NFL's mouthpiece (ESPN) at it again with OTL piece on cameragate

[DaBruinz]

I've always wondered why the Patriots don't bring this up more when talking about all of this....Every team looks for an advantage, its not a big deal, its a part of sports. I'm not mad at the Rams for trying to spy on the Pat's all is fair in love and war, besides paying off the refs or using PED's, its all gamesmanship.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/content/who-was-spying-the-patriots/6412/

Here is the link to the NYT article referenced by CHFF.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/02/sports/pro-football-notebook-brady-says-ankle-is-fine.html.

Halfway through practice, Patriots' linebackers coach Pepper Johnson noticed something in a third-floor window of a house next to the field.

Club and league officials said a telescope was clearly visible in the window, according to a pool report, and that 15 minutes later, a person appeared at the window, and then vanished.

Officials scanned the window with binoculars, but the person never returned.

 

[RecoveringCowboy]

Supposedly Goodell feared Arlen Spector would spearhead a congressional conversation, and pressured others (Mike Martz is on the record of saying so) of publicly saying that the filming was no big deal.

Story is now on bspn.com, if anyone cares to to read it.

Sen Spector - the author of the "Magic Bullet" that killed JFK without the benefit of a video covering the entire shooting.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

I think ESPN is covering for the fact that the tapes were never actually destroyed. Kraft sent them by mail to the NFL as requested but the league never received them. Rather than risk an investigation into their incompetence, they just said they got rid of it. The tapes are probably in the same place as the Ray Rice video, the latest version of the CBA which Goodell didn't bother to look at, and Pash, who is still hiding from Brady and Kessler.

This is gutless and cowardice from a league that continues to **** themselves in public on a near-daily basis. And their ESPN mouthpiece puppets continue to let Goodell shove his hand up their asses to control them.

 

[buile]

the NFL supposedly helped the Patriots destroy because it would have pissed the other owners off so much if they had seen it. Not because it was illicit, but because it was so good.

I'll nitpick. The destruction was no more insidious than a teacher throwing away Johnny's cheat sheet during a test. You don't give it back saying "Now please put that away!"

Ignorant owners and players bought the hype of what taping the signals meant, so the fact the Pats went undefeated next year was retroactive proof that the biggest punishment ever handed down must still not be enough...

 

[PatsBoy12]

I'm really just speechless at this point. This is a multi-million dollar corporation acting like a scorned girlfriend. I really don't know what to say . . . I time warped all the way back to 2007 in 2015. And you all said there is no such thing as time travel?!

 

[QuantumMechanic]

So who do we think some of the unnamed sources are? Evil as ESPN is, I doubt they made everything up -- they did talk to some people who told them some of the stuff they printed (not saying the people who said it told the truth, just that they said it).

Saw this interesting conjecture over at BSMW:

Pees would make a lot of sense. I don't think his parting with BB was amicable, especially since he went ahead and originally took a lesser position with the Ravens before he became their DC. Yes, the Ravens, no doubt one of the organizations (Biscotti) who have Goodell's ear and who think the Patriots cheat, even when they follow the rules.

 

[BradyFTW!]

So let's go ahead and list the factual inaccuracies in this story:

1. It states that filming signals is illegal. This is not true.
2. It states that Ernie Adams has a photographic memory. Not only is there no way for the author to know this, but it is generally understood that there's no such thing as a photographic memory.
3. It claims that the Spygate tapes were destroyed in September/October 2007, which is weird since months later the supposedly destroyed tapes were screened for a room full of media members.
4. The author's story has dramatically changed re: what happened in the owners' meeting after that season. On the BS Report, he said that the owners wanted the tapes destroyed. Now he's claiming that the owners were pissed that the tapes were destroyed.

I'm sure I'm missing some, anyone else want to jump in?

 

[venecol]

Unnamed source just confirmed that all of these rumors were started by BB when releasing or trading players to get into the heads of the other 31 teams.

 

[Big-T]

#ESPNlogic

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Wonder if they secretly brought in Rex Ryan to help and/or observe The Smashing of the Tapes.

 

[ANGR89]

ESPN also released an OTL article that has some rather dubious statements in it..

