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Tom Curran was on FSNE tonight and said he thought (info from mangini?) that the jets desperately tried to get their hands on the tape before NFL Security got it, to no avail, because the Pats security team wouldn't allow it.
To me, it makes perfect sense. EM wa trying to prevent BB from continuing his practice of taping (for future games?). BB didn't. EM tried to stop it by seizing the tape, and it got totally out of hand.
Personally? I believe it. If you watch the tape of the game, mangini was VERY upset during the game, before it got out of hand, after the altercation began (before halftime). I thought it was because the Jets were getting beat. Looking at it again? I think he was upset because he knew this could destroy a lifetime of relationships, and possibly his career in the NFL, certainly his relationship with his best friend, his mentor, his hero, Bill Belichick.
Could this be one reason BB looks somewhat calm in the intervews? Or why the commish was pretty lenient in the punishment? Did Mangini go to the commish and make his case defending BB? Did BB hear his side of it?
Honestly? I think this is the truth. It feels right to me. Mangini just doesn't have it in him to do this. He isn't the scumbag he would have to be to do this.
I think you're right -- Mangini never intended it to get out of hand the way it did. But the "getting out of hand" part happened after the game when the media got a hold of the story. Mangini looked upset during the game strictly because the Pats were kicking his ass.
My theory is that Mangini, like any rational person, expected the Pats would get a slap on the wrist from the NFL if they were caught in a technical violation of the camera rule. Getting the Pats busted like this is consistent with the "border war" that's been going on for a while now.
Unfortunately, the media blew everything out of proportion and the punishment, far from being lenient like you say, was incredibly harsh. So ironically, Mangini emerges as a big loser. Law of unintended consequences. I have no sympathy for him.
AFTER the fine was levied, Mangini demanded that the League look at the Patriots' radio frequency violations as well.
So much for Mangini's intentions. He is indeed trying to destroy BB's career--and the Patriots--and I'll bet he's being aided and abetted by his own front office, which has long hated BB.
On another point, I think BB is enormously misunderstood. He doesn't hate the press. He simply doesn't want to give any information to his opponents. Any. The press is naturally frustrated by this and calls him arrogant or standoffish, but that's not really the case.
BB is just completely focussed on his job: winning games. He is genuinely obsessed with winning and he's smart enough to see ways of getting an edge that no one else has thought of or that no one has the drive to follow through.
NFL teams rely heavily on deception, on and off the field. It is a key aspect of football, often underestimated. And with the determination to deceive comes its mirror-image: the determination to uncover the deception.
Coaches great and small have always tried to get an edge on the competition and their efforts have often violated rules. Here's an example from my youth, involving Paul Brown, a coach very much in the mold of Bill B.:
From the PFW archives:
"In 1994, the National Football League instituted the use of a radio helmet to allow for limited communication from the sidelines to the quarterback on the field. While it might seem that such a technological advancement was a first, the idea was actually nearly 40 years old.
In 1956, two Ohio inventors, John Campbell and George Sarles, approached Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns with a radio receiver they had developed. The two theorized that the radio could be placed in a helmet to help Brown communicate with his players on the field. In doing so, Brown would eliminate the delays caused by his utilization of substitute players who ran the plays from the sideline to the huddle.
Brown liked the idea and agreed to put the radio receiver into QB George Ratterman’s helmet but insisted that the plan be kept a secret and thoroughly tested before ever being used in an actual game. The radio was carefully mounted into the helmet and, using the seclusion of a wooded area behind Campbell's home, the pair proceeded to test the unit. Sarles retreated to the woods with the helmet. The signal became weak, and communication broke off. When Sarles did not return, Campbell set out to find his partner. Soon thereafter, he spotted Sarles talking with a police officer who had intercepted the signal. Fortunately for Sarles and Campbell, the officer was a Browns fan and agreed to keep the discovery under wraps. Nonetheless, the pair changed the frequency on the unit.
The helmet was first used, to perfection, in an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions. However, the Lions’ coaching staff began to notice that Brown was not using his usual substitutions for play-calling. Shortly after halftime, one of the Lions’ assistants spotted the partially hidden transmitter, which sat behind a wooden light post on the sideline.
News quickly spread throughout the league, and other teams scrambled to devise their own units, none of which proved as effective as the Sarles-Campbell invention. The Browns used the helmet in three more games before NFL commissioner Bert Bell outlawed the use of the device.
In 1985, John Campbell donated the headgear to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ratterman’s helmet is now on display in an exhibit with other recent innovations, including a modern-day radio helmet."
I guess Paul Brown, maybe the greatest coach in NFL history, was a "cheater". If the great Bert Bell had had the wisdom of our current genius Commish, he would dragged Brown's name through the mud, publicly humilated him, taken away draft picks and fined Paul Brown an enormous sum. Unfortunately, he lacked Doofus Goodell's wsidom and merely handled the issue in a sensible, equitable manner for the good of the game. What an idiot that Bert Bell was. He should have been a PR fraud instead of a War hero.