Eric Mangina of all people...

[Koma]

I like Nick sometime, but his anti Pats stuff is getting more and more annoying. Here he asks: why is it always NE? My question would be, how do we know it is only NE? I strongly suspect that piddly stuff goes on semi-frequently that we just don't hear about, but if it involved NE, it would be all over the place and the scandal of the century.

Multiple teams violate league rules every season, but those are quickly forgotten. Take the Ravens, for example. I believe they violated the offseason workout guidelines something like 3 times over an 8 year period. You'd think, after the 3rd violation, the league would have hammered them with significant fines, suspensions and draft picks since the Ravens clearly weren't getting the message. Instead, Baltimore was fined less for their latest violation than their second.

In addition to getting slapped on the wrist by the league, the story had a one day shelf life with the media. If the Patriots were involved, holding illegal workouts would be a big, big deal. The likes of Nick Wright would be pointing out the obvious advantage extra practices give a team. Why is it always New England? Because the media doesn't care when other teams are involved.

 

[fnordcircle]

Mangini has honestly never said anything bad about us since all that went down.

He seems very apologetic and sobered from that whole experience. Not that he still isn’t a dolt for it.

I absolutely believe that he was doing it as gamesmanship and it was the Jets' FO who wanted to involve the league so they could hurt a rival and it spiraled out of control.

Just based on things I've heard and it makes a lot of sense.

 

[NashuaPats]

I like Nick sometime, but his anti Pats stuff is getting more and more annoying. Here he asks: why is it always NE? My question would be, how do we know it is only NE? I strongly suspect that piddly stuff goes on semi-frequently that we just don't hear about, but if it involved NE, it would be all over the place and the scandal of the century.

Exactly, teams are constantly doing documentaries about their teams. There are always non football related video crews around. Nobody would have cared about this if it was any other team. It would not have been a news story.

 

[wheresmosi]

Did anyone hear Chris Simms yesterday on Colin Cowherd? He was asked about the Pats, for whom he used to work, and said they were monitored scrupulously about following rules. They were not even allowed to do small gentlemen's bets on non-football sports championships and such, including filling out NCAA brackets for money. he totally pooh poohed this whole current situation.

BTW, Cowherd also mentioned how Pete Carroll has committed all kinds of violations that got next to no attention, and most fans do not even know about.