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What a stupid system. Like taking candy from a baby. Why don’t the officials [excuse me] handle the balls exclusively? Why can’t they have someone in charge of the balls including the inflating of the balls and handing a new ball into play? Since none of this is done why wouldn’t the officials become familiar with the feel of a properly inflated ball and air gage a new ball put in play?
Must be the official difference between entertainment and sport. NFL is entertainment not sport. NFL wants the Patriots to win then with the help of the officials the Patriots will win. Otherwise the Patriots are left alone to win by cheating if they can.
The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.
Sprinkles are for winners.
I haven’t even read this yet. So, don’t kill the article poster.
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Gordon: Belichick’s critics are indulging in loser talk
By Jeff Gordon
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick seeks every possible advantage over his foes.
This is who he is. This is what he does. Belichick doesn’t make a lot of friends while grinding out victories, but he seems OK with that.
Earlier in the playoffs the Patriots duped the Baltimore Ravens with a formation ruse, creating mass confusion. Which players were eligible receivers and which weren’t?
After the game, reporters raised the issue with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. He dismissed the Ravens’ complaints with the figurative back of his hand.
“Maybe those guys got to study the rule book and figure it out,” Brady sniffed. “We obviously knew what we were doing, and we made some pretty important plays … I don’t know what’s deceiving about that. They should figure it out.”
Now we have a big hoo-ha over the (allegedly) deflated footballs the Patriots used on offense during the AFC championship game.
The weight of the footballs hardly mattered against the Colts. The Patriots won 45-7. They dominated from start to finish.
The tampering allegations seem irrelevant. The Patriots could have replaced regulation footballs with almost any inanimate object and kept rolling.
Toaster ovens, clock radios, stuffed wolverines, grandma’s purse … it appeared almost anything would have worked for them against Indianapolis.
They blocked. They tackled. They imposed their will. The Colts have no beef and neither does anybody else.
The Patriots haven’t cheated their way to constant contention during Belichick’s reign. They stayed in the chase with brilliant coaching, tremendous quarterback play and a total franchise commitment to winning.
But the Patriots do have a reputation for pulling shenanigans, most famously in the “Spygate” controversy in 2007. Team operatives videotaped the defensive signals by their opponents and got nabbed.
The league’s decision to destroy the evidence gathered in that investigation smacked of a cover-up. What exactly was on those tapes? How damning was the evidence?
Since fans didn’t get to find out, their imaginations ran wild.
Rams fans will go to their graves believing the Patriots stole Super Bowl XXXVI because the team videotaped coach Mike Martz’s walk-through session at the end of the practice week.
The Boston Herald reported that allegation in 2008, then walked it back. The Patriots denied the illicit taping and no hard evidence came to light.
Still, former Rams great Marshall Faulk is among those who have wondered aloud about these allegations, other “Spygate” revelations, the subsequent NFL sanctions and the Patriots’ inability to win a Super Bowl since then.
“The question is, how did they become a championship team?” Faulk asked WEEI radio this time last year. “Listen, I’m not going to be the only one to say this: Ever since they got fined and, ‘OK, we’re not doing that anymore,’ they’ve won how many Super Bowls?”
Well, none yet, but it’s not like the Patriots went into the tank after absorbing that league wrist slap.
Since “Spygate” became all the rage, the Patriots have posted a 99-28 regular-season record. They have won seven AFC East Division titles, eight playoff games and three AFC championships.
Since that fateful Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, the Patriots have only missed the playoffs twice. Such success in the parity-driven NFL is astounding.
Just ask the Rams. They have only made the playoffs twice since that game, and one of those excursions came after an 8-8 season.
Things turned bad for them in 2005 and stayed bad. While the Patriots kept winning, the Rams went 6-10, 8-8, 3-13. 2-14, 1-15, 7-9, 2-14, 7-8-1, 7-9 and 6-10 in consecutive seasons.
That Super Bowl XXXVI loss seemed to break Martz as a head coach. He waited too long to make adjustments to New England’s aggressive pass coverage.
His players made too many big mistakes. Their big comeback started too late. The loss crushed him.
Martz began unraveling, as did the “Greatest Show on Turf.” He exited the Rams during the 2005 season and never got to run his own team again.
(Perhaps Martz can revive his career in Cleveland if the Browns bring him on board as offensive coordinator. Imagine him working with quarterback Johnny Manziel. Mad Mike + Johnny Football = endless entertainment!)
After Martz’s demise at Rams Park, Joe Vitt, Scott Linehan, Jim Haslett, Steve Spagnuolo and Jeff Fisher took their turns failing.
Meanwhile the Patriots just kept winning. Folks can question the legitimacy of that sustained success, but that’s just loser talk.
Belichick is the NFL’s best coach. He keeps winning while operating on his own terms.
He dresses for games like he is headed to a Dumpster dive. His dour public countenance reinforces his cold-blooded manner.
The cocksure Brady gives him the ultimate advantage. Other players come and go, assistant coaches come and go, personnel guys come and go, but Belichick just keeps winning.
Now the hooded genius is headed back to the Super Bowl stage. He will stand in the media glare and glare right back.
Somebody will ask about deflated footballs and cheating and integrity. Belichick will utter a non-answer or two.
Then he will go right back to work, looking for the edge.
;Actually my guy @kurt13warner didn’t tamper w the footballs because he wore gloves. Used to irritate me..So correction, almost all QBs!
1) Maybe Leinart did this at USC with cheating Pete Carroll
2) If Leinart did this in the NFL, it certainly didn’t help him.I think all this talk is firing up New England… I think they’re going to cream Seattle. R. Wilson played like crap last week……
I havent formed an opinion on this yet, but let me just ask — how would deflating the balls help only one team? I mean they were deflated for both teams. How did it help the Pats and not help the Colts?
w
vI think this has been answered since you posed the question, but it doesn’t matter if the cheating actually helped New England. If they cheat, they must expect an advantage. Cheating itself is the issue.
I’m waiting to hear what actually comes of the investigation before I chime in much more. But, cheating itself is all that matters. I don’t care if New England made it WORSE on themselves while cheating. Good, if that’s the case. But, it just doesn’t matter. It’s all about the cavalier attitude toward the rules, as if they don’t apply to the Patriots. We already know that they’re willing to cheat, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if Bill did it again.
I don’t think we know WHO played with the deflated balls yet and what the advantage was. Assuming a better grip in shitty conditions. What if Brady got this advantage but Luck didn’t? Just cause they were not caught cheating post spygate doesn’t mean they didn’t. They have a history. TAINTED. I don’t know how many SB they would have won if they had not cheated. Nobody does. Shame because maybe they are great or maybe they won only because they cheated.
We don’t know.
TAINTED.
Yeah, i got no problem with “we dont know” and perhaps “tainted.”
But thats not the same as “Light the Torches
and burn them in the Iron Maiden.”Also, i disagree with those that think “cheating is cheating
whether it helps the Pats or not.”
I think there is a significant difference between “cheating
that helps” and “cheating that doesnt”. Its like one
is a traffic violation, and one is a Felony. Kinda.I’m amazed, btw, that the Refs dont weigh all the balls
and check on that stuff before and during the game.
I’m sure the NFL will NOW make some changes.I’m having a little trouble believing that that
total butt-whipping the Pats gave the idiot-Colts
was because of “deflated footballs.” I’m
having trouble buying that. Nobody needs
to cheat to beat the Colts in the playoffs.w
v
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