September 12, 2007
Pats Cheat and Get Caught
If you're following football, you may have heard that the New England Patriots were caught cheating during Sunday's game against the Jets. They're accused of videotaping Jets coaches as they sent plays into their defense using hand signals. Maybe that's one reason the Jets got trounced, 38-14 to open the season. The use of video is against NFL league rules, and a league spokesman told ESPN, "The rule is that no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches' booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game." Clubs have also been reminded that videotaping of offensive or defensive signals is prohibited.
NFL security confiscated a video camera and tape from a Patriots employee during the game. While the NFL spokesman said teams were reminded about the videotaping rule, it seems like New England coach Bill Belichick told NFL commish Roger Goodell that he has his own "interpretation of the rules." The same Patriots employee that was caught at the Jets game was also caught videotaping plays during a game against the Green Bay Packers last season.
Stealing plays is a common occurrence - teams use decoy play callers and coaches cover their mouths when talking on a headset - but we've never heard of a team stupid enough to get caught while taping. The NFL has not decided how to punish the Patriots yet, there are talks of taking away several draft picks. One person that isn't surprised by Patriots spying is LaDainian Tomlinson, who joked, "I think the Patriots actually live by the saying, ‘If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.’"
If you're going to cheat, we say, bring back the use of binoculars!
Photo of Bill Belichick during Sunday's game against the Jets by AP/Mel Evans
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I'm not a football fan, but these sports teams are getting away with murder.
The NFL league should not only penalize the Patriots in the draft, they should take away their win against the Jets and make them forfeit the next game...
The signals are performed in public in front of millions of people and dozens of cameras. And they are in code. I don't understand the problem.
Well BB did go to Wesleyan...
I don't think the NFL should take away the win. You don't lay down that much of an assbeating without being the better team, cheating or no cheating.
However, yes there should be a punishment of some sort, if for no other reason than because getting caught doing the same OBVIOUS thing multiple times is idiotic.
I enjoy pro sports more by just assuming that everyone is cheating, and thus that the playing field is level (every athlete is on steroids, etc). But if you're dumb enough to get caught, then yeh, you get punished.
Great quote by Tomlinson!
The NFL league should not only penalize the Patriots in the draft, they should take away their win against the Jets and make them forfeit the next game...
There's no way the league is going to take a win away if that's not a specific penalty in the rules. That's not the kind of thing you just decide to do some day.
Either the Jets should get the Pats first round pick next year or Belichick should be suspended next time the Jets play them or both.
They should also pay me back the money I had bet on the Jets for not covering the spread =)
First, this did not effect this game at all. The purpose of video would be to go back, study it and then figure out the signals. So the next game you can decode the signals on the field and jump the play. So anyone who states this why the Jets lost, have lost touch with reality. Regardless of the infraction the much better team won on Sunday.
The Jets shouldn't get squat. The Jets wouldn't have won even if the Pats didn't spy. The Jets are pathetic.
The Pats should either be fined a draft pick (that does not go to the Jets, sorry) or Belechik should be banned for a game.
If you bet on the Jets to actually win that game you really should stop betting as you don't know much about football.
Jets fans are pathetic for cheering Pennington's injury. Probably wearing Yankees hats while doing it too. Because that is a classy team.
If players are getting banded for multiple games for 'bad behavior' then the whole Patriots organization should be penalized for this. I think they should have to forfeit at least 4 games for this. They were caught cheating after having been warned. The Jets should not be given a win, but the Patriots should be given a loss. If Goodell is trying to bring in a new era of tough love to 'save the game' I don't see how you do not throw the book at them. It would be a shame to see black players getting one type of punishment and white owners getting another.
This is such nonsense. #8 is correct. Video taping hand signals is against the rules, but it's not cheating unless you actually DO something with it, which hasn't even been insinuated by anyone involved. Anyone who thinks this videotape had something to do with Randy Moss completing a forty yard pass in triple coverage is a complete and utter moron.
Typical Patriot fans defending cheating. Yeah, it shows your class.
And no, this is not bending the rules. Breaking any rule is cheating... period.
Not too hard for Moss to catch all his passes when he knows what defense is being played against him. Or the offensive line knowing whether a blitz is coming to protect Brady so that he can throw the deep ball.
The Patriots need to be banned from the Playoffs this year. Its the only punishment that will truly have any affect.
And for those fanboys who claim all teams do it, then I'd like to see the video tape proof of it. And if those same people have such inside information, why haven't you reported it?
I think they should have to forfeit at least 4 games for this. They were caught cheating after having been warned.
There is no planet on which the league will take one of the most popular teams in the league out of playoff contention. Ever.
TKaisen - The NCAA bans college teams from bowl games when they break certain rules. Alabama got a two year ban from bowl games in 2000. The Sooners were banned for two years and Oklahoma State got banned for three years. Making a NFL team pay a fine or taking away draft picks is not enough. They have to make the punishment so severe that nobody will ever try to do this again.
I wonder if Whitey Bulger was in the stands...
I think the pats should forfeit the game.
Pardon my being off topic and ranting, but I
went to the game with my Dad and we were both frustrated by the 40 minute line for a bus from the PA, then being crushed trying to get in because there were only 2 security guards at gate D patting down 20,000 people. After Moss and Brady kicked our butts, we had the delightful pleasure of waiting 60 minutes for the bus back to the PA (and we left the game early!) Some must have waited 2 hours. They loaded one bus at a time when they could have loaded 20. Avoid the Meadowlands, unless you enjoy being treated like cattle. If you're thinking of driving and don't have a parking permit, think again. You'll be forced to park off site and will have to take a shuttle bus. Parking permits are scalping for more than 150.
Watch the game on the tube. Shame on the Meadowlands and NJ transit. We won't be back.
the nfl is so weak. the patriots were already caught once doing this. the pats did it again because they thought they could get away with it again. they'll recover from losing those draft picks becaue they do so well that they are on the bottom of the list for draft picks so what difference would it make?? any team who gets caught cheating should have their head coach suspended from coaching a few games plain and simple!!!!
The NCAA bans college teams from bowl games when they break certain rules. Alabama got a two year ban from bowl games in 2000.
That's great, that's the NCAA where they have like 100 teams to populate bowl games and a retarded polling system that puts them there in the first place. The NFL has 32.
I agree they have to be punished but the NFL is not going to move to the point of taking wins away. Besides the fact: do you think the Jets would WANT to take that win?
I don't understand, if there was no way that the Jets would have won the game in the first place, why would the Pats (as the better team) go through the trouble of videotaping their calls for further study? Just proves that they intentionally don't want to play by the same rules.