Armchair Quarterback
In the Starting Line-Up
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.....and yet, Skip Bayless is falsely claiming on TV that they Belichick DID show these tapes to his team at halftime Week 1 of the 2007 season in the Meadowlands.
I hear you on the Kraft/Spygate capitulation. At the time it sucked.You can thank Kraft's original capitulation for the record never being set straight on this. Their surrender on this never sat right with me. But Kraft has made a ton of money with the Pats being cheating public enemy #1, so it's all good.
Umm, this isn't?One nit to pick: a libel by definition is false.
Umm, this isn't?
I hear you on the Kraft/Spygate capitulation. At the time it sucked.
However part of me wonders if they had gone to the mattresses, how much of a distraction would it have been to the 07 season?
Yep. Since that time players have come out and said it was a major distraction. I think Bru and Harrison are on record as saying that.Good point. On the other hand, Tomase took care of that angle all by himself.
ALAN FANECA, Steelers Guard
"At Tampa Bay, I had the ball at the bottom of the pile. It was away from my body, and I was trying to pull it toward me. Two guys were pulling my arms apart. A guy was digging into my ribs. Another guy was digging into my ear. The only way you'll keep the ball in that situation is if you have a teammate helping you and you can get it into your body and cradle it. Anyway, I lost the ball. There were still four people on top of me, including that ear guy. I said, 'I don't have the freaking ball anymore, stop digging in my ear.'"
IKE REESE, Eagles Linebacker
"When we played the Patriots last year [Eagles running back] Brian Westbrook fumbled a punt, and we were all down there scrambling for it. [Patriots linebacker] Mike Vrabel had my testicles in his hand, and he was squeezing them. Where the football ends up depends on who has the strongest will or the strongest hands. Guys reach inside the face mask to gouge your eyes. But the biggest thing is the grabbing of the testicles. It is crazy."
MARCO RIVERA, Packers Guard
"I've had guys go for the privates, guys try to put their elbow in my neck, guys reaching inside my helmet. It's really violent down there, trying to get that ball. It's dangerous. In my third year at Penn State, there was a fumble in the end zone. I dived for it with my arms outstretched, and five guys landed on me. Blew out my shoulder. I had to have surgery. That was the closest I've come to scoring a touchdown."
CORNELL BROWN, Ravens Linebacker
"The worst part is when the fat guys pile on top of you. All the wind is gone out of you, and you're still trying to fight. It scares you. You feel like you can't breathe, and you want everyone to get off you. I don't want people doing me wrong in there."
DAN WILKINSON, Lions Defensive Tackle
"There is no such thing as honor in there. You're talking about a possible game-winning or -losing situation. The ball generally changes hands only once. You have trouble breathing in the pile, let alone having enough room for the ball to be moving around. There's usually one thief able to take it away from somebody, and that's the end of it."
BEN LEBER, Chargers Linebacker
"I don't know if people really want to know what goes on down there: Basically anything you can't get away with on the field, you can get away with under that pile. Nobody can see you. The go-to spots are the eyes and the family jewels. If anybody grabs your family jewels, you are going to let go. In the pile you hear some screams of pain, but you don't know where it is coming from -- unless it's you."
STEVE GLEASON, Saints Safety
"We were playing Tampa Bay last year, and I just about lost my manhood trying to recover a fumble on a punt. I was shocked. I had the ball in my hand, and someone was reaching from behind me -- between my legs. I recovered the fumble, but when I got in the shower after the game, I literally had claw marks all over my inner thighs."
BRENTSON BUCKNER, Panthers DT
"See where somebody bit me right there [points to a scar on his right wrist]. This was my second year, against Cleveland, when I was trying to scoop the ball out of a pile. I don't know who bit me, but after the game I had to get a little [tetanus] shot. That was cool, though. The worst for me is that I can get claustrophobic. You're under there, and it's like everything closes in. I get scared sometimes because your head is stuck in the dirt, and it's like you can't breathe."
JASON FERGUSON, Jets Nosetackle
"My rookie year, me and [then teammate] linebacker Pepper Johnson were on the bottom. I heard Pepper yelling, 'Get the ball!' and I remembered something he told me: 'You've always got to grab a finger in a pile.' Well, he grabbed somebody's finger in that pile, and sure enough he came out with the ball. Just like proving an old rule."
KEYDRICK VINCENT, Steelers Guard
"The defensive linemen grab at your nuts, people try to poke your eyes out. If you're on the bottom, close in and tuck, do the fetal position. It's real ugly down there. But no spitting. Think about it -- you might spit on yourself."
I hear you on the Kraft/Spygate capitulation. At the time it sucked.
However part of me wonders if they had gone to the mattresses, how much of a distraction would it have been to the 07 season?
...and keep NE away from winning the big game ? They didn't - so who cares ? I'm done w Kraft. This acceptance of the 2015 penalty was idiotic.I hear you on the Kraft/Spygate capitulation. At the time it sucked.
However part of me wonders if they had gone to the mattresses, how much of a distraction would it have been to the 07 season?
Not much more than it already was. Capitulation did nothing to set aside that "distraction". Might as well have taken it on head-on.
I expected better from Skip honestly.
What Kraft should have done was refuse to accept the penalty and publicly declare his position/intentions after Brady's litigation vs the NFL was complete....and keep NE away from winning the big game ? They didn't - so who cares ? I'm done w Kraft. This acceptance of the 2015 penalty was idiotic.
Once the penalties were dished out the story went pretty much away.
My thought is that if BB and Kraft chose to fight and BB took the league to court and Bob decided to put up a website and go to arbitration during the middle of the season it would have been a major distraction.
It went away after the penalties were dished out? People still talk about it to this day. It definitely didn't go away at any point that season. There was multiple articles coming out every week about Spygate.
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.