NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed! [mergedx4]

[PatsWickedPissah]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

Just read the NFL's words -- the statement, the commissioner's interview, the e-mail to Reiss, and the three Aeilo comments from last week. They really tell you every thing you need to know about what this is, and has always, been about -- and it's nothing remotely close to what's been reported.

Excellent analysis on the topic and your words about 'reporting' ring true for non-sports as well. Think about it when you read the media's take on anything.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

Excellent analysis on the topic and your words about 'reporting' ring true for non-sports as well. Think about it when you read the media's take on anything.

The few times in my life I've had personal knowledge about a newsworthy event, it's been shocking how far from accurate the reporting about it was.

I think that's common. Yet, when we read stories about which we do not have personal knowledge, we assume they are accurate. Kind of funny, I guess.

 

[patsfanofNC12]

Thank the heavens that this has finally ended. I couldn't take any more of this stuff.

 

[Bella*chick]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

How exactly is that?

The story says the NFL required the patriots to sign a statement that they had complied. I imagine if it were discovered they did not, the commissioner would have vast power to hammer them, and I imagine he would do exactly that.

If the Patriots signed a statement with the NFL that said they did something they did not do, I do not think there is any sanction we could rightfully complain about, including a ban from the league for those involved. It would be the most blatent violation imaginable. On what possible ground do you say that Goodell wouldn't be able to do a thing? I think absolutely nothing would be off limits.

That said, I am virtually certain that lawyers were involved in this, and this is an extremely common circumstance in the law. You are required to turn over documents, and you do it. You certify that you do it. There is nothing to ensure that you do it or to keep from destroying information, other than certain knowledge that if you, by some chance, are caught, you will be hammered and possibly disbarred.

I also wouldn't be surprised at all if the Patriots were required to make their "written statement" of compliance under penalty of perjury, which would turn noncompliance from a league matter into a criminal matter.

There is no part of me that believes that, having signed a statement, the patriots have not done exactly what they said they would do, and that nobody associated with the team is stupid enough to blatently disregard a league directive in this manner. I take Belichick fully at his word when asked about compliance when he said, "of course," and Kraft has spent enough time around lawyers and document productions to not be as stupid as some of you are suggesting.

I agree.

It is astonishing to me that anyone would think the Patriots would sign a written statement and then defy it after all that's happened. I can't even imagine what the consequences would be.

My guess is the stuff wasn't all that helpful anyway. Maybe a little bit, but not so much that the loss is devastating.

 

[jbb9s]

Did anyone ever remember rumors that ex-Florida players who went up against the Redskins, when Spurrior was there, knew certain indications in audibles and signals because, supposidely, Spurriors system was vastly similar to his college years. Got me thinking: what coordinator/HC wouldn't change these by season, game, even half. What the hell do they do for 100 hours a week? Those damn tapes are probably worthless. I hope the Colts don't burn us because BB doesn't have his 2000 Tampa Bay tapes - not.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Re: NFL clears Pats per Reiss

I think it's over. I said all along Goodell wasn't looking for more evidence in the tapes and notes, just looking to eliminate them as part of his sentencing.

That's not to say other allegations or claims won't surface or keep being rehashed by the media to keep the story alive, but as Aiello said absent evidence that's all any of that will be.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Then there's the story that Jon Gruden tacitly acknowledged that after he left the Raiders, they (Raiders) didn't change their audibles. The next year the Raiders met Tampa in the Super Bowl and picked off Raider QBs 5 times, returning three for TDs......

 

[sebman2112]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

You're buying into the reporting of this thing. The sexy story during the Sunday night game was that Goodell had requested the tapes to do a further investigation. But the only person saying that was the press. It was most definitely not what Goodell was saying. I posted here afterwards exactly this while everyone was freaking out about a "witch hunt." When you listened to what the commissioner and the league were saying, instead of the press, it was not that they wished to go through the Patriots dirty laundry, but instead that they wished to ensure that, as part of the sanction, the patriots were not allowed to profit from their mistaken "interpretation" of the rules.

Accordingly, once Belichick defended the Jets tape by offering his "interpretation," Goodell said, "no, that's wrong -- and it seems to me to be a conscious attempt to skirt the intent of the rule, so I'm going to fine you and take a draft pick." This is what the league release about the sanctions says. Moreover, Goodell said, to the extent you have been using this "interpretation" to make other tapes, you can't keep them. Your interpretation was wrong, and these tapes are essentially ill gotten gains, so you can't have them.

That's all the "other tapes" issue has ever been about -- not about any kind of witch hunt or league attempt to investigate more alleged rule breaking.

The press not only is too stupid to get these things right, they have an interest in painting them to be something they are not. Don't buy into it.

Yea, during the week some of us were posting that what the commish actually said was he wanted the tapes and notes related to taping defensive signals, not all their tapes and notes so he could explore them for more illegal activity. The Patriots were already punished for illegally taping, and BB already talked to the commish and told him he'd give him the tapes. It was pretty obvious the commish knew they had other tapes when he issued his ruling. If anyone thought NE was going to get further punishment once he got those tapes they were off their respective rockers.

I also like how Greg Aiello said they have no evidence the Patriots were putting mics on d-linemen, which is what I said all along. The Jets or any other team can complain over things they suspect but unless they actually have some evidence nothing will ever happen.

 

[sebman2112]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

There isn't any reason why they wouldn't have...it has been legal for most of the history of the NFL. Only recently was it illegal.

Why they had to give over tapes prior to this year escapes me. Anybody know?

I don't know if it's been illegal for any longer of a period, but I know it's been illegal since at least the start of the 2006 season.

 

[jsinger121]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

How exactly is that?

