We still don’t know that the Jets knew what was going on.
Exactly. I’m amazed it’s even against the rules. I assumed they’d be trying to suss out the other team’s signals every time.
Well it is a ruels violation so clearly there must be some punishment for it. Certainly not forfeiting the game though. I would just say a hefty fine, loss of a high draft pick and force Belichek to wear a shirt with a collar for the rest of the season
They should have to take Rex Grossman from the Bears and play him the rest of the season.
That’s too cruel!
You’re right.
They should be prohibited from throwing to Randy Moss for a whole game (without telling Moss why he’s not getting thrown to). That should get his toxic funk going and kill any offensive cohesion for the remainder of the season.
Based on years of watching the devious Bill Belichik, here’s my theory: he wanted to get caught. Why? Because he felt like another team might be gaining some competitive advantage over the Patriots by doing the exact same thing, and he wanted to nip it in the bud. He also knows that the first one to be caught is never punished as severely as the next one to be caught.
Just like the steroid scandal, it’s not about just one bad apple. This is merely the opening salvo of the drama.
It seems to me that a thread debating whether the Patriots deserve to be punished should be in a different thread, one that has a different OP.
This thread is about punishing the patriots! Muwahahaha … let’s hear some ideas!
I say they should be forced to play in the CFL for the next two seasons, and name themselves the Expatriots.
(I was going to say in the WLAF, but what a shame it survived only two seasons.)
They should be forced to hire Tom Walsh as their offensive coordinator.
They should be forced to play Appalachian State during their bye week. If they lose, they get demoted to 1-AA (oops, sorry, the Football Championship Division).
Work has made me angry today…they should only be allowed these QBs on their roster this year: Cade McNown, Todd Marinovich and Ryan Leaf.
The Patriots should lace’m up and play any NHL team…that should be quite a punishment…and an entertaining one too.
This is easily the stupidest thing I’ve read on the Dope in recent memory.
You can’t seriously believe that this is all about broadcast rights. They were cheating, they probably weren’t the only ones doing it either. The advantages might be large or small, tough to say unless you were able to see exactly how they were implementing the intel, but to claim that the NFL doesn’t actually care about the spying and only cares about appeasing it’s broadcast partners is utterly insane.
Boston fans have officially surpassed New York fans as the most asinine.
DtC is a Vikings fan, as I recall, which should give the Bears fan in you justification as to the asinine-ness.
That said, as a Pats fan, put me on the side of “Okay, they broke a rule, and they deserve their punishment… but if you guys think this is a HUGE thing, you’re insane”. Take away a pick or two, give 'em a fine, get on with life.
I’ll admit that, as much as I watch football, I’m a little unclear on how defensive plays are sent in by defensive coaches on the sidelines. I’d not be surprised if it’s as simple as holding up three fingers, or as complex as a 3rd base coach’s signals, complete with bogus gestures, conditional gestures, brushing off gestures, etc.
If it is the latter, then having the video camera makes sense, it IS a big deal, and, despite Diogenes repeating himself nine times, it CAN help during the second half of a game. Assistant studies the tape at halftime and, without completely breaking the code, realizes that it’s always a corner blitz when the signal-sender holds up four fingers before giving the Fonzie two thumbs up. Now, some sort of idiot savant can decode that without a videotape, and maybe suspect that a blitz correlates with the Fonzie movement, but the tape allows teams to fully decode the signaling. If not during the half, then certainly at their leisure before their second divisional game.
A guy with a pad and pencil can perhaps devise some notation that serves a similar function, but not every signal is going to be as easy to name as “the Fonzie two thumbs up.” If the term “Parade Wave” didn’t exist, how succinctly could you describe the wave that the Queen of England does? Would your shorthand notation be able to distinguish between a bonafide Parade Wave, with the elbow nearly motionless, and a more generic wave? No, the videotape is key.
Bellichik was spying, he knew it was against the rules, and such shenanigans aren’t football. Trying to puzzle out what a set of signals means during the game is fine (and unavoidable, frankly). Dissecting ill-gotten sideline footage to rip off signals is as dirty as stealing an opponent’s playbook, and it ain’t football, IMO.
Add on that the Patriots are repeat offenders, and it seems to me that Goodell should throw a repeat offender punishment at the Pats – four game suspension for at LEAST the head coach, if not the entire senior coaching staff.
They had the video equipment taken away from them in the 1st quarter, so they couldn’t have used it to any advantage at haltime of the Jets game.
Omnicient, I am indeed a Vikings fan, not a Pats fan. I just don’t think this is any big deal. I don’t even think it should be illegal. I don’t think the Pats should lose anything more than a second day draft pick. I also think the whole issue can be easily resolved by fitting some MLB’s with helmet mics.
Figures that you sex-boaters would have a cavalier attitude towards the law of the land and fair play.
[Checking location]
Oh…Bears fan…well, um…Grossman sucks…
I got nothing.
Well, maybe they didn’t get any advantage from it this time, but surely it’s conceivable that they could get an in-game advantage had they not been caught. Or, to use a different tense, perhaps they have used it in the past to get in-game advantages.
I’m not sure it should be illegal either. I think it’s a weak thing to do, but I’m not sure it should be illegal.
But it is, and Bellichik knew it, so there should be a penalty, and an especially hefty one considering that the Pats are repeat offenders.
Whether or not it should be illegal, it is and deserves punishment. And even more egregious is the fact that NFL specifically highlighted this in the off-season, telling tems, “DON’T DO THIS”, so the NFL thinks it is serious. So you have first the rule violation, and second the blatant disregard for NFL authority on this issue. Whther or not the rule is there to protect the competitiveness of the game or to protect the NFL’s broadcast rigths is pretty much irrelevant. I don’t believe a forfeit of the game is appropriate, but honestly, I would not think it outrageous either.
A second day draft pick, however is much too lenient, because it basically makes the rule useless. While personal opinion may be that it is a stupid rule, it isn’t to the NFL and they need a fairly harsh penalty to make their rules have teeth.