They claim they interviewed more than 90 league officials, owners, team executives and coaches, currents and former Patriots coaches, staffers and players, and previously undisclosed notes of key meetings.

That the views of Belichick and Adams is that the league is lazy and incompetent.

That the Patriots staffers, if caught, were told to lie to league security by saying they were with "Kraft Productions" or with "Patriots TV" .

The article implies that only the Patriots have ever signed a player from a former team to try and get signals and glean information.

The article implies that only the Patriots have ever taped from the sidelines though we all KNOW that other teams have. Especially the Jets.

The article states that low-level Patriots employees would steal play-sheets from the opposing locker-room during warm-ups..

The article states that the Patriots would have employees ransack the Oppositions hotel rooms for play-books/notes/etc.

That Matt Walsh was instructed to erase and destroy a tape because the team had illegally had a player on IR participate in practice.

That the Patriots regularly scramble and jam the opponent headsets. (you know, the ones controlled by the league)

ESPN implies that the bonuses that Goodell received in 2012 and 2013 that gave him income of 44.2M and $35M respectively, was Kraft being generous for Spygate..

Supposedly, the TD pass from Brady to Branch was because of stolen signals since the Steelers hadn't changed their signals all year... (Umm, guess they don't understand that signal stealing is ok.)

Except for a select few, the article gives NO NAMES. They use things like "former Patriots coach" or "Steelers coach". (like we're supposed to accept ESPN's veracity on this).

ESPN claims that the NFL stonewalled Arlen Specter and that Goodell was scared of the potential of a Congressional investigation.

Supposedly, Goodell called Martz when Martz was the 49ers OC and begged Martz to tell Specter that all was good..

Gee was Well's doing this investigation too? Lol. What a joke. Why on earth now is someone revisiting the spygate bs? It's amazing that some of the information coming out today was able to stay his for 7 plus years! Lol

 

[venecol]

So who do we think some of the unnamed sources are? Evil as ESPN is, I doubt they made everything up -- they did talk to some people who told them some of the stuff they printed (not saying the people who said it told the truth, just that they said it).

Saw this interesting conjecture over at BSMW:

My bet is on Deep Throat. Think about it, both Nixon and BB hired "plumbers" to steal data from their opponents. The *Gates make a full circle.

 

[Patriot Missile]

Damage control people. Plain and simple. Goodell and the NFL have been under fire and severe scrutiny since Berman laid the law down to them last week.

The NFL did the only thing it knew how to do to, and that's deflect attention away with lies and misinformation. I feel sorry for the next team/player Goodell is going to use around the 25th of December to deflect criticism for the movie "Concussion." Too bad Sony went easy on the NFL. (From what I've read anyway.)

Screw these guys. As long as Goodell and all his Jet friends are in control, I'm so done when BB and Brady retire. I'm taking my ball and I'm going home.

 

[I am party]

I actually took the time to read the whole story, and to me this doesn't seem like a story Goodell would want written about him. To me it paints Goodell as being corrupt and having no moral compass.

Here's my Cliff's notes of what the story says:
- Goodell and Kraft are long time buddies
- Kraft helped Goodell become commissioner
- Kraft helped to make sure Goodell was well paid as commissioner
- When Spygate hit, Goodell did all he could to stonewall the investigation, to try to protect his friend Kraft and Kraft's team
- The other owners got wind of this and got extremely butthurt over what they perceived as Goodell trying to protect the Patriots
- In response, in the wake of Spygate, Goodell enacted harsher penalties for cheating
- Fast forward 7 years, and Goodell sees Deflategate as another opportunity to make amends for what the other owners perceived as him being too soft on the Pats for Spygate
- So despite the fact that the evidence for the balls even being deflated at all is weak at best, and fabricated at worst, Goodell pursues Deflategate head first, balls to the wall, for the above mentioned reason.

That's what I recall from reading the story. How much of this is fact, and how much of it is made up by ESPN?