The story says the NFL required the patriots to sign a statement that they had complied. I imagine if it were discovered they did not, the commissioner would have vast power to hammer them, and I imagine he would do exactly that.

If the Patriots signed a statement with the NFL that said they did something they did not do, I do not think there is any sanction we could rightfully complain about, including a ban from the league for those involved. It would be the most blatent violation imaginable. On what possible ground do you say that Goodell wouldn't be able to do a thing? I think absolutely nothing would be off limits.

That said, I am virtually certain that lawyers were involved in this, and this is an extremely common circumstance in the law. You are required to turn over documents, and you do it. You certify that you do it. There is nothing to ensure that you do it or to keep from destroying information, other than certain knowledge that if you, by some chance, are caught, you will be hammered and possibly disbarred.

I also wouldn't be surprised at all if the Patriots were required to make their "written statement" of compliance under penalty of perjury, which would turn noncompliance from a league matter into a criminal matter.

There is no part of me that believes that, having signed a statement, the patriots have not done exactly what they said they would do, and that nobody associated with the team is stupid enough to blatently disregard a league directive in this manner. I take Belichick fully at his word when asked about compliance when he said, "of course," and Kraft has spent enough time around lawyers and document productions to not be as stupid as some of you are suggesting.

If people don't think BB made duplicates then they are pretty stupid. He is a master at stuff like this. Do you think he would ever fully give the NFL any of his scouting reports of opposing D coordinators or anything else without making copies. Yes he signed an agreement but that was for materials that were at Patriot headquarters but i bet alot of stuff is in BB's house in which the NFL does not have access to. Unless employees go to BB's house which I couldn't see him doing unless he trusts them to death then the NFL has no other evidence that we have additional materials.

 

[SamBam39]

ok Mangini, now, for the rest of your career, walk very carfefully, and watch your back. One slip up, is all anyone is gonna need.

Dead Man Walking.

 

[Bostonian1962]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

This is odd. Why would Goodell ask for them, and then just destroy them. When a case is solved, do they just destroy all the evidence? I realize this would be hundreds of hours of work to review, but you'd think he would want to take a look. Tapes destroyed=Swept under the rug. Plus, it will truely never be over*.

I guess he figured, he just gave the Patriots coach the biggest fine in history, and the biggest draft pick penalty, for essentially whatever was on the video half way through the first quarter of the opening game of the season.

He probably looked at some of the tapes, didn't find squat, and this approach makes him look least like a baffoon. He can say, we destroyed every possible thing the Patriots used to prepare for games since Bellichick has been here, they can never get an unfair "edge" over another team again.

He probably wants it to go away. He's got the issue of the Competion Committee, or his wife, or whomever leaking the video. He's found the wiring of the helmets to be a crock of $h!t! He's got respected former coaches like Madden and Johnson basically saying this has been the norm in the league forever, and now he (Goodell) a former Jets employee slams the Patriots.

We'll never know this, but I would not be shocked if while the league turned over a few more rocks they found out that the buzz is true, and that many teams work very hard at trying to decipher other teams' signals. We know the Dolphins did it to the Patriots last year. We know Al Davis, and Mike Shanahan, and George Allen have made a science out of it. They may have even found that other teams tape it too.

I didn't mean to have this long of a post, but the bottom line is, Goodell has a whole bunch of reasons why he wants this to go away.

 

[spacecrime]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

If the Patriots signed a statement with the NFL that said they did something they did not do, I do not think there is any sanction we could rightfully complain about, including a ban from the league for those involved. It would be the most blatent violation imaginable.

Getting a little melodramatic, are we? The most blatant violation imaginable?

You can't think of anything worse a team can do than tell a lie?

Go watch bangcartoon.com

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

ok Mangini, now, for the rest of your career, walk very carfefully, and watch your back. One slip up, is all anyone is gonna need.

Dead Man Walking.

I am actually kinda scared reading this... ...seriously though it is a card in the deck of all NE haters and will be pulled out and played whenever they want.

I personally think time will lessen the blow, along with a SB win this year. I feel like Brady does. You just don't waste your effort on the mounds of criticism, why bother, it is too overwhelming, and people are going to believe what they want.

Seriously, as fans, it's time to move on, and look forward...this latest news is a bit of closure for us, it has to be...

 

[Vern]

It's on ESPN.com now, a tiny little blurb under "team news" on the home page
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3029661

 

[psychoPat]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

There isn't any reason why they wouldn't have...it has been legal for most of the history of the NFL. Only recently was it illegal.

Why they had to give over tapes prior to this year escapes me. Anybody know?

One word. Parity.

To paraphrase a great American,
extremism in pursuit of parity is no vice - as Park Avenue sees it.

 

[SVN]

what would happen if jay glazer shows clips of one of the destroyed tapes ??

 

[psychoPat]

Re: NFL league office: All Patriots tapes have been destroyed!

....
He probably wants it to go away. He's got the issue of the Competion Committee, or his wife, or whomever leaking the video. He's found the wiring of the helmets to be a crock of $h!t! He's got respected former coaches like Madden and Johnson basically saying this has been the norm in the league forever, and now he (Goodell) a former Jets employee slams the Patriots.

.... the bottom line is, Goodell has a whole bunch of reasons why he wants this to go away.

And one of that whole bunch of reasons is that
he initially got into this because his vanity was wounded
when BB ignored his special policy innovation and emphasis (the memo).

 

[lobster]

By destroying the evidence Belichick can never demonstrate he wasn't cheating in a past season playoff win or Super Bowl. Nobody even knows what seasons were covered by the evidence.

 

[FilPats]

Let's get it on. :rocker: Go Pats.