OT: Atlanta / Cleveland Punishments

OK. So the punishments for rules violations are as follows:

Atlanta - For piping in crowd noise during games

Rich McKay - Suspended from the Competition Committee for 3+months
Team - $350K fine .
Roddy White (Fmr Director of Event Marketing) - 8 game Suspension (was fired by the Falcons prior to decision)
Loss of Highest 2016 5th round draft pick (meaning that if they trade for one that is higher than their own between now and the draft, that is the one they lose).

Cleveland - for Texting to sidelines during game
GM Ray Farmer - 4 game suspension w/o pay
Team - Fined $250K

Personally, I don't think that McKay was punished enough since he's not actually being hit in the pocket book. And I don't think Atlanta was hit enough because what they did was more Egregious than Cameragate..

The public doesn't care about these two things. So the league punished accordingly. If either of these two violations got half the attention that deflategate got, both teams would have gotten far harsher punishments. Both teams were rewarded for being bad franchises that no one cares about.

One thing that I read out of this: IF the Pats somehow get compensation for the Jets tampering with Revis, it will be a 2016 pick, NOT a 2015 pick. I had thought it would be hard for even the NFL to take 2015 picks away from Cleveland and Atlanta and not the Jets; but by giving them a slap on the wrist and having the only draft pick taken away being a late round 2016 pick, the league office has covered their collective asses. They can make a token gesture and still talk out the side of their mouths about "protecting the shield" and "preserving the integrity of the game".

How far does the league's quest for parity go?

There has been little or no real in depth analysis into exactly what happened and what the perceived ramifications of the offences were.

The first we really heard of 'Noisegate' - it was the mea culpa from Arthur Blank - and that largely served to kill the story before it had a chance to gain traction.

New news become old news in the space of a day.

In view of these weak-ass 'punishments' the narrative being established is that it's not so bad to get caught breaking the rules - as long as you own up to it as soon as possible.

Atlanta has been piping crowd noise into the stadium for the best part of 2 years - and that just the stuff that we know about - yet by handing the Ommissioner an easy fall guy - everything is just fine and dandy.

To be honest, I know very little about Textgate - the content of the texts, who sent/received them etc - it feels like something that shouldn't really be a problem - but rather some sort of outdated piece of the rulebook raising its ugly head.

I often wonder about why the league appears to have favorite sons - some of them are obvious - the Jets and Colts for example - and also why some teams are so harshly treated - New Orleans, Washington for example.

livinginthe past said:

I often wonder about why the league appears to have favorite sons - some of them are obvious - the Jets and Colts for example - and also why some teams are so harshly treated - New Orleans, Washington for example.

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This. It just doesn't make sense. And the "press" is just so enraptured with the NFL that they are completely blind to it.

Atlanta did something for two years that had a direct impact on the game and quality of play, and got almost nothing for a punishment. And the individuals involved were barely touched. Compare that to what Belichick got for his transgression.

I hope I don't get so used to this that I get numb.

Anyone here really believe that the Colts didn't pipe in crowd noise during Manning's reign?

I don't understand how filming something that is allowed to be filmed but doing it from the wrong location deserves a stronger punishment than artificially creating noise that disrupts the opponent from executing their offense.
One affects a game and the competitve balance and the other does not. The penalties are backwards.

PatsWickedPissah said:

Anyone here really believe that the Colts didn't pipe in crowd noise during Manning's reign?

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Remember that TV broadcast with the weird feedback sound in Indy? Zo was in the stadium and swears that that sound could be heard there live, not just on the TV. Had that been at Gillette, the Pats woulda lost at least a first rounder, BB would have been suspended for a year and both BB and Kraft would have been fined the maximum amount allowed. It also would have been a media ****storm that dwarfed deflate-gate and camera-gate combined.

I believed BB when he said they do everything they can to err on the side of caution and not break the rules. There is a target on his back and he knows it. The NFL is currently experiencing the greatest coach-qb combo that it has ever seen. Instead of relishing in this golden age, the NFL is doing everything it can to defame and ruin these legends. It is tragic and is a perfect example of the corruption that is eating away at the foundation of the league. When enough of the foundation is gone, the NFL will crumble under it's own weight.

I remember that well, including Zo's comments.
I have really grown to despise the league intensely for their continued, concerted effort to unjustly besmirch both Brady and Belichick. Brady because he threatens (now demolished) media darling Peyton and BB because he & Brady kick their asses, season after season.

I was shocked at how cheaply the Falcons got off. What they did is CLEARLY more egregious than Spygate.

