Now Skip Bayless Must Retract A Well-Worn Libel

ESPN - you have to make another apology.

8/21/15:

Regarding Belichick at 3:28 of the video:

"He was caught red handed another time, in Spygate, having the defensive signals of a rival videotaped and SHOWN TO HIS TEAM AT HALFTIME........"

Then this %$#& goes on to say 'we never heard these kinds of things about Lombradi or Walsh or Shula!'

Yes, Skip, that's because they worked in an era where there weren't any carnival barkers on TV 24/7 making up false and libelous claims.

shmessy said:

ESPN - you have to make another apology.

8/21/15:

Regarding Belichick at 3:28 of the video:

"He was caught red handed another time, in Spygate, having the defensive signals of a rival videotaped and SHOWN TO HIS TEAM AT HALFTIME........"

Then this %$#& goes on to say 'we never heard these kinds of things about Lombradi or Walsh or Shula!'

Yes, Skip, that's because they worked in an era where there weren't carnival barkers on TV 24/7 making up false and libelous claims.

Click to expand...

One nit to pick: a libel by definition is false.

How many signals can you steal, translate, and review at halftime?

How can you be the best at cheating because you never get caught cheating?

vyrago said:

One nit to pick: a libel by definition is false.

Click to expand...

Thanks - I edited the title!

"Spygate" will never be made whole.. ESPN has repeated the lies surrounding it so many times it has became fact..

John Tomase helped perpetuate the lies immensely.. and even though he apologized, he contributed mightily towards this...

To be honest, when I first heard about Spygate I felt let down. I only listened to the headlines and catch phrases initially. Once I read a complete take on it I was shocked about how blown up putting a camera in the wrong position became. I am still amazed how much crap has been added to that story over the years.

I've also heard Belichick would sneak through the windows of opposing players' homes at night, go to their bedrooms and steal their diaries. Then on game day, he would go shake their hands and simultaneously whisper about the things they feared the most.

Unsurprisingly, he was often whispering about himself.

Is that even against any rule? I mean everyone in the stadium can see teams signals.

Tony2046 said:

To be honest, when I first heard about Spygate I felt let down. I only listened to the headlines and catch phrases initially. Once I read a complete take on it I was shocked about how blown up putting a camera in the wrong position became. I am still amazed how much crap has been added to that story over the years.

Click to expand...

That's funny, I remember when I first heard about it too. I remember thinking, meh, that's not a big deal. The penalty that Goodell gave them for it set the narrative so much for how people perceive it.

Belichick consistently maintained that the tapes were never used during the course of a game. In fact, that was part of his rationale that the taping itself did not violate any rules.

Even Commissioner Scheisskopf was forced to accept that NE never used tapes during games. Why? Because much to Scheisskopf's obvious and public disappointment, his star witness, the one and only Matt Walsh, corroborated Belichick's account that the person filming had the tapes for the entire game.

Zeus said:

Belichick consistently maintained that the tapes were never used during the course of a game. In fact, that was part of his rationale that the taping itself did not viloate any rules.

Even Commissioner Scheisskopf was forced to accept that NE never used tapes during games. Why? Because much to Scheisskopf's obvious and public disappointment, his star witness, the one and only Matt Walsh, corroborated Belichick's account that the person filming had the tapes for the entire game.

Click to expand...

.....and yet, Skip Bayless is falsely claiming on TV that Belichick DID show these tapes to his team at halftime Week 1 of the 2007 season in the Meadowlands.

Zeus said:

Belichick consistently maintained that the tapes were never used during the course of a game. In fact, that was part of his rationale that the taping itself did not viloate any rules.

Even Commissioner Scheisskopf was forced to accept that NE never used tapes during games. Why? Because much to Scheisskopf's obvious and public disappointment, his star witness, the one and only Matt Walsh, corroborated Belichick's account that the person filming had the tapes for the entire game.

Click to expand...

Matt Walsh also testified that the Patriots wouldnt even ask for the tapes for days, sometimes up to a week.

This from a man that was airing every bit of a dirty laundry he knew of.. for example a Patriot's player practicing while on IR (I think it was Faulk).

In my opinion, the only "crime" that could come of taping the opposing sidelines is if a team was able to break their signals during halftime which clearly wasn't the case with Spygate.

Robert Kraft stated that the Patriots used this practice to keep other teams from getting lazy and make them change their signals from game to game.

Being forced to remember new signals week to week leaves plenty of room for mistakes and miscommunication and cuts down on the time available to actually game plan.

Tony2046 said:

To be honest, when I first heard about Spygate I felt let down. I only listened to the headlines and catch phrases initially. Once I read a complete take on it I was shocked about how blown up putting a camera in the wrong position became. I am still amazed how much crap has been added to that story over the years.

Click to expand...

Rumor has it the Pats could see Russia from that camera position.

So the officials in Defamegate couldn't measure 24 balls for PSI at halftime, but the Patriots could edit, analyze, set up, show and coach their team on defensive signals in that span?

BB is a god.

The misinformation that continues to be propagated by Patriots Haters is very frustrating. The media should be taken to task for continuing to spread lies and hurting the Patriots brand.

aluminum seats said:

That's funny, I remember when I first heard about it too. I remember thinking, meh, that's not a big deal. The penalty that Goodell gave them for it set the narrative so much for how people perceive it.

Click to expand...

Yep. I thought the same thing when D&C asked Brady about deflated footballs.

50-yard-line said:

So the officials in Defamegate couldn't measure 24 balls for PSI at halftime, but the Patriots could edit, analyze, set up, show and coach their team on defensive signals in that span?

BB is a god.

Click to expand...

I mean really

Danger Zone said:

Matt Walsh also testified that the Patriots wouldnt even ask for the tapes for days, sometimes up to a week.

This from a man that was airing every bit of a dirty laundry he knew of.. for example a Patriot's player practicing while on IR (I think it was Faulk).

In my opinion, the only "crime" that could come of taping the opposing sidelines is if a team was able to break their signals during halftime which clearly wasn't the case with Spygate.

Robert Kraft stated that the Patriots used this practice to keep other teams from getting lazy and make them change their signals from game to game.

Being forced to remember new signals week to week leaves plenty of room for mistakes and miscommunication and cuts down on the time available to actually game plan.

Click to expand...

I read that Kraft said that, but my understanding was that it was used in the days after the game to map out the defensive plays to make it easier to breakdown the game film. It was a common practice in the league going back to the 80s. Jimmie Johnson said he did in the 90s because some of his assistants from other teams taught him to do it. He said he eventually stopped the practice because he did not find it worth the time and effort.

It's also ridiculous that it's called "spy" gate. How is it spying when the the refs, league officials, and the opposing players and coaches can see the guy? He wasn't hiding.

It's such a shame that most football fans don't understand what Cameragate was really about. The media sucks. And of course Goodell sucks.

As long as they are winning and taking home Lombardi's on a semi-regular basis the media isn't going to retract any lies....and even when they have a down year, they will be accused of cheating in prior years and thats why they were winning...

As a Patriot fan...it's a losing battle.

I heard one time, Bellichick snuck into skip bayless's home, found where his mom had hidden the christmas presents, made a list of everything that skip was going to get, and then told skip, completely ruining the surprise.