Jimmy Johnson on WFAN

[SVN]

is on now..talking football pats,spygate and all...good stuff..Hopefully a podcast will be available later..good +ve stuff.

 

[Phokus]

excellent... johnson had very good perspective on this whole ordeal.

 

[LiveShot]

Mike asked Jimmy if he stole signals, Jimmy laughed and said of course he did as did everyone else who wanted to gain an edge.

 

[patchick]

Mike asked Jimmy if he stole signals, Jimmy laughed and said of course he did as did everyone else who wanted to gain an edge.

Asterisks! I smell asterisks!!!

 

[SVN]

Mike asked Jimmy if he stole signals, Jimmy laughed and said of course he did as did everyone else who wanted to gain an edge.

the hosts were surprised. they asked repeatedly if he videotaped and he said he did. He said marty's assistant was the best in the business and howard mudd who was with the chiefs then and is now the o line coach of the colts is one of the best in the business.He said BB was wrong in continuing after the memo went out otherwise he used the camera himself 18 yrs ago and they used it in press boxes and all.
Hopefully football historians like Dr Z in si.com will notice this and dig further instead of just talking up the old time football as if it never happened before.

Talking abt pats he said BB came down to florida this summer and they went fishing and JJ asked BB that everyone thinks you guys are very good and a SB team and BB replies "Jimmy, I THINK we are good " ...

 

[PonyExpress]

One of the most misrepresented facts about this issue is this "memo" that Goodell sent out. It was sent out Sept 6, 2006- last season, not this season. And all last season, Goodell never acted on it. Why should BB believe the newbie commish was suddenly going to take this non-issue seriously when it had been going on for 20+ years without league control or intervention? This was the biggest joke in league history, and I blame Goodell for being incompetent. He should have fined the Jets for leaking league business to the press, and sent out another of his "memos". Instead he caved into our hypocritical competitors and almost tarnished a legend by his own incompetence and lack of experience.

 

[JoePats]

It's great what he said but it will get buried in the media while the Easterbrook columns of the world get hyped up.

 

[reflexblue]

One of the most misrepresented facts about this issue is this "memo" that Goodell sent out. It was sent out Sept 6, 2006- last season, not this season. And all last season, Goodell never acted on it. Why should BB believe the newbie commish was suddenly going to take this non-issue seriously when it had been going on for 20+ years without league control or intervention? This was the biggest joke in league history, and I blame Goodell for being incompetent. He should have fined the Jets for leaking league business to the press, and sent out another of his "memos". Instead he caved into our hypocritical competitors and almost tarnished a legend by his own incompetence and lack of experience.

I gotta give you a star for this post, its good. :rocker:

 

[Cramden]

It's on their website now.

http://www.wfan.com/

 

[T-ShirtDynasty]

Funny how much I hated that man when he was coaching. How times change.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

A reminder went around during the 2007 offseason.

 

[Oswlek]

Hopefully football historians like Dr Z in si.com will notice this and dig further instead of just talking up the old time football as if it never happened before.

Talking abt pats he said BB came down to florida this summer and they went fishing and JJ asked BB that everyone thinks you guys are very good and a SB team and BB replies "Jimmy, I THINK we are good " ...

Z quoted an anonomous source this past week as saying:

"What kills me is how everyone took this holier-than-thou attitude, as if no one knew about anything. The Patriots were particularly outrageous, but everyone in the league bends the rules, from stealing signals to something a lot more meaningful, and that is contacting free agents and getting them all wrapped up before the allowable period begins. We all do that. You have to survive competitively. Yes, even the most saintly of coaches and GMs, the ones who command the highest respect, are guilty.

I will repeat in bold my favorite part. [E]ven the most saintly of coaches and GMs, the ones who command the highest respect, are guilty. Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to whom they are talking about?

I figured that BB was confident about this team, but it wasn't until I was taken aback by his comment in my sig that I realized just how much so. It reaks of, "We're going to kill these guys" and I saw it right away, which is why I was so quick to dump my Welkermania sig.

 

[DarrylS]

Jimmy Johnson is also a personal confident of BB.. BB spends time with after a SB win to pick his brain on how to keep it going.

 

[PonyExpress]

A reminder went around during the 2007 offseason.

