Cheating Hurts A Prideful Patriot Nation

[PatsFans.com Article]

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[PonyExpress]

How about waiting for an "adjudication" (to quote Robert Kraft) before jumping to conclusions on a Patriot Fan website? Is a little patience for due process to much to ask before jumping to conclusions?

 

[mgteich]

This article is mostly on point. I disagree with many of the statements, but not those regarding the current situation.

BTW, I 100% believe that the Krafts will NOT let down the fans. He will bring us all through this. And we will support the team, as we have from the day he saved the patriots and kept the team in New England.

 

[PromisedLand]

How about waiting for an "adjudication" (to quote Robert Kraft) before jumping to conclusions on a Patriot Fan website? Is a little patience for due process to much to ask before jumping to conclusions?

I agree. So far all we have is unsubstantiated reports from "NFL sources" that Goodell has "determined" that the Patriots videotaped the other team's bench. The Patriots have not even had a chance to present their side of the story. Let's all calm down and wait to see what happens. Once the dust settles there will be plenty of time for feeling angry, vindicated, betrayed, embarrassed, or whatever emotions are appropriate at that time.

 

[JoeSixPat]

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I guess its a good thing that watching another team's signals and reporting them to your coaches isn't cheating.

Whenever anyone's talking about cheating, the must mean using a recording device the way the Dolphins cheated last year. No question, that's a violation of the rules.

I guess by that definition, There's also no question that being offsides or pass interference is a violation of the rules as well - and therefore, is cheating. Sometimes guys get caught for this cheating, sometimes they get away with the cheating.

Overall that's a pretty sloppy piece by Rousseau who seems to want to avoid these types of details as it might get in the way of his premise.

The problem as I see it is that the NFL has made cheating legal, letting teams steal signals. That's not bound to go over too well when folks realize it, so they're going to act overly righteous when it comes to the Patriots.

In other words, cheating in the NFL is fine - just don't cheat at cheating. Seems a little hypocritical of Goodsell and others to me.

 

[Phoenix111]

This article is mostly on point. I disagree with many of the statements, but not those regarding the current situation.

BTW, I 100% believe that the Krafts will NOT let down the fans. He will bring us all through this. And we will support the team, as we have from the day he saved the patriots and kept the team in New England.

Then hopefully that means Kraft will not terminate BB in order to save face for the franchise as some other over-reactors have suggested.

 

[PromisedLand]

Then hopefully that means Kraft will not terminate BB in order to save face for the franchise as some other over-reactors have suggested.

Kraft would never do that over this kind of a business as usual dirty trick. He knows the lynch mob would burn him out of house and hang him within hours if he ever did that.

 

[onegameatatime]

Does this even make sense? And I'm not talking about the Jets not being competition to the Pats.

To me, it's one thing if they broke a rule, but another if they got an in-game advantage from it.

If you wanted to steal signals to get an in-game advantage, would you have a videographer taping it, or a coach type with binoculars and a microphone and taking notes? Which you could probably do from a press box. I have trouble seeing the value of a tape, or how the signals could be called that fast in response.

On the other hand, why else would you be doing this?

 

[mgteich]

The Kraft's don't care about your sense of what is right and wrong, and OK because everyone does it. They really could care less.

Kraft would never do that over this kind of a business as usual dirty trick. He knows the lynch mob would burn him out of house and hang him within hours if he ever did that.

 

[PatsDeb]

Does this even make sense? And I'm not talking about the Jets not being competition to the Pats.

To me, it's one thing if they broke a rule, but another if they got an in-game advantage from it.

If you wanted to steal signals to get an in-game advantage, would you have a videographer taping it, or a coach type with binoculars and a microphone and taking notes? Which you could probably do from a press box. I have trouble seeing the value of a tape, or how the signals could be called that fast in response.

On the other hand, why else would you be doing this?

For the next game, because they probably won't change their signals. The joke of it is, if you have the guy with the binoculars and the notes, you can make the same list for your next game, no problem. You can also apparently buy tapes of the other team's audibles (ala Miami) and glean their signals from that, no problem. What a joke this all is, and we're the only ones paying the price.

 

[PatsDeb]

The Kraft's don't care about your sense of what is right and wrong, and OK because everyone does it. They really could care less.