Plus I agree with Mayo that no way the League gives takes a 2015 pick away from the Jets if they didn't do it for the Falcons.

I think the league is waiting to issue the Jets punishment so that it can push it to 2016.

I think this is setting up to be a giant let down for Pats fans..

The Wells investigation will come out as "inconclusive" and the only thing accomplished will be the further sullying of the Pats name without any proof.

The Jets will have to swap a 7th round pick in 2019 for their tampering

This punishment is like a bad joke. In my opinion its a direct slap in the face to the Pats. Basically what the league has said, we have made a big thing about this integrity issue. We dragged your name into the mud for 2 weeks and left you hanging. And now at the first the first opportunity that the league has had to ACTUALLY catch some0ne cheating, we slapped them on a the wrist with such an embarrassing weak punishment that EVERYONE in the league and media will know that this entire 8 year long "cheating smear campaign" was designed to do just ONE thing. damage the NE Patriot legacy and bring them back to the pack. If anyone can think of a better possibility, I'd love to hear it.

Outside of putting 12 men on the field, there is no more unfair advantage that one team can gain over another greater than adding artificial noise. Not only does it affect vital communications between players, it can add up to a second more efficiency to a home team's pass rush, and there is no more critical part of the game than that. However evidently the league doesn't think so. Given the punishment, or lack thereof, I can't think of a single reason why any home team WOULDN'T try to pump in more noise, especially when the rewards far outweigh the possible risks.

If you don't see this lack of any real response as being something less than a direct attack on the Pats then you aren't seeing the forest for the trees. God I wish I was wrong, but virtually every day keeps adding additional evidence. The league has once again been made a fool of, and they just don't care. They will weather this 3 day embarrassment (if it lasts that long) and keep moving along.
When you compare this virtual non-story to the 5 alarm league sanctioned and supported 2 week smear campaign that followed the AFCCG you kind of get my drift. I can almost guarantee the despite the lack of ANY substantive evidence, the Pats will come off looking worse than the cheating Falcons did today, when the Welles report finally comes out.'


I don't blame BB for felling a bit paranoid. The fact is....if they are all out to get you, you aren't being paranoid.

USA Today has an article speculating about the vicious punishment the Pats could face once the Wells report comes out. They (the national press & their NE Quislings) ARE after us.

The penalty is commensurate with the level of play that it gets on ESPN.....

DarrylS said:

The penalty is commensurate with the level of play that it gets on ESPN.....

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When you think about the fact that the NFL is in the Entertainment Business,
those two specific words explain a lot of the front office's otherwise seemingly irrational behavior.

The NFL is about PR not about 'justice'. They are selling a product not striving for an ideal society.

The sooner you accept that the sooner you stop being outraged when camera placement warrants a 1st round pick and piping in crowd noise gets a slap on the wrist.

Both should have been slaps on the wrist.

DaBruinz said:

OK. So the punishments for rules violations are as follows:

Atlanta - For piping in crowd noise during games

Roddy White (Fmr Director of Event Marketing) - 8 game Suspension (was fired by the Falcons prior to decision)

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Do I really have to be the first person to wonder how the hell a team has both a player named Roddy White and a back office employee named Roddy White?

Also, these punishments are sad but unsurprising.

fnordcircle said:

The NFL is about PR not about 'justice'.

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Much like government here and abroad.

I think the state of the franchise probably has something to do with the punishments as well. If the Browns and Falcons were in the AFC/NFC Championship game this year, there would've been more outrage and thus a harsher punishment. But as we know the Browns have been bad forever, and the Falcons were good somewhat recently before dropping off the face of the earth the last couple years.

Basically it equates to... If the team is routinely very successful and there's a cheating allegation made (Pats) = "OMFG cheaters!!!!! Belicheat!!!"
If the team has been successful at times but has mainly been at or below average and there's a cheating allegation (Falcons) = "Eh, it didn't help them so what's the harm."

Ipso facto, integrity of the game doesn't exist. Only perception of integrity.

I find it encouraging that the results for DeflateGate did not come on the same day as these real transgressions. It means that the NFL isn't just going to lump it in with them and that we might see good results.

the league just cant handle that maybe brady and Bill are just that much more consistently good then the rest, so they always need an excuse as to why they keep winning.

no superbowls since spygate quickly transistioned to no superbowls since deflate gate. even if we win next year they will find some other tiny completely irrelevent fact. **** I bet you it'll be something like "well they have not won a superbowl since aaron hernandez was found guilty."