Patriots notes from Florio's book

[sb1]

I have the book and I'll add them to this thread.

"The Resentment of Bill Belichick":

• Patriot resentment is real, not a Pats fan persecution complex
• Owners wanted to know why they couldn't beat the Patriots so "they're cheaters" became an excuse used by coaches and GM's. Interesting that Florio mentions this so it's a real thing for sure and not just a Pats fan persecution complex. Too bad he didn't name names
• Patriots doing the same things that other teams had done and/or still doing became pursued by those same teams who refused to admit that the Pats were just better at everything including stretching the rules. "Still doing" - too bad Florio didn't name names.
• When the Ravens are in town they tell their players staying in the Boston area the night before a game not to put anything related to game plan or strategy in the trash and leave nothing that could be found by housekeeping who might be trying to help out the home team.

LOL. The fact other teams are that paranoid is a great thing for us.

"

 

[sb1]

"Spygate III" chapter notes

The league investigated it "aggressively" and then went totally silent on a penalty for the Patriots even going past the 2020 draft.

It makes no sense that the league issued a huge penalty on the Patriots without saying exactly what they did to warrant such a penalty in order to deter them or other teams from doing this stuff in the future.

League was totally silent on this for a long time all the way into June.

Maybe there was a connection to the football ops or maybe not - we don't know because the league never said anything.

The only logical conclusion from this silence is the penalty was imposed only done to satisfy owners and other teams who didn't think there was enough punishment for the original spygate. Nothing more, nothing less.

I think anyone with a brain knew that. The fact that part of the penalty involved banning the video crew and ordering training on league procedures for them says it was entirely them and not the football ops. Obviously the league would never admit that because we gotta get the cheatriots.

 

[sb1]

On Brady leaving:

The decision was mutual

Belichick always tries to stay distant from his players. Brady had eventually had enough of BB's act. He wanted to feel appreciated and he wanted to have a better array of weapons than what the Pats had - no surprise there.

Belichick's job as coach was always complicated by his other job as evaluator of talent where he's been a lot less successful. Again nothing we all didn't know

Kraft "wants Belichick to work deep into his 80's like Warren Buffet or Rupert Murdoch". LOL. So if anyone wants BB fired... ifKraft really feels this way then that's not happening.

"Brady thus began looking (for another team) weeks before the rules officially permitted it". Huh?

49ers was his first choice (obviously)

Patriots didn't mind letting Brady look elsewhere to try and get #7. The team concluded they would not win #7 on their own if Brady stayed. I couldn't disagree more and I can't believe this is the message they'd send to their roster. We'd be champs right now IMO.

Compared to the Colts, who were hoping Manning would just retire, the Patriots understood that after 20 years Brady had the right to choose where he wanted to finish his career. Florio also thinks all players after 2 decades of service should have this right.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Great stuff. thanks for summarizing. how many nfl players or people for that matter play or work 20-years for the same team, league or company???!!

 

[hornetfb85]

I have the book and I'll add them to this thread.

"The Resentment of Bill Belichick":

• Patriot resentment is real, not a Pats fan persecution complex
• Owners wanted to know why they couldn't beat the Patriots so "they're cheaters" became an excuse used by coaches and GM's. Interesting that Florio mentions this so it's a real thing for sure and not just a Pats fan persecution complex. Too bad he didn't name names
• Patriots doing the same things that other teams had done and/or still doing became pursued by those same teams who refused to admit that the Pats were just better at everything including stretching the rules. "Still doing" - too bad Florio didn't name names.
• When the Ravens are in town they tell their players staying in the Boston area the night before a game not to put anything related to game plan or strategy in the trash and leave nothing that could be found by housekeeping who might be trying to help out the home team.

LOL. The fact other teams are that paranoid is a great thing for us.

"

MaidGate

 

[Rob0729]

The thing that everyone does it is so true. The same year that Deflategate happened, the Colts got caught piping in crowd noise. The league gave the Colts a slap on the wrist and the media basically ignored the story. I head Bill Polian on the air saying the league basically doesn't care if teams pipe in crowd noise.

To this day, I still don't think Jastremski let the air out of the footballs. Yes, it is conceivable he could do it in 90 seconds in the bathroom is he rushed like crazy, but with no one watching him or caring what he did with the footballs, why would he when he could take an extra minute or two and do it without having to act like it is a race.