I'm as happy as the next guy that the Krafts bought the Pats and saved us from NFL oblivion, but they only care about running a successful business. They will use their influence to the best of their ability to get the least damaging penalty, then they will move on. They will not ask BB to step down or anything else. In fact, they will probably encourage the league to just level the penalty as quickly as possible, they'll pay it and this sorry episode will never be mentioned by them again.

 

[mgteich]

I believe that this is a question that will be asked many times after the hearing. And no, I don't believe that Kraft will not fire Belichick to save face. And he won't keep him because he's afraid that fans won't understand. I think that the middle ground of accepting the league's penalty and cleaning up our act will be the appropriate result, but I don't have any of the facts.

Then hopefully that means Kraft will not terminate BB in order to save face for the franchise as some other over-reactors have suggested.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Kevin,

I have read your columns for the last several years. I did not appreciate this one. This is not a funeral. Stop with the drama. You are not writing the next great novel. Get over it. This is not the end of the road for this franchise.

Was it over when Fryer got stabbed by his wife? Was it over when Zeke flashed his missile. Hell No!

Get your Vagisil out and be a real fan!

 

[DarrylS]

None of this makes any sense, hopefully in the next couple of days something will be said to bring some clarity and some understanding to this issue.

 

[The Gr8est]

Then hopefully that means Kraft will not terminate BB in order to save face for the franchise as some other over-reactors have suggested.

If Kraft was to fire BB over this how long do you think he'd be unemployed? All these holier-than-thou sanctimonius teams would be stumbling over themselves to sign him.

Hypocritical jealous bastiches!

 

[nhpatsfan]

The Kraft's don't care about your sense of what is right and wrong, and OK because everyone does it. They really could care less.

I couldn't agree more. Plus, Kraft knows if he fires BB someone else would hire him, and eventually we'd have to play against him.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

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First of all, I, for one, am still waiting to hear what Bob Kraft has to say and for the Patriots to present their defense. Mortensen, Cimini, Clayton et al are not judge and jury.

As for the article, I think the author should have put it in a drawer and waited a couple of days before publishing it. we're all a little emotional right now and we need time to sort things out.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

"I am told that my father went to the Pats-Buffalo game on the day I was born(after comforting and spending quality time with me and my mother, of course) and passed out cigars. According to my research, the Patriots proceeded to get killed that day. In a nutshell, that day would just about sum up what being a Patriots fan was all about. Of course, this all changed for the better on February 4, 2002. I don't think I'll ever forgot the look on my father's face as we sat in Section 639 of the Superdome as Ricky Proehl barrelled into the end zone and tied the game at 17. Never mind the other shoe, this was a steel-tipped Red Wing workboot dropping upon us. Well, we all know how the story turns out.


No longer am I looking over my shoulder waiting for that shoe. The Patriots are off the schnide and our lives are forever changed. I would hope that if Tom Brady throws three interceptions in one half against Pittsburgh, Joe Andruzzi doesn't shake the West Nile Virus, or Terry Glenn lights up the Pats, I can keep this perspective and remember that probably half of the 32 teams in the NFL are not the owners of a single Vince Lombardi Trophy."

Kevin Rousseau, 2002 Inaugural column on PatsFans.com

Yup, we all know how the story turns out alright. Fan boy media wannabe gets a shot to write columns only because BB led this team to the promised land not once, or twice but three times in 6 years only to have the ingrate turn on him and whine about how he's ruined his fan boy life.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Let me edit a bit.... This is mostly tongue in cheek. I'm sure Kevin is fine guy (never met him). Look, we're all gonna take crap from our non-Partriot friends. Stand up proud and don't hang your head too low.

I'm not proud of everything people in my family have done, but don't go insulting them in my pressence. I'm not happy about the situation we're in, but I'll not apologize for being a Patriot fan either.

My apologies to Kevin.

 

[PatriotsReign]

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Right now, I believe more than 50% of new members like yourself are actually opposing fans trying to bait us. My hope is that is not true of you, but there really are some people with such a blatant lack of intellegence, they spew forth verbage that makes it obvious.

Anyone who would join an opposing fan site and pretend to be a fan of that team is probably just the result of their mother giving them a smack off the wall a few times when they were children and then allowing them to have alcohol by the age of 6. Basically a sign of good parenting