I believe you are under a misimpression due to intentionally misleading reporting, primarily from ESPN. Reviewing the NFL's statement following the Patriots' punishment...

NFL version:

In a memo to NFL head coaches and general managers on September 6, 2006, NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Ray Anderson said, “Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent’s offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches’ booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game.”

(http://wgr550.com/bills/fullstory.php?id=2650).

As you can see, no reference is made to this season whatsoever. The confusion arose due to cleverly misleading reports on ESPN, manipulated to cast the Pats' "violation" in a more egregious light. For example:

ESPN version:

On Sept. 6, three days before this year's opener against the Jets, the NFL sent a memo to head coaches and general managers. In it, Ray Anderson, the league's executive vice president of football operations, wrote: "Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches' booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game.

(http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3024271&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines)

Do you see how ESPN deliberately manipulated the dates to make the Pats' violation seem more egregious to a careless reader? And how people around the country have jumped on this false information as true? If the NFL sent this "memo" out last season, and did zero to enforce it all year, why should BB, who has witnessed the same practices going on unimpeded throughout the NFL for 30 years, believe this PR goon was going to rob him of a 1st rd pick? It's totally ludicrous, and demonstrates the degree to which Goodell crumbled in the face of a Jet-induced media firestorm, the first crisis of his tenure which called for a cool head, a spinal column and a scrotum. Goodell spit the bit, earning the lifelong epithet of Doofus in Chief.

 

[sieglo]

Here's my transcript of the JJ interview:

Q: How about the spying thing Jimmy. You're a coach does that bother you what Belichick did?

JJ: Oh please. I've said it on our show. Eighteen years ago a scout for the chiefs told me what they did, and he said what you need to do is just take your camera and you go and zoom in on the signal caller and that way you can sync it up. The problem is that if they're not on the press box side you can't do it from the press box, you have to do it from the sideline. This was 18 years ago.

Q: You think the NFL came down too hard on them?

JJ: No, no, I said it on the show. He was wrong for doing it for the simple reason that the league knew this was going on not ust in New England but around the league. And the league sent out the memorandum to all of the teams saying you cannot do this. And os that's when Bill Belichick was wrong. After he got the memorandum saying don't do it any more, he did it.

Q: Did you ever steal signals?

JJ: Oh in a heartbeat, yeah. Yes I did.

Q: Via video, Jimmy? Or no?

JJ: Oh yeah, I did it with video and so did a lot of other teams in the league. Just to make sure that you could study it and take your time, because you're going to play the other team the second time around. But a lot of coaches did it, this was commonplace.

Q: But did you do it by taping the signal caller?

JJ: Yeah.

Q: Oh you did.

JJ: That's what I'm saying. I was saying one of Marty Schottenheimers scouts, Mark Hatley, who has passed away now, Mark told me that's how they did it, and Howard Mudd their offensive line coach with Kansas City, who now coaches for Tony Dungy, he was the best in the entire league at stealing signals.

Q: Where'd you put your guy who was videotaping? Where was he?

JJ: My guy was up with my camera crew in the press box. So you'd just put an extra camera up with your camera crew in the press box who zoomed in on the signal callers. That's the best way to do it, but anyway you can't always do that because the press box camera crew might be on the same side as the opposing team. If they're on the same side as the opposing team that's when you need to do it from the sideline.

Q: Also with some operations and some teams they have equipment set up within the stadium so they can just run it ack and check what's going on during the game anyway.

JJ: Oh I'll tell you [laughing] some of the stuff that goes on it's almost comical.

Q: Jimmy don't you think using contraptions like that goes against the spirit of football?

JJ: Well that's why the league put in that you can't use any electronic equipment, during the game, locker room, press box, sideline, this type of thing. They ruled against it and again that's why Bill Belichick was wrong.

Q: How much of an advantage would it give them?

JJ: Well you know Bradshaw and I had a talk back and forth on this. I did it a few times and then I stopped doing it because I didn't think we got much out of it to be honest with you. But games are so close... If it gives you one single play in the ballgame it might be the difference. But again, he was wrong for doing it after the memorandum was sent out by the league, because the league knew that other teams were doing it. And so... it was a commonplace thing though.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

There are going to be a lot of people with egg on their faces as the cameragate brouha settles down. Jimmy Johnson's comments are not surprising one bit.