 

[Koma]

So let's go ahead and list the factual inaccuracies in this story:

1. It states that filming signals is illegal. This is not true.
2. It states that Ernie Adams has a photographic memory. Not only is there no way for the author to know this, but it is generally understood that there's no such thing as a photographic memory.
3. It claims that the Spygate tapes were destroyed in September/October 2007, which is weird since months later the supposedly destroyed tapes were screened for a room full of media members.
4. The author's story has dramatically changed re: what happened in the owners' meeting after that season. On the BS Report, he said that the owners wanted the tapes destroyed. Now he's claiming that the owners were pissed that the tapes were destroyed.

I'm sure I'm missing some, anyone else want to jump in?

A quibble on #3 - Technically, there were 2 sets of tapes. There was the Patriots collection, which was destroyed by the NFL in September 2007. No tapes from that group were ever shown on TV*.

There were also the tapes Matt Walsh stole from the Patriots. These were the ones that were shown to the media in May 2008.

*Jay Glazer has the tape from the 1st half of game 1 in 2007. Portions of that were shown on TV, but, technically, that tape never made it Foxboro to be part of the collection.

 

[AzPatsFan]

I was the one who condescendingly said we have nothing to fear? Not sure how you got that tone from it...

Here are my points:

1. Teams have little they can do openly to fight back against the NFL.
2. I SUSPECT that the Krafts are fighting back by what means they effectively can.
3. I expressed said opinion while stating that believing Kraft if spineless is a reasonable perspective.
4. I also admitted that nobody on the outside has nearly enough information to be certain about their perspective.
5. I never once implied that the NFL isn't out to get the Pats.

There are many ways to skin a cat.

Kraft can't sue, but he can push to demonize the useless highly paid twits in the NFL Front office that do Goodell's wishes.

Meeting and hob-nobbing at the Hamptons in a party with Judge Berman and Roger Goodell, (and also with Goodell's boss) John Mara, in attendance,while he politics to urge a house clean of the Front Office is silent, but apparently effective. The Ownership group have hired an efficiency expert to recommend changes to the personnel and function in the Front Office and eliminating redundancies (i.e. fire the twits!!) that is ongoing to be reported at the Owners's meeting next month.

I wouldn't recommend any take out a new mortgage, for any of the NFL's present Lawyers.

Rodger is back-peddling furiously, to shed the job of arbitrator, and arrange a set of neutral arbitrators. It shows shows that the politicking is being effective. Rodger is being subjected to the Death of a Thousand Cuts, and he is obviously bleeding and badly.

Today's OTL transparent attempt to resurrect Spygate is an example of Goodell trying to respond, and fight back; but its a rather desperate cry, obviously. He is just not fit to be a Commissioner. Rozelle and Tagliabue showed how to do the job successfully, and Rodger does not have the talent.

Kraft is fighting back!!!

 

[MagicMarker]

I just heard "Doug Gottlieb" on the radio -- typical media idiots --- "Spygate was way bigger than anyone thought". Really? I remember at the time, it was assumed the Patriots had been recording signals for years. NOBODY thought it was just a few games.

The penalty was swift and severe for recording something in plain site, that could have been legally recorded from a different location.

Somehow, the story changes, and these media people just accept it.

We're also supposed to believe opponents were so paranoid they'd check the locker room for microphones, but they'd leave play sheets lying around in the locker room with nobody around to watch?

We also are supposed to believe the Patriots committed burglary?

And, all these people who have this information won't identify themselves?

It's a smear piece, clear and simple.

A head needs to roll.

 

[AzPatsFan]

That could never happen for speaking out against the league for injustice against the franchise.

Yes it could. I like how Kraft is silently shoving the shiv into Rodger, while smiling all the time. Today's OTL was a cry of desperation and hurt from Rodger, IMHO.

 

[venecol]

Yes it could. I like how Kraft is silently shoving the shiv into Rodger, while smiling all the time. Today's OTL was a cry of desperation and hurt from Rodger, IMHO.

IMO Goodell comes off looking awful. Nothing new on the Pats that the haters don't already feel about them.

 

[ausbacker]

The simple fact of the matter is, if Kraft doesn't allow all of this to permanently damage his friendship with Mein Fuhrer, he should step aside and let his son do what is necessary to protect the franchise.

If Kraft thinks his family and his legacy are not being tarnished, he is sadly mistaken.