Here is the unfortunate timeline that led league insiders, prominent coachs/GMs, and media to try to force BB's firing:
1. Creating a winning machine like no one had thought possible in the salary cap era, with no end in sight. Fear leads people to do irrational and evil things, and terror was what inspired alot of lesser men to conspire against the LION.
2. The move of Mangini to the Jets. The goal from Day one was to topple the Patriots and the Jets' arch enemy, on a personal level, BB. From that moment we saw unprecedented coverage by the NYPost of BB's personal life, in crude and uncomfirmable reports, that IMo were intended to humilate him with the Krafts and create a context for his termination. This was the first example of the Jets practice of using the willing media as propaganda for their ends. They used the same method in the aftermath of cameragate, stirring up an unprecented tempest in a teapot, principally through the NY tabloids. As you may have noticed, all such new stories stemming from NY about BB's personal life dried up almost immediately after Cameragate broke, when IMO Goodell finally had the sense to tell the Jets to put a sock in it.
3. The accession to power of Goodell, a buffoon in the classic sense, with all the ego of a powerful man, but none of the intelligence or political savvy that characterized his able predecessors. Easily manipulated and unable to brook any argument, he let his ego run wild after meting out punishment to a few players, allowed himself to be used by others interests in the league to move against BB.
4. BB's rebuke of Charley Casserly: "Why don't you talk to Casserly? He's got all the answers." I believe this was in response to the idea of "Star Wars" intelligence gathering by teams in '06 mentioned on CBS pregame show, in which Casserly inferred that the Pats were a prime suspect and the league was looking to act. Casserly is a favorite in the league hierarchy and I believe had served on the competition committee prior to leaving Houston, and was able to return fire at BB through his league connections and media pulpit.
5. Removing the jets camera man during the playoff game: This set the stage for the sting in '07 game 1. Mangini and Tannenbaum got full of themselves after a tasted of success in the big city, conceived of themselves as "the Turk" trying to take down "Don Vito Corleone", with the help of the Tartaglia the pimp (Polian) and Barzini (Goodell). But guess what? The Godfather lives, and knows who his enemies are. Mangini really took his cameo on the sopranos to heart, but in the worst way.
6. Defeating Marty Schottenheimer, and causing his termination. Marty, like Parcells has his own "tree", consisting of Cowher, H. Edwards, H. Mudd, and many many others throughout the league. The upset of the Chargers, the supposedly "classless" celebration (which I enjoyed) and Marty's firing by Aj Smith caused extreme anger toward the Patriots from prominent NFL people such as Ditka, who knew it was MArty's last best chance to win the SB.
7. The supposed "lack of handshake" with Dungy after the AFCCG loss. And the halting post game interview with Solomon Wilcots. I guess a man's not allowed to be crushed after a crushing loss.
8. Brady dumped his "pregnant" girlfriend. None of us knows the timeline of that relationship, and the personal affairs of multimillionaires are not our concern. Whatever happens, the child will have advantages none of us could imagine. The moral outrage was ridiculous.
9. The drafting of Meriweather: a "no character" guy in the estimation of many observers, it continued the "Pats have no class" mantra.
10. THE ACQUISITION OF MOSS: this is what sent people over the edge. The Pats essentially tampered with Moss, and forced a trade for pennies on the dollar for the best receiver in the NFL, who refused to go elsewhere. This is what really got the notice of the competition committee, especially Polian and Fisher, who IMO agreed to set up a sting with the Jets IOT force the commissioner to take away the 1st rd pick that it should have cost the Pats to acquire Moss. The ultimate goal was to force "good guy grandpa" Kraft to buckle under intense media pressure and fire BB.
11. Cameragate: This was maybe the most absurd set-up in football history. A common practice, that the Jets themselves regularly engaged in, going back at least to Herman Edwards, was treated as the most egregious offense in NFL history. The competition committee and Jets got one of their goals fulfilled, the removal of the Randy Moss 1st rdr, but they failed in their ultimate goal,the suspension/firing of BB.
IMO Tony Dungy was in on this fiasco, because he immediately spoke up against BB with none of th facts in hand, pressuring for his termination/suspension. The timing seemed calculated IMO.
12. The Walsh groupies: Walsh had been putting feelers out for years, and [my guess] is that Borges was the missing link between a local rumor and a national one. Just a hunch. It seems too perfect that a man fired for journalistic "cheating", who may have felt "set-up" himself, attempted to "take-out" mob style his arch enemy as vengeance. He had the national contacts to make it happen. He was virtually invisible all last year. What was he doing while the furor broke? Laying low. IMO Borges was the very trusted source (but not the inside source) to which Tomase referred in his "explanation".
13. The Easterbrook/Comcast/Spector connection: Maybe it's real maybe it isn't. But these names have been associated for several years in topics unrelated to "Liegate" and they worked in lockstep throughout the buildup of LIEGATE.
Do you remember the gist of Easterbrook's original allegations?
-The Pats used bugging devices, cut phone communications, tape walkthroughs, used film in game, and every other nefarious deed imaginable.
ALL FALSE. Scumbag.
14. Running up the score: never mentioned as a problem during Dungy's blow out seasons, such as '04. Then it was just "football at its finest"
15. Brady going for Manning's record: by "running up the score"
16. Time to injure Brady, according to Wilbon and others around the league.
17. The undefeated season: smeared from day 1 by that raggedy old bag of smashed @$$holes, Shula, and his cronies, who constantly suggested Brady was a fraud due to "Cameragate"
18. LIEGATE: The final blow.
But, the Godfather is still standing. The enemies of the Pats around the league should be worried. It may not come soon, but eventually there will be (legal and legitimate) vengeance, at the appropriate time. Hopefully on the field.
