Videogate Could Ruin The NFL. This needs to stop.

[DGameguy]

Maybe I am jumping the gun here, but I see a real problem for the league in videogate, Goodell's punishment, and (now) Billick's allegations about the Jets. Coaches and front offices are under extreme pressure to win games. If they don't win games, they don't stay in their jobs. Unless they can find some nefarious reason for why they lost, and let the ensuing coverage distract the fans and media from their failures.

The NFL was a culture of secrecy before. We never heard a whiff of videotaping signals or stealing scouting reports before. Any allegations of ref. fixing or tampering were ignored as improbable conspiracy theories by hurt fans. But this past week makes anything possible now, and we are seeing the culture of secrecy turn into a culture of tattle-taling or even lying to save one's skin and settle old scores.

I think only the most naive of fans envisioned the NFL as a league devoid of crime, cheating, and other shenanigans. The NFL is very controlling of how it is viewed by fans and the media. We saw how they railroaded the "Playmakers" series on ESPN. How many people remember such a frenzy when Leonard Little, one of the League's stars, killed a person, and then only received an eight game suspension? The problem now is that the league is airing out it's own dirty laundry, Goodell is all too happy to be Judge Dredd, and it could cause a nightmare scenario.

John Fox is on the hot seat in Carolina, and now, when he is being held to perform well this year, all of a sudden allegations are made that the Super Bowl win that would have given him a lifetime position in Carolina has been stolen by the Patriots when they broke into Bank of America Stadium and recorded practices. McNabb has a young highly drafted QB behind him, and now his ring was unfairly taken from him.

The allegations against Mangini about illiegal play will not be the last against Mangini or other teams' coaches and front offices. The league is full of petty, insecure people. I can EASILY see frequent allegations of chicanery being made after contentious losses. And why not? This league and the media that covers it have created an atmosphere not unlike McCarthyism: wild speculations levied against respected league people are automatically assumed to be true. Look at who is saying these things. Jerome Bettis was accused of rape and has freely admitted to faking an injury to defraud his beloved Steelers. He is a liar. Yet weight is given to comments he makes about the Patriots knowing their offensive (not defensive) playcalling.

The league is PLAGUED with tampering. Every year there are whispers and supposed allegations, but nothing has materialized. I think we can all agrere that the videotaping of signals was a minor thing. It didn't affect the outcome of the game in which it was done, and whether you want to call it cheating or not, almost any information it could impart could be obtained by careful study of gamefilm (tendencies, trends in playcalling). Roger Goodell has set a precedent in fining teams and individuals who knowingly violate rules to gain a competitive advantage. What is he going to do, fine everyoen half a mil and take everybody's first round picks? Mr. Tough Guy has set a standard, and he has to live by it. If Billick's allegationsa are true, the ramifications could have been huge. The Ravens were penalized 11 to 2 because of it and the Jets could have tied or won that game if they had a whiff of talent. Those penalty yards could have easily swayed the game.

I know this is long, but I have one final point. The NFL's (or maybe more accurately NFL team leaders) may have set football on a course to become futbol. This willy-nilly charging of cheating is something that has haunted soccer for years. Brazil blames France for food poisoning, Italian soccer has become obsessed with evaluating refs and has become less a game of skill, then of flopping and getting the other team penalized for trumped up fouls and cheating. It seems like every manager blames a loss on some dirty trick the opposing manager pulled. As much as I want to see Mangini and the other idiots pay, I hope that my beloved sport doesn't go from being a game of strength and smarts to a game of blame and he said she said.

 

[Fahrenhype]

I'd love for this nonsense to end this week (seriously, what else do they need to prove after pounding San Diego) but the media are parasites and Goodell is a moron. The NFL will go down the tubes if they keep trying to turn every common practice into a federal case.

 

[fitch]

I agree. Who benefits from all of this crap? Mangini? Goodell? The answer is no one. I know every owner in the League is bull**** that this has been played out in the media and the Jets are the reason it has become a news story across the country.

I also think that in trying to act as the hard-ass Commish, Goodell has allowed this thing to fester longer then it should have.

 

[JR4]

I agree. Who benefits from all of this crap? Mangini? Goodell? ........

The media giants .... it is a juicy story .... they love it .. especially because
it involves the Patriots. It boost ratings and means more advertising dollars.

 

[JR4]

Maybe I am jumping the gun here, but I see a real problem for the league in videogate, Goodell's punishment, and (now) Billick's allegations about the Jets. Coaches and front offices are under extreme pressure to win games. If they don't win games, they don't stay in their jobs. Unless they can find some nefarious reason for why they lost, and let the ensuing coverage distract the fans and media from their failures.

The NFL was a culture of secrecy before. We never heard a whiff of videotaping signals or stealing scouting reports before. Any allegations of ref. fixing or tampering were ignored as improbable conspiracy theories by hurt fans. But this past week makes anything possible now, and we are seeing the culture of secrecy turn into a culture of tattle-taling or even lying to save one's skin and settle old scores.

I think only the most naive of fans envisioned the NFL as a league devoid of crime, cheating, and other shenanigans. The NFL is very controlling of how it is viewed by fans and the media. We saw how they railroaded the "Playmakers" series on ESPN. How many people remember such a frenzy when Leonard Little, one of the League's stars, killed a person, and then only received an eight game suspension? The problem now is that the league is airing out it's own dirty laundry, Goodell is all too happy to be Judge Dredd, and it could cause a nightmare scenario.

