Do you feel dirty?

[PATSNUTme]

Well it's finally happened, as we all knew it would, the Patriots have been caught cheating. That "win at all cost" attitude has finally beeen exposed as cheating.

How else can it be explained that the Patriots have won 3 Super bowls, been to 4 AFCCG's, won 5 AFC East titles, a 21 game win streak, and winning 7 straight games against the awesome Jets on their home field. It had to be cheating and now the chickens have come home to roost.

And we knew about it and suuported this team and ignored all the cheating that has gone on. We have enabled them with the sold out stadiums and our fanitic support all of these years.

So, do you feel dirty now? (Well do you, punk! A little Dirty Harry thrown in.)

 

[JR4]

Not dirty but .. I will be disappointed in Belichick if he knew about this and
allowed it. ( never mind even initiated it )

The buck stops with him. He gets the praise for Superbowls won so he
should get the wrath for wrong deeds as well.

IF he allowed this, he has allowed something to taint the reputation
of alot of guys who have work very hard and put it all out for the
team. That IMO, is unforgiveable no matter how smart he is ... no matter
how many super bowls he has won.

IF he is guilty,
It really doesn't matter if he got little to no advantage form doing this.
what matters is he will have brought disgrace to this team where
only admiration should be.

I don't feel dirty .... but I am very very disappointed in Belichick and
if this proves true or even leaves a lot of doubt I will never look
at him with the repect I once had.

Sorry for all you guys who defend him inspite of every thing
... this is how I feel.

I love this team and the players on it and this issue has
the potential to unjustly degraded them.

 

[true_patriot]

Let me go on record and say - this doesn't not change how I feel about Patriots as a team, as an organziation, or even how I feel about Bill. This would be my most favorite team - as long as I live. My only concern out of this whole cameragate is the 'perception' about The New England Patiots - outside of New England.

I am afraid that all Patriot haters would claim from now onwards - the reason we were so good for the past 6 years because we were cheating. This is not at all true. This directly rubs against Brady's, Bruschi's, Vrabel's of the team- and its a knock against the team/organization and Bill personally.

 

[Phokus]

Not really. It's against the rules to videotape another team, but so what, everyone steals signals. Despite it being against the rules, the seriousness of the violation in terms of the spirit of the game is laughable. Stealing signals has been around forever (teams used to employ lip readers to steal signals before coaches covered their mouths). To think the Patriots are the only ones who steal signals or who are the only ones who use cameras to do so is naive. All 32 NFL teams have scouts at games stealing signals and if they aren't, then their organization sucks. I'm more pissed off about Rodney's HGH thing.

 

[MrTibbs]

When a team keeps winning as they have done they should know that other teams will do anything to taint their image or bring them down completely. Now every single thing they do will be scrutinized and put under a microscope.

If it's true it's extremely damaging and will forever taint the image of what they have accomplished in my opinion.


BUT the Dolphins did that to them last season and nobody really said squat. They smashed the Patriots 21-0 and the word came out that they had the teams signals and knew all the calls. I simply held the Patriots in a higher standard then the lowly Dolphins but I guess all the teams look for every advantage.

 

[PatriotsReign]

Not dirty but .. I will be disappointed in Belichick if he knew about this and
allowed it. ( never mind even initiated it )

The buck stops with him. He gets the praise for Superbowls won so he
should get the wrath for wrong deeds as well.

IF he allowed this, he has allowed something to taint the reputation
of alot of guys who have work very hard and put it all out for the
team. That IMO, is unforgiveable no matter how smart he is ... no matter
how many super bowls he has won.

IF he is guilty,
It really doesn't matter if he got little to no advantage form doing this.
what matters is he will have brought disgrace to this team where
only admiration should be.

I don't feel dirty .... but I am very very disappointed in Belichick and
if this proves true or even leaves a lot of doubt I will never look
at him with the repect I once had.

Sorry for all you guys who defend him inspite of every thing
... this is how I feel.

I love this team and the players on it and this issue has
the potential to unjustly degraded them.

Blah, blah, blah...and we're disappointed in your weak fan support...you've GOT to be kidding!

NO team or player is perfect. Especially when is comes to the "Spying" game. ALL teams participate in this type of behavior and I agree it's stupid...BUT THEY ALL DO IT!

 

[Bill's Girl]

Well it's finally happened, as we all knew it would, the Patriots have been caught cheating. That "win at all cost" attitude has finally beeen exposed as cheating.

How else can it be explained that the Patriots have won 3 Super bowls, been to 4 AFCCG's, won 5 AFC East titles, a 21 game win streak, and winning 7 straight games against the awesome Jets on their home field. It had to be cheating and now the chickens have come home to roost.

And we knew about it and suuported this team and ignored all the cheating that has gone on. We have enabled them with the sold out stadiums and our fanitic support all of these years.

So, do you feel dirty now? (Well do you,punk! A little Dirty Harry thrown in.)

You took your Rodney sign down.... Is this tongue in cheek or are you serious?

