PatsWickedPissah

Matt got immunity for his full complete testimony, which amounted to nothing. Suing the press for slander is usually a losing proposition and it would only be still in the courts now. The Commish probably told Kraft to stow it.

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Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck." RAH

Gwedd

It's NOT illegal to videotape or otherwise record signals from the opposition.

The Patriots were fined because of the camera location. It was never about cheating. It was never about WHAT was being recorded or by WHOM. The Football Operations Manual lays out the specific places where videotape cameras may be placed, and one of the prohibited areas was the sideline.

Every team has someone somewhere recording the opposing team's sideline, especially the coaches, looking for signals, and any other intelligence info they can garner. It isn't illegal to film someone in public. Heck, Jimmy Johnson talked about every team doing this during one of the FOX Sports programs. He even talked about hiring lip readers to try and read the opposing coaches play calls and synch those up with the film study.

Just once, I wish one of those mediots like Peter King would (Please be quiet - edited) and actually READ what New England was fined for.

respects,

Ron Sellers

Curran has been bashed by many here, and deservedly so for incorrect reports and opinion in the past (for example, the column on Brady's knee before the start of the 2009 season) thanks to his sources feeding him poor and incorrect information.

However he does seem to quietly be doing a pretty good job this year with his columns on the Pats. If we're going to trash those in the local media we don't like (a favorite pastime of many folks here), then it's only fair to also point out those that are doing a good job too.

Good article by Curran.

stcjones

This is a very good post on the topic. But why then, if EVERY TEAM IS FILMING SIGNALS FROM EVERYWHERE EXCEPT the sidelines....did god-dell assess such huge fines and penalties against us?? I get why the average sore a##ed fan of other teams that.sucked b(tched and moaned, and all the ex-players that were jealous of what the pats had achieved.were crying...But WHY everyone came out screaming that were CHEATING or CHEATERS for employing a practice THAT EVERYONE does...is terribly unfair and ludicrous!!

Wouldn't you have at least thought more current coaches would have come out in defense of BB saying.:.."Hey they NEVER CHEATED they just had the camera in a position that was not allowed!"...instead everyone piled on.

Out of curiosity....what is the advantage of taping at field view Vs being a little higher up in stadium?

O-T-I-S

Spygate was the biggest load of horsecrap in the history of sports. It was merely a bunch of BS that ESPN used to create a story (and fill up their 12 hour long SportsCenter marathons with), and a ridiculous excuse for Patriots haters to use to cope with the Pats' success.

The whole thing was just one big mass of idiots misinterpreting what ACTUALLY happened and hearing what they wanted to hear, or what the media wanted them to hear. "Filming from the wrong position on the field" was misinterpreted as "CHEATING!!! TAINTED SUPER BOWLS!!!" because that's what people wanted to believe. Whatever. Anybody on the Pats sideline could have stood there and took notes of the opposing team sending signals in. It would've been the same thing. Too bad so many people are too stupid to realize that.

Anybody who tries to drag the Pats back into this is a moron. "Hey, I think I'll go piss off Bill Belichick and the Patriots. That usually works out great."

Gwedd

It allowed the camera operator to view the signals being sent in, then swing the camera up to the scoreboard to see time/down/distance, etc. After the game, all of that could be spliced up with game tape of the plays to try and detect trends.

This is never something that could be used during a game, and if a team changes up it's signals, it might not be useful for their next meeting. However, is does help establish trends, so that is, say, a certain gesture always meant a run, then that would be useful to know.

Teams also counter-act this with having 2 or 3 persons on the sideline each making gestures, so the other team doesn't know for certain which one is the real signal. With the helmet speakers and the coaches miked up, it's not nearly as useful these days, but it's still done.

Koma

In my opinion, part of it was timing and part of it was the way the league became involved.

During the offseason leading up to the 2007 season, we had Pacman Jones' one man crime wave. There were some other players who got into trouble, like Tank Johnson, but Jones was involved in a lot of incidents in a short amount of time. As a result, Goodell came down hard on the players and, I believe, enacted that code of conduct policy.

When the Patriots were caught violating the guidelines of the videotaping memo, there was an expectation for Goodell to make an example out of the team the same way he did with players who had brushes with the law.

In terms of how the league became involved, I'd have to look up the details again, but my recollection is that the Jets went to the league before the season opener and told them what was going on and what they planned to do. Instead of just Jets personnel being involved, NFL security people were present also.

Apparently, in prior incidents, the league just let the teams police themselves. When the Packers wanted a Patriots cameraman to stop filming, their staff told him to move. When the Patriots didn't want a Jets camera crew to film from a certain spot, they had them move.

With the league involved right from the start and Goodell looking to make an example of a coach/front office, the Patriots opened themselves up for a harsh penalty.

PAPatsjunkie

I didnt want to start yet another spygate thread, but I do want to recommend Michael Lombardi's latest article: NFL.com news: Scandal aside, Broncos can't be so wishy-washy with McDaniels

It is mostly about the Broncos and McDaniels, but the last section is about stealing signals, he really explains everything that goes into trying to pick up on tendencies and that it all comes down to execution. I wish I could just autmatically forward this to all sportswriters.