it is not illegal to tape signals.
period.
please, someone in the media read the rule BEFORE writing your column.
had they done it from the press box instead of the sideline it would've been sanctioned....and no different from what 30 other teams are doing (yes, especially Tony Dungy's team for chrissake, freaking sanctimonious hypocrite).
this deserved a private ***** slap and nothing more. but the rest of the country took the Pats initial vow of silence (BB's worst mistake of all) as a battle cry and now they wonder why the party has to end so soon.
yet I continue to read reports today (king, palantonio, florio, fish, etc....) that continue to illustrate the amazing ignorance out there.
michael rosenberg wrote a great editorial except for one thing....his premise was entirely wrong.
these are smart well educated people -- they don't actually need months to understand the specific rules violation (i.e. NOT "taping signals").
There's a reason the league left a loophole for video to be used in future games.....because it was and continues to be a widespread practice, and has been since the days of george allen. Goodell runs a business...he's pandering to the millions of Pats haters out there....hard to blame him, but sad he had to propagate the pissing contest.
In five years we'll look back on this not as a case of "cheating" or dark espionage or conspiracy theories (Sal wants to know if Bill was "afraid" of being caught....HE DID IT ON THE SIDELINE!!! are you kidding me....the whole point was to create distractions and paranoia....EVERYONE knew they did it), or how ernie adams was way more than an instant replay analyst and FoB....
We'll see it as a public relations case, and a dramatic illustration of what happens when there are as many journalists as there are players....all shouting to be heard.
the story will end when it becomes hip and provocative to point the finger where it rightfully belongs.....at the haters (see: Wilbon).
the honeymoon for this team ended long ago, the media has been desperate for any dirt whatsoever....I guess I'm not that surprised anymore.
Bottom line is we've never seen a team win this much over this long a stretch....not the bears in the 40s, or the Packers of the 30s/60s, browns of the 50s, and certainly not any team since. And given that it's the parity era (where teams go to the super bowl and are never heard from again), writers like Peter King CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE SUCCESS....so they hear videotape and start connecting dots....cheating, spying, etc....
it's real simple: the team is managed by an individual who is ruthlessly committed to maintaining an economically sustainable personnel model year in and year out (fans, media, ownership and loveable veterans be damned), and who is one of the brightest football minds (on both sides of the ball) the league has ever seen....and even more importantly, who also happened to steal the greatest draft coup in history, in an era when the differences at the QB position almost singlehandedly delineate league ranks.
same old boring story for years now -- no wizard behind the curtain, no rain man in the booth.
great coach, great QB.
sorry.
...or rather, suck it.
