Uhh...this is a rather simplistic question. Few people are saying that there was no possible benefit. BB likes to look at film, he likes to have every possible knowledge of a team's tendencies...he wants every scrap of information so that he can dissect it for possible benefit!
People are reacting, DagoTom, to the notion that what may have amounted to a small benefit in knowing tendencies over time led to an overwhelming benefit that was unavailable to the rest of the league, since no other coaches ever look at film, never look at coaches, never sift through every scrap of information to give them an edge, right?
That is offensive, and stupid, and ridicuous.
Well, if I believed that no other team had ever won a football game by knowing the opposing coach's tendencies and/or signals this would probably be more of a big deal to me. Hell, look at the Buccaneers SB win against the Raiders. If anyone thinks Gruden didn't have the Raiders defensive playbook sitting on a desk in his office then people truly do wear blinders.
But here's the thing. If the Chargers beat the Patriots tonight, I want to feel like the Chargers beat an outstanding football team. If the Chargers lose to the Patriots I want to feel like they lost to an outstanding football team.
What Belichick has done is throw it all into question. You've already seen it on other boards with other teams. People are going back and questioning the results of games that didn't even involve the Patriots. "Wow, when we played the Chargers last year they sure seemed to have our defense figured out. We never got pressure and they always seemed to know where to go with the ball..." We all know a game, a season, a championship can hinge on ONE play. Who would understand this more than Patriots fans? How many times have you seen an entire season boil down to a single snap?
Personally, I don't question the Patriots' dynasty, but I have no choice but to wonder how much of an impact this may have had in a handful of games and situations. A few (not all) Patriots fans and even a few people in the media don't seem to understand WHY this is a big deal.
Coaches don't really have TIME to put their peepers on the opposing sidelines and write a book on the opposing team's signals. They are too busy focusing on their own team and getting people in and out of packages, reviewing film as it's sent down, analyzing in-game situations, etc. to be writing a book on the other team's signals. And that's how it should be. If, in the course of all that, a coach can visually snatch a signal or two and remember it, then more power to him, and the other guys should be more careful.
But when a coach is using a camera to essentially build a library of every defensive signal that is used in a game to be reviewed at half-time or the next time the teams play that's different. That's not gamesmanship. There's no skill involved in that. And that's why it's illegal. And for people to say "oh, there's no REAL advantage to it," or "this thing is being so overblown, you can read opposing signals from across the field anyway..."
C'mon now. Be a fan, but don't be naive. Belichik's an extremely intelligent man. If he hadn't seen a tangible benefit from doing it in the past, he would've stopped doing it when the league
specifically said to stop doing it in August.