 

[sb1]

"Tom Brady proves the draft is an inexact science"

Florio on THAT photo of Brady: "Looks less like a future HOFer and more like a middle aged dad who had stumbled out of bed with a raging prostate". LOL

The Patriots are called geniuses for drafting Brady but if they knew all along who Brady would become he would have been selected before their other draftees: Antwan Harris (6th round), Jeff Marriott (5), Dave Stachelski(5), Greg Randall (4), Redmond (3), Klemm (2)

Ravens OC wanted Brady but Billick ignored him

Belichick wanted a reason to move on from Drew and he found it in Brady

This is interesting... everyone knows Brady for years took less money than he could have gotten despite being the GOAT the face of the team and the league. Everyone assumed that Brady did this because he wanted to help ensure the team had enough space on the cap so they could afford a roster full of good starters and great depth......but that's not the real reason why he always took less. The real reason (as was told to Florio) was because he didn't want to give BB a reason to get rid of him by being a burden on the salary cap.

Brady is another example of the fact that many times the "saviors" for a franchise that the draft is advertised to give a team at the top can really be found lower in the draft or not in the draft at all. Realistically nobody really knows for sure what they are getting in the draft.

 

[sb1]

"Deflategate"

Florio talks about the connection between the Ravens and the Colts. The league never told the Pats of the Ravens accusation that the Patriots were using underinflated footballs.

Blandino (head of officiating at the time) anticipated no issues because Walt Andersen was reffing the game and he had a rep for being extremely conscientious. Andersen checked the footballs personally and he was quote "very strict with the process". Huh.

The NE footballs "temporarily went missing". Huh?

Florio rehashes the story about the Kravitz and Mort tweets. We learned Troy Vincent was the source for the bad info. Florio said the football air pressure was in line with the weather that night as we all know.

Talks about the league concluding cheating and the Wells report being an attempt to work backwards from the conclusion as we all know.

Talks about the text messages - circumstantial evidence at best. The explanation for the deflator being weight loss came from both Jastremski and McNally, not from the team.

Recaps the idea of that McNally was taking the bag of footballs into the bathroom, deflating them all and being done in 90 seconds. One NFL head coach did his own experiment opening the bag of 12 footballs, inserting a needle in each football repeating 12 times, putting the ball back in the bag and then closing it when done. The coach determined it could not be done in 90 seconds.

Florio's best guess on this: Brady, Jastremski and McNally did have a scheme to reduce the air pressure in footballs, the NFL failed to catch the Pats in the act, the NFL started an investigation that incorrectly concluded that the Pats were caught, the league hammered the Pats because of Spygate, and the NFL looked at Brady's behavior as an effort to conceal guilt even if he didn't establish it.

I actually agree with a lot of that...one text message did say "the only deflating that would happen on Sunday would be Tom's passer rating" - so IMO they probably really were doing this under the assumption the league didn't care (which they didn't up to that point), and there's no doubt they were making sure the balls were at the legal minimum so a repeat of the Jets game where they were very overinflated never happened again . But I do not believe any such deflation happened the night of that AFC Championship game.

Florio concludes the chapter with the story that was already told about the league collecting PSI information and then destroying it by orders of Jeff Pash. He said the reason for this was obvious - that those numbers did line up with what was measured the night of the AFC Championship game. And Florio's source said that in the full collection of those numbers, all were below 12.5 PSI. So there you have it.

Would have liked to see Florio get into Rodgers comments on overinflating footballs. Maybe that's a different chapter. I'll look.

 

[Captain Cliche]

I will reiterate the astonishing thing for me was the "Deflator" texts occurred in the off season, but were deliberately listed in the Wells report to make it appear as if it happened in season.

I personally believe Brady is picky enough as to have Jastremski and McNally make sure the footballs were in spec on the low end because the the league didn't care. Not only did they not care, they were doing a sloppy job of it and using cheap ass, inconsistent gauges. There is the case where balls were inflated to 16#'s in a previous Jets game.

 

[borg]

• Owners wanted to know why they couldn't beat the Patriots so "they're cheaters" became an excuse used by coaches and GM's. Interesting that Florio mentions this...................

"

........because Florio and PFT relished every opportunity ad nauseum to categorize NE as serial cheaters.

Did Florio mention his role in perpetuating so many falsehoods over the years?

 

[sb1]

........because Florio and PFT relished every opportunity ad nauseum to categorize NE as serial cheaters.