John Fox is on the hot seat in Carolina, and now, when he is being held to perform well this year, all of a sudden allegations are made that the Super Bowl win that would have given him a lifetime position in Carolina has been stolen by the Patriots when they broke into Bank of America Stadium and recorded practices. McNabb has a young highly drafted QB behind him, and now his ring was unfairly taken from him.

The allegations against Mangini about illiegal play will not be the last against Mangini or other teams' coaches and front offices. The league is full of petty, insecure people. I can EASILY see frequent allegations of chicanery being made after contentious losses. And why not? This league and the media that covers it have created an atmosphere not unlike McCarthyism: wild speculations levied against respected league people are automatically assumed to be true. Look at who is saying these things. Jerome Bettis was accused of rape and has freely admitted to faking an injury to defraud his beloved Steelers. He is a liar. Yet weight is given to comments he makes about the Patriots knowing their offensive (not defensive) playcalling.

The league is PLAGUED with tampering. Every year there are whispers and supposed allegations, but nothing has materialized. I think we can all agrere that the videotaping of signals was a minor thing. It didn't affect the outcome of the game in which it was done, and whether you want to call it cheating or not, almost any information it could impart could be obtained by careful study of gamefilm (tendencies, trends in playcalling). Roger Goodell has set a precedent in fining teams and individuals who knowingly violate rules to gain a competitive advantage. What is he going to do, fine everyoen half a mil and take everybody's first round picks? Mr. Tough Guy has set a standard, and he has to live by it. If Billick's allegationsa are true, the ramifications could have been huge. The Ravens were penalized 11 to 2 because of it and the Jets could have tied or won that game if they had a whiff of talent. Those penalty yards could have easily swayed the game.

I know this is long, but I have one final point. The NFL's (or maybe more accurately NFL team leaders) may have set football on a course to become futbol. This willy-nilly charging of cheating is something that has haunted soccer for years. Brazil blames France for food poisoning, Italian soccer has become obsessed with evaluating refs and has become less a game of skill, then of flopping and getting the other team penalized for trumped up fouls and cheating. It seems like every manager blames a loss on some dirty trick the opposing manager pulled. As much as I want to see Mangini and the other idiots pay, I hope that my beloved sport doesn't go from being a game of strength and smarts to a game of blame and he said she said.

Very very good post. I wish every TV talking head could read this and
really think about it.

 

[[email protected]]

The answer is no one.

I disagree with you here. Who benefits

Mangini - people are talking about spygate rather than the fact the Jets are 0-2 and look like they will be lucky to win 4 games this year

Goodell - raising his profile. Most people could not even name the commish before this. Getting his rep as the law and order guy

Polian - cuz he is a petty, angry man

Redsox - advertisers that were going to buy from the Pats, don't want to take a chance while the investigation continues.

 

[FarScapeR]

Getting his rep as the law and order guy

Ding ding!

 

[khayos]

Goodell is an idiot. He should have managed this situation and the others before it but he's too much of a media whore to clamp it down.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Bigger picture: Can you "get at" the various species of illegal deception that have been tolerated over the years? Do you want to?

I think the big picture isn't that Belichick is evil incarnate, although if you take a guy who doesn't dress well yet does his job incredibly well, and accuse him of a moral failing, you're likely to have a story with legs.

What's going to come out is stuff like the Billick complaint about the Jets calling out false signals, etc. etc. etc.

There are two ways to look at it:

1) all change is bad. Therefore this new emphasis -- which whacks our team first -- is bad and doomed not only to failure, but to a worse league.

2) All change looks bad until it is accomplished, at which point it looks like business as usual.

If this new "fair play" emphasis goes past the Pats -- and I think it will -- well, it will be a different world. I am sure I was fine with the old world, where coaches just try their little tricks, and maybe get caught, like Halas selling the visitor's bench as seating (he actually did this in one game.) Basically the Halas story wouldn't happen today for various reasons; the Belichick taping or the Jets' shouting out of decoy signals might be looked back on in the same light twenty years from now.

I'm used to the game of football including that element of gamesmanship; evidently, Goodell believes that "cleaning up" the game will be good for the game.

Other owners and coaches are either shortsighted about it, or they agree and believe themselves to be the ultimate beneficiaries of the new squeeky clean version of the league.

I can live with it, going forward. But the broom better sweep the same for every team.

PFnV

 

[BelichickFan]

As I said on another thread :

The problem is the stupid jerk off commissioner who left the door wide open. Badell SHOULD have said that he's given the Patriots a severe punishment, it's over and they'd better not do anything else IN THE FUTURE. By leaving the door open to prior bad acts he's asking for this. F*ck you Badell, you're ruining our game.

I'll see how it plays out. Hopefully nothing else happens. If the witch hunt continues I'll watch whatever college and pro football is on the air (plenty) and save the $400 a year or so I pay for Sunday Ticket and SuperFan.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Billick's comments was nothing more then publically calling out Mangini as a fraud on a National stage. He won't "really" report it, because Mangini's will turn around and say, you guys were doing it in that game too. And he'd be right.

It was a very demonstratable and public F U to Mangini. Expect a lot more as the year goes on.

I deo agree with the thesis though. Good work.

 

[Redcell]

Very very good post. I wish every TV talking head could read this and
really think about it.

Uhh... you're assuming the talking heads think. That's a non-starter right there.