The fallout of Spygate

[ALP]

was wondering, do you guys think there will a fallout of spygate in the distant future?

after BB doesnt coach anymore? after most of the players from this decades team are retired, after Kraft maybe doesnt own the team anymore?

or do u think itll just be a footnote, sometimes mentioned in the future, but less and less as time goes by, w/o ever any greater depth to it?

or do u believe some of these guys, after they have to stakes anymore, will come out and reveal more things?



just wondering

 

[tajapandu]

ill cross that bridge when i get there.

 

[FarScapeR]

I think something big will happen down the line that's going to make spygate pale in comparison, and people will forget, kinda like how nobody really talks about Lewinsky anymore after 9/11 and Iraq.

 

[PatsFan24]

it seems a lot of the haters are on a mission to make sure it is stuck on the patriots name, but in 10 years it will prob be forgotten by most people. hell even now most people seem to have let go of it.

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

As soon as BB wins another SB, alot of that spygate crap will be forgotten.

As for BB telling what happened behind the scenes, i doubt it. I really hope when he retires, he writes a tell all book, but it most likely wont happen. I think he loves the game too much to taint the league. Look at baseball. I don't think he'd want that to happen to football.

 

[DarrylS]

In time, this "scandal" will be overshadowed by something that has a lot more veracity than this myth.. BB will not be the one to disclose, but someone else will.

 

[BSR]

I havent seen a reporter opine on it in quite some time. It is mostly just mentioned as a footnote or in the rare case repeating Joey Porter. There are many comments that treat it for the overblown camera placement violation that it was. The vitriol at this point just comes from the fans and Joey Porter. And that is just two years removed. In ten years it will be a footnote to the media but it will still stick with diehard fans just like the immaculate reception burns the raider fans or the Ray Hamilton roughing the passer call burns pats fans. Some slights, real or imagined, you never get over.

 

[NJPatsfan26]

Spygate will always be a blemish on the Patriots thanks to the media and the commish. In 10 years from now when Belicheck has retired and moved on, no one will mention it to him as he will be remembered as one of the greatest coaches in NFL. The rest of the team members of that year will also be remembered for their triumphs and accomplishments rather than being cheaters in the eyes of ESPN and Joey Porter.

Spygate will go away in time and will only be brought up by idiots and the media who have nothing better to do or cannot be creative enough to actually be journalists.

 

[Jackson 2]

You raise a very interesting question which I have asked myself many times. I travel quite a bit and was recently in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. In order to watch the Pats/Titans game I had to go to this very large bar which had the NFL Ticket. As one might imagine, by 4:00 the place was packed with fans from just about every team from all over the country packed in there watching games on about 30 different TVs. Many were watching the Vikes/Ravens game and, of course, most were rooting loudly for Favre and Minn. Anyway, when the Pats began to lay it on the Titans, I thought to myself, "here it comes - Patriots rolling up the score, spygate, we hate BB and Brady, etc." Surprisingly, there was none of that. I got the sense that people were admiring the Patriots and respecting their abilities, although grudgingly. Most fans from other parts of the country still clearly don't like NE, but I heard none of the hateful vitriol which was very common a couple of years ago. As well, I had several conversations with fans from outside of NE in airport bars about the NFL and Pats and not one mentioned spygate. Anyway, I think it's the kind of thing which has faded from memory as being prominent for a lot of people. But, for the real haters I think it will always be there and used for ammo when needed.

 

[tajapandu]

The vitriol at this point just comes from the fans and Joey Porter.

and in my experience, for the most part, its just a certain type of fan that trolls around on the internet and posts on ESPN, PFT, and Youtube comment pages. Most people i know who watch football dont mention it at all. Although, i think my steeler-fan cousin still holds a grudge deep down.

 

[BSR]

and in my experience, for the most part, its just a certain type of fan that trolls around on the internet and posts on ESPN, PFT, and Youtube comment pages. Most people i know who watch football dont mention it at all. Although, i think my steeler-fan cousin still holds a grudge deep down.

I think thats right. Most that do throw the "cheater" label around are just trying to get a rise out of pats fans. As long as we don't take the bait and just reply with rational answers then it will become less and less but there will always be that minority.

In the end however, I don't care. It was still a great feeling when they won those games and that they can never tarnish.

 

[mystrymaster]

I think that it will stick to the Pats much the way Shoeless Joe Jackson sticks to the white sox.

Everyonce in a while it is brought up and is the hot topic for 2-3 weeks then it is done.

The only hesitation I have in saying that it will just be a hot topic everyonce in awhile is the fact that the tapes where destroyed, but that's it.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

Re: The fallout of Spygate * PLEASE...CORRECT IT AS "CAMERAGATE"

I wish experienced posters use the word - "CAMERAgate" - and not blindly contribute to the smear of the anti-Pats bandwagon.

This has been pointed out many times in the past: 'spying' unconciously triggers negative thoughts for everyone who sees that word. More importantly, it involves clandestine operations and being secret.

We were not doing that. We were openly flouting one of the rules and were the first to reported in a very public manner and hence got hit with a larger punishment than deserved. Period.

Camera-gate frames the issue in a different and accurate manner, which is what it should be.