Godell was smart not to suspend BB, for you can't take back a suspension. He can take back his decision to penalize the Pats a first-round pick, though. It wouldn't surprise me if a statement comes out later this year that he's reconsidered the punishment and decided to take a 3rd or lesser round pick instead. Comments like Jimmy's will show that what BB did was not as outrageous (and unique) as initially thought (and magnified by the haters) and I don't think Jimmy will be the last to say such things.

Regards,
Chris

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Peter King says:

It may seem absurd to think that if Belichick was blatantly violating an NFL rule -- one reenforced by two NFL memos in the last year -- the Jets should have ignored it. But last year the Lions and the Packers caught the Patriots taping and simply told them to stop without informing the league. Unlike New York, they followed the coaching fraternity's antisnitching code.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/09/19/mob.mentality0924/index.html
(bolding added)

From CBSSportsline:

Let's start first with the suspension. According to one GM, a league memo was issued before this season reminding clubs not to indulge in the kind of unethical behavior in front of us now. As one team president said, the league must have issued it because it knew something was going on.

http://sportsline.com/nfl/story/10348762

Of course, "According to one GM" is a pretty shady source... but if this is an intentional misrepresentation, it does not seem to be limited to any one source, and it does not seem to be limited to one point of view.

Is there any public source where we can research these memos, or are they basically private correspondence from the league to the owners/coaches?

You may be right, but it's also possible some underling at ESPN started using a "Sept 6 memo" thinking it was the second memo that reinforced the 9/6/2006 memo, without knowing that the 9/6 date applied to the earlier one. Finally, it's possible that both memos went out on 9/6 in different years (although very unlikely.)

Regardless, it's difficult to ascertain the date of the reminder memo from what you've posted. It's also a leap to conclude that no reminder memo existed. But I'm definitely open to that being the case.

PFnV

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

I believe you are under a misimpression due to intentionally misleading reporting, primarily from ESPN. Reviewing the NFL's statement following the Patriots' punishment...

NFL version:

(http://wgr550.com/bills/fullstory.php?id=2650).

As you can see, no reference is made to this season whatsoever. The confusion arose due to cleverly misleading reports on ESPN, manipulated to cast the Pats' "violation" in a more egregious light. For example:

ESPN version:



(http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3024271&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines)

Do you see how ESPN deliberately manipulated the dates to make the Pats' violation seem more egregious to a careless reader? And how people around the country have jumped on this false information as true? If the NFL sent this "memo" out last season, and did zero to enforce it all year, why should BB, who has witnessed the same practices going on unimpeded throughout the NFL for 30 years, believe this PR goon was going to rob him of a 1st rd pick? It's totally ludicrous, and demonstrates the degree to which Goodell crumbled in the face of a Jet-induced media firestorm, the first crisis of his tenure which called for a cool head, a spinal column and a scrotum. Goodell spit the bit, earning the lifelong epithet of Doofus in Chief.

Are you positive the "2006" wasn't a typo? Stranger things have happened, but I find it amazing that so many people would get that detail wrong.

Regards,
Chris

 

[patsox23]

It wouldn't surprise me if a statement comes out later this year that he's reconsidered the punishment and decided to take a 3rd or lesser round pick instead. Comments like Jimmy's will show that what BB did was not as outrageous (and unique) as initially thought (and magnified by the haters) and I don't think Jimmy will be the last to say such things.

Chris, with all due respect, in a million years this would never happen. They cannot possibly rescind the punishment. I'd love it if you were right, but this seems like a fantasy to me.

 

[Pujo]

One of the most misrepresented facts about this issue is this "memo" that Goodell sent out. It was sent out Sept 6, 2006- last season, not this season. And all last season, Goodell never acted on it. Why should BB believe the newbie commish was suddenly going to take this non-issue seriously when it had been going on for 20+ years without league control or intervention? This was the biggest joke in league history, and I blame Goodell for being incompetent. He should have fined the Jets for leaking league business to the press, and sent out another of his "memos". Instead he caved into our hypocritical competitors and almost tarnished a legend by his own incompetence and lack of experience.

Oh yeah, and if the Colts were taping, tell me that you would have just wanted the league to send out another memo and not take any action. C'monn, can you say it without laughing?