Did Florio mention his role in perpetuating so many falsehoods over the years?

Florio didn't care either way IMO he was and still is all about getting clicks and eyes on the articles and comments. Patriots articles get a ton of comments and views so there was a lot of them.

 

[VectorPrime]

I would be mad if my team DIDNT check trash cans and dumpsters and checked out hotel rooms for stuff that might have been left behind. That’s objectively fair game.

 

[sb1]

Regarding the Rams walkthrough story

• On Friday of SB week the Patriots learned that Tomase was going to release the story the next day. Patriots lawyer told the Herald that the team would seek to hold the paper accountable if it published the report but it was published anyway.
• League launched its investigation on the Saturday one day before SB42. Some in the league wanted an investigation to wait till after the Super Bowl but "someone was pushing it" - Florio thinks it was Goodell or Pash or both.
• The investigation found nothing as we know
• Florio believes this distraction disrupted the Patriots game prep and had a major impact on the outcome of the game even though they'd never admit that
• Florio made it sound like Tomase knew there was a camera there and just decided to assume it was recording without any reason to believe that

 

[sb1]

Not the Patriots but there's also an urban legend/allegation in there that Bill Leavy (ref of Super Bowl 40 where the Steelers beat the Seahawks) was the client of a football handicapper who claimed that Leavy bet on games. That's interesting cause we all know what happened in that game.

 

[sb1]

Spygate (the Jets one)

Nothing really new in this chapter except this(!)
"For years, rumors and reports have persisted that the NFL destroyed the evidence provided by the Pats. At least one source with knowledge of the manner in which the events unfolded contends that Belichick actually provided the league with a treasure trove of proof of cheating of all shapes sorts and sizes committed by the Patriots and by many other teams. Belichick per the source suggested to the NFL that if it came after him in the future for cheating that he would take everything he knew public. As another source put it Belichicks' message to the league was simple: "When in Rome."

Not the first time I heard that rumor but it's been collaborated here. Wow. That would certainly be a reason to destroy everything. Maybe that's why they backed off so quickly in Deflategate and turned to Brady. I still think BB will have a lot to say in a book once he retires. Can't wait to see it.

 

[VectorPrime]

Spygate (the Jets one)

Nothing really new in this chapter except this(!)
"For years, rumors and reports have persisted that the NFL destroyed the evidence provided by the Pats. At least one source with knowledge of the manner in which the events unfolded contends that Belichick actually provided the league with a treasure trove of proof of cheating of all shapes sorts and sizes committed by the Patriots and by many other teams. Belichick per the source suggested to the NFL that if it came after him in the future for cheating that he would take everything he knew public. As another source put it Belichicks' message to the league was simple: "When in Rome."

Not the first time I heard that rumor but it's been collaborated here. Wow. That would certainly be a reason to destroy everything. Maybe that's why they backed off so quickly in Deflategate and turned to Brady. I still think BB will have a lot to say in a book once he retires. Can't wait to see it.

I have definitely heard this rumor and I believe it was Jonathan Kraft once publicly let slip how they’ve caught other teams illegally filming.

 

[Koma]

I would be mad if my team DIDNT check trash cans and dumpsters and checked out hotel rooms for stuff that might have been left behind. That’s objectively fair game.

This line of thinking would apply across any other line of business. If Company A and Company B are competitors and Company B finds their rival’s business plan for the next 2 quarters in a conference room wastebasket, they’re definitely going to use it. Company A would be mocked in that situation for being careless with sensitive information. With NFL teams, the reaction is “<sniffle>How could you do that?”

 

[borg]

Florio didn't care either way IMO he was and still is all about getting clicks and eyes on the articles and comments. Patriots articles get a ton of comments and views so there was a lot of them.

Florio's content strategy has certainly evolved.

Early on, he had no shame in reporting every bit of gossip/rumor as fact.
It seemed on a daily basis the site would offer a dramatic headline such as "Player X has no interest in Team W"
Then minutes later......."Player X signs with Team W"
The regularity of these conflicting reports never ceased to entertain me
The PFT crew probably laughed their asses off knowing the league's fanboys would consume any nonsense they manufactured.

Then, after climbing into bed with big media NBC, he carved out a new niche as the "Self-appointed moral conscience of the league" believing his pedestal was lofty enough to be both judge and jury of the moral high ground.

I preferred his rumor mongering phase.
Give me laughs over finger-wagging any day