In theory, yes, I agree with you. But, any fact-centered argument assumes that your audience is willing to listen to facts. Since those who are willing to listen to facts have already formed a reasonable view, it really does the Pats no good to have the matter resurrected, so, from a practical point of view, I disagree.
Personally, I don't think that Belichick's signal stealing helped his teams disproportionately in winning any of their SB's and I doubt it differed from what others were doing.
But, he did continue it after the league made it clear it was to stop and, as a result, there are many outside New England and Patriot Nation who strongly believe that the implication is that he did other things they don't know about and that he did them in a way that did help disproportionately; whether you and I like it or not, whether we think it is fair or unfair, reasonable or unreasonable, it is not likely they will be dissuaded. We have to accept that reality and that BB brought this on himself and the team.
[You left out an important quote from the Johnson interview:
Q: You think the NFL came down too hard on them?
JJ: No, no, I said it on the show. He was wrong for doing it for the simple reason that the league knew this was going on not just in New England but around the league. And the league sent out the memorandum to all of the teams saying you cannot do this. And so that’s when Bill Belichick was wrong. After he got the memorandum saying don’t do it any more, he did it.]
Very sadly true.
Have you ever tried to have a rational discussion with Patriot hating fans? All reason and facts fall on deaf ears. They don't care. To them it's to easy to dismiss you and the accomplishments of the team, they don't want to give that up.
Me: Alot of teams have been doing the same thing, it's not illegal to steal signs, it's illegal to record them from the sidelines. Every team employs up to 4 coaches, some giving dummy signals, you think they do all this just because of the Patriots?
Them: Why did they get fined so heavy and lose a first round pick? Why did they destroy the video? Stop defending your cheating team. Your team stole the defensive signals and used them in the second half. Thats what ESPN said.
Me: Thats bullspit! How can they determine who the active signal caller is, and in 15min at half time decipher the signals and have it be usable? And heres another variable for ya. Lets say they do decipher the signals and know what they are. What if the other team (gasp) changes the signals at halftime!?! Ever think of the disadvantage of that?
Them:....................................um, If they weren't cheating, why did they destroy the videos, and take away a first round pick? You guy's haven't won a superbowl since they took the videos.
The point is, no matter what new evidence comes out,they won't listen. It's to convinent for them to stick there head in the sand.
The whole thing got to f*&ked up from the beginning. The commish royally screwed us. He gave reasonable doubt to everyone to call us cheaters. Then the media ran wild with rampart speculation, and agenda driven garbage. Any friends who stuck up for us, were thrown to the wayside. Enemies given the spotlight. Joey Porter, Hines Ward, every meathead with an axe to grind was given 15min on NFL Live, or NFL countdown. No one with an opposing opinion was given the light of day.
****, they devoted a whole Sportscenter special to killing us! With not one! NOT ONE! analyst defending us. It was such a one sided beat down for our team it was disgusting. I will honestly never trust mainstream media again. They took the art of objective journalism and killed it. Killed it in front us, without even an effort to disguise there agenda.
Put Matt Walsh in stark contrast to Tim Donaghy. To me this was a glaring example of the media cherry picking.
Matt Walsh was vague at best, provided nothing that wasn't already known. Had an axe to grin with the team, but the media treated him as the second coming. No questioning his motives.
Tim Donaghy was outed, opened up and came clean about games he helped fix, and even gave examples that were proven correct. He alleges that other ref's fix games in the interest of the league, and the evidence is tangible. Not totally, but you can see the inconsistency.
The media laughs off all this off saying he isn't credible! He's trying to save himself, so he'll say anything. BULLSPIT!!
It's a fight we'll never win in the court of public opinion. It was too much of a one sided fight in 2007. The league said one thing, and punished another way. The media played to one side to drum up page hits, and sell newspapers, with the added benifit of damaging the reputation of a man they don't like anyways.
This is a situation where facts, and truth will always be secondary to spin and speculation. I find this to be very sad state of affairs.
Anyways, thanks for letting me vent.
