Metaphors

I actually think this situation is a culmination of frustration built up over the last couple of years. Take a look at the situation in total and it kinda makes sense.

The Background
Belichick is a coach in the traditional sense...relying on teaching, preparation and intelligence to put his players in the best position to win. He has the dedication and work ethic, but he needs to control information to maximize his chances of winning.

The Environment
The policies of the NFL work exactly counter to Belichick's nature: they want coaches (including assistants) and players to be accessible to the media and they want to have a level playing field on the amount and type of information teams can gather.

The no video policy is especially galling to him. Belichick wants as much information as possible from every game (including games of upcoming opponents) to use as material for preparation. He doesn't have the time or inclination to do film study during the game or at halftime...and he certainly wouldn't trust an underling to make gameplan changes with video he hasn't seen. So the NFL is telling him that he has to have limited information (same as his opponents) for future preparation...even though he is not doing anything sneaky or underhanded to get the information.

As a quick aside, there is more to gather about watching opposing coaches besides "stealing signs". Are they slow to get signals in? Maybe we should go no-huddle. Do they change signals after we show our offensive formation? Maybe we should do a quick shift before the snap. And so on. All perfectly legitimate observations that he can't make during the game and broadcasts won't show him later. Now back to my ramblings...

The Hypocrisy
So Belichick is already frustrated that the league policies are aligned against him. Now he sees other organizations pulling underhanded tactics (Milloy/Branch tampering, players secretly wired for sound, overheated domes, etc.) and the league ignores it or calls it "gamesmanship"...while he gets crap for trying to gather information. Now Belichick is frustrated and his ego makes him ripe for picking a fight with the league. In fact, the memo sent out days before the game may have sent him over the edge.

The Miscalculations
Belichick knew sending out a camera guy would be a violation of a policy he didn't agree with, but he was going to make the league either stop him (and stop the other teams' "gamesmanship" as well) or let him coach the way he wants. That is all fine and dandy except he may 3 miscalculations:

1. NFL security took the camera/tape. I imagine he expected the camera guy to get ejected from the game at worst.
2. Goodell leaked information to the media. This allowed the question of league integrity to become front page news. Belichick has too much respect for the game, the Patriots and Robert Kraft to want that to happen.
3. The punishment involved a first round pick. Draft picks are gold to Belichick. The worst he could have expected as punishment would have been a 3rd (Denver's punishment for salary cap violations). The combination of Goodell's temperment, the environment in sports overall and the media frenzy combined to result in a penalty that has to be killing Belichick right now.

The Bottom Line
This incident was a "perfect storm" of past events, silly policies, big egos, a league's image problem and a lazy, sensationalizing media. Everyone (except the media) lost in this affair. The only positive that can be hoped for is that all of the "gamesmanship" that drove Belichick to a bad place will stop or be punished with equal severity. If not, this whole mess would have been for nothing.

Remix 6

like BB said. IT DOESNT MATTER

emoney_33

This is one of, if not THE, most sensible post I've read about this whole issue. And definitely the only one involving BB knowingly breaking the rule that makes sense. Great post, and there is a real good chance you could be spot on here.


The whole cheating, sign stealing, unfair advantage crap that is all over the place is what aggrivates me the most about this. The penalty was definitely steep, but Goodell was sort of backed into a corner. He had to come down hard on someone that violated a rule that was "clarified" 3 days prior, as well as having to come down hard after all the backlash and out of control spin on the issue. I dont have a huge problem with the punishment, I acknowledge BB broke a rule, but I am sick of hearing all the "cheating", "illegal sign stealing to get an advantage" crap that many keep spewing.


Again, great post.

emoney_33

Your opinion on what he should have done or how he should have acted is meaningless. What you suggest BB to do is not consistent with his personality. Watching BB for a while, what would give you the impression that he would ever do something like make a public statement about the exact rule and wording, which would just get into a debate about the wording etc..?

He broke a rule, apologized, we move on. I'll bet not one of his players are upset with him.

mgteich

A week ago, I would say that Belichick was too smart to make such miscalcualtions, but this post does show considerable insight into what might have happened.

patsfan13

BB made his case to the commish, the commish ruled against BB & the Pats.

He could make a big stink trying to 'prove' he is right. The media would have a field day cruxifying BB.

The result? A distracted team. BB is about winning football games not winning unwinnable arguments. He is cutting his losses and moving on.

HE will use this situation to motivate his team as the rest of the NFL will see this season.

__________________
"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

emoney_33

I guess you just only hear what you want. The pats have already been defended on this issue by numerous players, coaches, former players and former coaches.

BB said he misinterpreted the rule and you accuse him of lying. By doing that you are trying to convince us that you are a mind reader and know exactly what belichick thinks. READ THE RULE EXACTLY, at the end it says "...in a game". The rule can EASILY be interpreted to mean that you cannot use video cameras to gather information to be used in the game. But the commish's interpretation is all that matters. Move on, get lost, try not be so jealous of the pats

patsfan13

Mangini had the motive. THe focus on BB has kept him from having to account for the horrible performance of his team in a game they had 6 months to prepare for.

He couldn't predict the magnitude ensuing media firestorm however.

__________________
"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

mgteich

Why did Belichick feel driven to tape the signals of the pathetic jets?

patsfan13

We will never know, since I presume the Pats will no longer tape it doesn't matter.

__________________
"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."