, the headset went out.

Don van Natter Report

I don't really care about unfounded accusations and hearsay, because unless there was an actual investigation that found the Patriots doing any of those things, it's meaningless to bring them up. I don't want any cheating in the NFL, and all instances should be investigated, but until they do, you can't treat rumors as anything more than that.

They knew what they were doing. They knew it was against the rules. They did it for years, and when they got caught, they called it a "smear job" and all the loyal New England fans went right along with it.

I don't know about that. Most fans I speak to seem to accept Spygate as a stain on our history, but I think most would also say it was overblown. As I said before, the ability to film defensive signals isn't cheating itself, and why would it be, given that the coaches are in full view of each other on opposite sides of the field anyway. Was it wrong? Yes. Was it against the rules? Yes. Was it as big a deal as it was made out to be? No.

Deflategate was not ever about the balls. It was about Goodell fulfilling a promise that if Belichick got caught again the punishment would be much more severe.

That makes no sense though. The NFL investigation, flawed as it was when it came to the measurements / interviews / science aspects, still concluded that the coaching staff had nothing to do with it. Belichick didn't get caught again, the NFL exonerated him specifically in the report, and instead blamed Brady and a couple of prep staff.

You are correct though; Deflategate was not ever about the balls. It was likely an attempt by Goodell to try and restore his image as someone who can give out tough punishments, as he had been criticized for not going far enough with players who beat their wives / children. At the same time, he probably wanted to demonstrate that no player was out of reach, and he took the chance to not only suspend Tom Brady, a leading quarterback and Super Bowl champion, but suspend him for 4 games for what would have been a minor equipment violation. Of course, in this case ironically he ended up being criticized for going way too far, and a federal judge told him as much.