DISQUS

Mike · 1 year ago

Bill -- enjoy your blog and hope all is well there. Why do you think so many particularly in the national media are clinging to the idea that the tapes of signals were used in game or future games to determine what play the opposition was going to run? Even Walsh apparently said that the tapes were not given to the staff until after the game, and we know that signals in the NFL are changed the next game or at least the next time you play the same team. So the tapes seem of little use in the regard that most critics have been saying they were used. The most plausible theory I have heard is that Belichick was compiling tendencies on other coordinators -- what do they tend to call in this situation, or when shown a certain look. If one really wanted to steal signals, and I don't doubt the Patriots or any other team would like to do that and have tried, then there are much more efficient ways of doing it than with the tapes we've seen. Like simply assigning a person or persons to focus on the opposition play calling and jot down what signals they make and what formation/play is used -- a method that would be far easier and would not be against any rule. In short, are the critics that limited in their knowledge or understanding of the game that they can't come up with anything better than to keep repeating this whole business about using the tapes to "steal signals"?

Mike Daly · 1 year ago

Mike, yes and no. They don't know about the game enough to cme up with anything better than "stealing signals" - heck, hey can't even figure out that NOTING IS BEING STOLEN because they're out in the open - but that's not why they are riding this phony issue. They hate the Patriots and want to blackball Bill Belichick out of football, and they're using Videogate to do so.

If they were honest in their overage, SOMEONE in the MSM would have pointedout tat this rule in question is three paragraphs long, is vaguely worded to begin with, and isn't about taping but in-game useof tape footage.

Evenwhen he was telling the truth, Matt Walsh embellished his ass off (click my name on this post for a piece on where Walsh embellished).

Mike Daly · 1 year ago

Bill, nobody should be slamming the Patriots for anything. That's what is so frosty about this issue. They did not do anything wrong here. That Roger Goodell overreacted because Belichick figured out how to read the rule better than anyone else is the real scandal, not taping opposing coaches - I'm still mystified by Jeff Fisher's comment when asked why the league dosn't simply allw sideine taping; he said it would lead to "a 'Star Wars' era of football." Huh?

Guys, the league has no business policing videography; Goodell should have accepted Belichick's interpretation of the ule and told Buffalo, Green Bay, the Jets, and whoever else was wining abut taping to shut up and play the game.