 

[sieglo]

You raise a very interesting question which I have asked myself many times. I travel quite a bit and was recently in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. In order to watch the Pats/Titans game I had to go to this very large bar which had the NFL Ticket. As one might imagine, by 4:00 the place was packed with fans from just about every team from all over the country packed in there watching games on about 30 different TVs. Many were watching the Vikes/Ravens game and, of course, most were rooting loudly for Favre and Minn. Anyway, when the Pats began to lay it on the Titans, I thought to myself, "here it comes - Patriots rolling up the score, spygate, we hate BB and Brady, etc." Surprisingly, there was none of that. I got the sense that people were admiring the Patriots and respecting their abilities, although grudgingly. Most fans from other parts of the country still clearly don't like NE, but I heard none of the hateful vitriol which was very common a couple of years ago. As well, I had several conversations with fans from outside of NE in airport bars about the NFL and Pats and not one mentioned spygate. Anyway, I think it's the kind of thing which has faded from memory as being prominent for a lot of people. But, for the real haters I think it will always be there and used for ammo when needed.

I was also in a bar for this game. The Redskins fan sitting next to me started complaining about running up the score when Brady came out to lead that first drive in the third quarter.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I think thats right. Most that do throw the "cheater" label around are just trying to get a rise out of pats fans. As long as we don't take the bait and just reply with rational answers then it will become less and less but there will always be that minority.

In the end however, I don't care. It was still a great feeling when they won those games and that they can never tarnish.

Sadly though we have our own minority contingent of fans who frequent the same message board and internet garbage dumps (that sadly spawned some of them) in hopes of one upping their rival counterparts. And more often than not those are the ones who struggle so with the continued backlash their own behavior frankly fuels. What sucks is they then feel compelled to come back home to rehash that experience as a means to vent their continuing frustration.

 

[Jackson 2]

I was also in a bar for this game. The Redskins fan sitting next to me started complaining about running up the score when Brady came out to lead that first drive in the third quarter.

LOL! Redskins fans should have a lot of other stuff to complain about!

 

[BPF]

Now that time has past and having had a chance to reflect on this topic I think most can agree that it was much ado about nothing. The only reason it got so much play was simply a function of the Pats being so successful. Everyone loves an underdog and everyone hates dominant teams. It happens in every sport, look at the Celtics, Lakers, Yankees.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

was wondering, do you guys think there will a fallout of spygate in the distant future?

after BB doesnt coach anymore? after most of the players from this decades team are retired, after Kraft maybe doesnt own the team anymore?

or do u think itll just be a footnote, sometimes mentioned in the future, but less and less as time goes by, w/o ever any greater depth to it?

or do u believe some of these guys, after they have to stakes anymore, will come out and reveal more things?



just wondering

Well, you've named three different time frames.

"after BB doesn't coach any more". My guess is he's going to coach for another seven to ten years. So, will it still be a story eight or nine years from now? Yeah, it will be. The folks on this board and in New England see it one way. The rest of the country sees it along a spectrum from the haters who feel it invalidates everything the Brady/Belichick Pats accomplished to serious football fans who feel it taints but doesn't destroy the legacy of the team.

"most of the players from this decades team are retired." well, a lot of the players from the 2001 team are already retired and this team's players will play for anywhere from one to seven or so more years depending on abilities and injuries, so a slightly shorter time frame (according to the NFLPA, the average NFL career is 3 1/2 years, with, of course, notable exceptions). Yeah, Spygate will be around for the next five or six years no doubt.

"after Kraft...doesn't own the team anymore" well, i don't think the Krafts will sell this team in the lifetimes of anyone on this board, barring some sort of personal or financial catastrophe in their lives. So, will Spygate be around for the forseeable future? Yeah, I'm afraid it will be. People will never forget it. They won't all be like the haters and say we should give the Lombardi's back, but it will be a lingering question in the back of fans' minds.

I wish that weren't the case, but living outside of New England, it changes how the team is viewed. It was a bone-headed, brand-damaging mistake by a group of guys who should have known better. There are no two ways about it.

Doesn't matter a hoot that others were doing it and didn't get caught. What matters is that the most successful franchise of the post cap and free agency era did it and did get caught, whatever technical arguments the Pats may make in their defense.

You probably think I'm being pretty hard on the team for a long standing fan who apologizes to no one here or elsewhere for his Pats creds, but that's how I see it.

I defended BB and the Pats to lots of people here in New York in many heated discussions after it happened (something that many of you never had to do), but in my heart I was deeply disappointed.

 

[cavtroop]

Does anyone ever mention the Denver Broncos salary cap cheating in the 90's, that directly led to them winning back to back SB? You never hear about it, though the media didn't make a humongous deal out of it at the time, like they did with spygate.

In my mind, that cheating was much much worse than what the Pats did, and you never hear about it.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Does anyone ever mention the Denver Broncos salary cap cheating in the 90's, that directly led to them winning back to back SB? You never hear about it, though the media didn't make a humongous deal out of it at the time, like they did with spygate.

In my mind, that cheating was much much worse than what the Pats did, and you never hear about it.

doesn't matter. the story never got the traction that spygate got. is that fair? nope, but, as has been said many times, life is unfair. the pats were a big target for doing what no one was supposed to do post cap and free agency: dominate their conference and the league for the better part of a decade. they were a big juicy story when the stuff hit the fan. plus, as i said the week the story broke, the pats did a horrible job of crisis and media management. they just let lies and untruths sit out there for weeks on end.