 

[363839]

Remember guys, when you're number 1, they're all out to get you.
Ever since last year the sports media has been throwing crap at The Pats.
Remember how they tried to accuse BB of having a meltdown during the post AFCCG interview. That did not fly for them.
Well they're still doing it. Every little nugget they can dig or dream up is being thrown out there.
Because we all know Rodney is the ONLY player in the NFL to in indulge in HGH.
And we all know that the Pats(should they be found guilty) are the ONLY team in the NFL to indulge in opponent spying.
And we all know that Randy has lost a step, is a cancer in the lockerroom and will be traded next week.
They did it to the Steelers of the 70's the niners and the Cowboys.
They are doing it to us now.
Be happy everybody because the Pats are going to win the SB this year and the whole league knows it.

 

[everlong]

You have to ask yourself are you being consistent or being a homer on these issues.

When Miami stole our line calls my thought was isn't everybody trying to study that stuff to gain an advantage? So I think of this as no different.

When Merriman got suspended I thought he deserved it. When Rodney got suspended I thought he deserved it.

It's just going to be a bigger deal in the national media because it was the Partiots getting caught spying and using HGH not Miami or Merriman.

 

[PATSNUTme]

You took your Rodney sign down.... Is this tongue in cheek or are you serious?

No, he has been suspended for 4 weeks and so I took down the sig for 4 weeks. It will be back when Rodney comes back (and HELL will be coming with him)

 

[rabthepat]

Didn't we accuse the Jets of something similar last year after they beat us 17-14? This just seems like a tit for tat accusation. I don't think our team would need to do this against the lame Jets.

 

[CTPatsFan]

I could give 2 $h!ts about the whole thing. Doesn't diminish my love of the team or respect for the front office.

 

[PatsDeb]

I'm a proud Pats fan but I'm mad that this is an unnecessary distraction.

 

[mgteich]

To be clear, your position is that cheating is OK, as long as you do your time when you get caught. This is a very raiders position.

No, he has been suspended for 4 weeks and so I took down the sig for 4 weeks. It will be back when Rodney comes back (and HELL will be coming with him)

 

[Boston Jay]

I just don't care. I'll be watching and cheering for them on Sunday.

 

[Slagathor]

I'm a proud Pats fan but I'm mad that this is an unnecessary distraction.

Right on Deb!

This is exactly how I feel.

All the good feelings from Sunday's game have been lessened quite a bit and now I have to worry whether this will distract the team from a VERY important game this weekend.

I'm pretty ticked off.

If we are guilty, I would say to the team personnel involved.....CUT the ****!!! We don't need that to win games.

 

[Grizzafted]

Not really. It's against the rules to videotape another team, but so what, everyone steals signals. Despite it being against the rules, the seriousness of the violation in terms of the spirit of the game is laughable. Stealing signals has been around forever (teams used to employ lip readers to steal signals before coaches covered their mouths). To think the Patriots are the only ones who steal signals or who are the only ones who use cameras to do so is naive. All 32 NFL teams have scouts at games stealing signals and if they aren't, then their organization sucks. I'm more pissed off about Rodney's HGH thing.

Bingo. Exactly.

 

[PATSNUTme]

To be clear, your position is that cheating is OK, as long as you do your time when you get caught. This is a very raiders position.

That is not my position and you know it. However, what else is there to do about it? He was suspended for four games, lost about $500,000, publicly humiliated, and hurt the team that he loves.

Would you cut him for this one wrongful act? Tell me what other punishment you want for him? Public shunning? A scarlet C on his forehead?

I'm not going to abandon a player like Rodney over one wrongful act of this nature. If you want to, then that is your choice.

 

[Vern]

To be clear, your position is that cheating is OK, as long as you do your time when you get caught. This is a very raiders position.

This is a very NFL position. Otherwise, the penalty for Holding would be ejection, the penalty for first time PED failure would be a lifetime ban, and the penalty for player tampering would be suspension.

This is a game. There is no driving "spirit" to these rules. They are completely arbitrary, and totally defined by what the NFL thinks drives ratings. If there were any shred of some higher power of "sportsmanship" driving all these rules, they wouldn't change so dramatically every few years. That covers on the field stuff, or league stuff like cap accounting, tampering, injury list, cameras etc.

To put violations of arbitrary and constantly changing rules in the same category with some moral failing is itself depraved. I'm reminded of what TMQ says about players giving credit to God after a great play: there's no credit to give, it was just a guy running around on a field. Give credit to God for things that actually matter. Similarly worry about breaking rules that actually matter.

 

[mgteich]

There is no spirit of sportmanship because the rules change every few years?
High-character teams do not cheat, they do not flaunt the rules, they do not do all they can to make a mockery of the league efforts to clean up substance abuse. Whether the lack of sportmanship is a moral failing is a personal issue. Whether cheating is a moral failure is a choice is this value-free world. Personally, I think that such a position is absurd.

This is a very NFL position. Otherwise, the penalty for Holding would be ejection, the penalty for first time PED failure would be a lifetime ban, and the penalty for player tampering would be suspension.

This is a game. There is no driving "spirit" to these rules. They are completely arbitrary, and totally defined by what the NFL thinks drives ratings. If there were any shred of some higher power of "sportsmanship" driving all these rules, they wouldn't change so dramatically every few years. That covers on the field stuff, or league stuff like cap accounting, tampering, injury list, cameras etc.

To put violations of arbitrary and constantly changing rules in the same category with some moral failing is itself depraved. I'm reminded of what TMQ says about players giving credit to God after a great play: there's no credit to give, it was just a guy running around on a field. Give credit to God for things that actually matter. Similarly worry about breaking rules that actually matter.