Headset Conspiracies
So I'm talking to some various personnel people yesterday just trying to stay up on some things, when the conversations turns to Beli-cheat, and other forms of gamesmanship. So I mention to this one exec about how fired up Coach Joe was in recent weeks about the headsets going down in Philly and Green Bay this season, and this says that his teams has reported both of those clubs to the league for the same thing.
Seems like it's not a coincidence after all. This guy, whose team has played in Green Bay and Philly in the past two seasons, says that in both cases, at fairly critical junctures in the game, all of a sudden they lost headset communication.
"I think if you talk to teams around the league, you'll find there's definitely shenanigans going on in Green Bay and Philly," he said.
Now, to put it in perspective, as much as the offended team was upset about all of this, he said you also learn over time to brace for this kind of stuff around the league. "Everybody's got something," he said. "That's why they call it home-field advantage."
As many of you Skins fans have pointed out to me in hordes of emails and submissions during webchats, many of the people who go to games at FedEx Field are convinced the Redskins pump in fan noise through the speakers (another no-no). But, again, there seems to be a sort of acceptance of this stuff, and I'm not exactly what's considered crossing the line.
Even Belichick's stealing signs thing was met by apathy in some quarters of the NFL as kind of a time-honored tradition, while others got all tweaked about it. Where do you guys stand on this? Should you expect a totally even playing field on the road, or do you have to kind of brace for this kind of wacky stuff away from home?
Also, at the risk of getting a forearm shiver to the skull, I plan to point out to Coach Joe that the Redskins have not lost to the Pats in 35 years - a fact my boy Bram just made me aware of - and also that the Skins are the only team Tom Brady has yet to defeat. If you're a Skins fan, the perfect scenario would entail me asking Coach Joe about this today - and I'll definitely couch it in a humorous way - and then Coleman or DLD asking him about it again on Friday, when all hell could break loose.
