Did the Jets do the same thing? Mangini worked under Belichick, no surprise there. Is it wrong, hell yes, just as wrong as the pats but it has not been done for as long if it has been being done. So all you've done is make the Jets look bad..bravo. But the Patriots are much worse.
So by your words it's not surprising that a coordinator who worked under a head coach who use filming as scouting used the same practices. If you want to take it that route then think about this for a second.
J. Johnson admitted to filming opposing teams signals.
J. Johnson said he learned how to do it from Marty Schotenheimer.
Marty S. worked in Kansas City at the time. This is back in the late 80's to mid 90's.
Marty Schottenheimer has been a coach of:
84-88 Browns
89-98 Chiefs
2001 Redskins
01-06 Chargers
No reason to believe that he has not been doing this with every team he has coached.
So this "cheating" has been happening for around 20-25 years just with Marty.
Coaches that worked under/with him at some point. I’m sure I’m missing others. I’ll list the teams these guys worked with and the years. We could actually break it down further from these guys and add the coaches who worked under these guys too. I’ve also included Mudd, Hatley, and Belichick.
Cam Cameron
94-96 Redskins
02-06 San Diego
2007 Miami
2008 Baltimore
Bill Cowher
85-88 Cleveland
89-91 Kansas City
92-06 Pittsburgh
Herm Edwards
90-95 Kansas City
96-00 Tampa Bay
01-05 NYJ
06-08 Kansas City
Tony Dungy
81-88 Pittsburgh
89-91 Kansas City
92-95 Minnesota
96-01 Tampa Bay
02-08 Indianapolis
Marvin Lewis
92-95 Pittsburgh
96-01 Baltimore
2002 Washington
03-08 Cincinnati
Ken Whisenhunt
97-98 Baltimore
1999 Cleveland
2000 NYJ
01-06 Pittsburgh
07-08 Arizona
Lovie Smith
96-00 Tampa Bay
01-03 St. Louis
04-08 Chicago
Rod Marinelli
96-05 Tampa Bay
06-08 Detriot
Mike Tomlin
01-05 Tampa Bay
2006 Minnesota
07-08 Pittsburgh
Gunther Cunninham
90-94 Oakland
95-00 Kansas City
01-03 Tennessee
04-08 Kansas City
Lindy Infante
dates sketchy but was a Coordinator with Browns
88-91 Green Bay
96-97 Indianapolis
Mike McCarthy
93-98 Kansas City
1999 Green Bay
00-04 New Orleans
2005 San Francisco
06-08 Green Bay
Wade Phillips
1985 New Orleans
86-88 Philadelphia
89-94 Denver
95-97 Buffalo
02-03 Atlanta
04-06 San Diego
07-08 Dallas
Jimmy Johnson
89-93 Dallas
96-99 Miami
Howard Mudd
74-76 Chargers
1977 San Francisco
78-82 Seattle
83-88 Cleveland
89-92 Kansas City
93-97 Seattle
98-08 Indianapolis
Mark Hatley
84-86 New Orleans
87-97 Kansas City
98-01 Chicago
01-04 Green Bay
Bill Belichick
1975 Baltimore (colts)
76-77 Detriot
1978 Denver
79-90 NYG
91-95 Cleveland
1996 New England
97-99 NYJ
00-08 New England
And of course his son, and brother:
Brian Schottenheimer
1997 St.Louis
1998 Kansas City
2001 Washington
02-05 San Diego
06-08 NYJ
Kurt Schottenheimer
87-88 Cleveland
89-01 Kansas City
2001 Washington
02-08 Detriot
I’ll start taking this one step further too. I’ll start breaking down some more of the prominet coaches under Marty and showing thier coaching tree. Such as:
Bill Cowher (these are just some of the future head coaches)
Dom Capers (Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans)
Chan Gailey (Dallas Cowboys)
Jim Haslett (New Orleans Saints)
Mike Mularkey (Buffalo Bills)
Ken Whisenhunt (Arizona Cardinals)
**** LeBeau (Cincinnati Bengals)
Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati Bengals)
Bill Belichick:
Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Browns
Eric Mangini, New York Jets
Also Belichick assistants now serve as coordinators, assistant head coaches, or executives for teams around the league (I’ve not included current NE staff):
Phil Savage, general manager for the Cleveland Browns
Rob Ryan, defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders
Jim Schwartz, defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans
Jeff Davidson, offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers
Tony Dungy: ( some of these guys were already listed under Marty S)
Herman Edwards
Lovie Smith
Rod Marinelli
Mike Tomlin
Mike Shula
Joe Berry
Leslie Frazier
Jim Caldwell
Of course Dungy was under Marty S as well as Bill Walsh so Dungy got his roots from the Steelers Dynasty of the 70’s (can you say steroids?) And he also served under Chuck Noll and Bud Carson.
If you look back from Bill Belichick you see Parcells who has under his coaching tree:
Bill Belichick, New England Patriots
Tom Coughlin, New York Giants
Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints
Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Browns
Eric Mangini, New York Jets
Tony Sparano, Miami Dolphins
Ray Handley, New York Giants
Al Groh, New York Jets
Chris Palmer, Cleveland
Scott Pioli, the current Vice President of Player Personnel for the New England Patriots is Parcells’ son-in-law.
If you look one up from Marty Schottenheimer you find Lou Saban. His coaching tree would fill up this whole friggin page.
So up to this point so far it is all fact. Now here is a little speculation.
Lets just say 25% of the coaches took a Que from their mentors and utilized taping, which by your account is not surprising, and J. Johnson proves that coaches do use methods others do. Even common sense will tell you that people copy techniques they learn from mentors/superiors, ect. That 25% (which is a conservative estimate in my opinion) would cover almost every team in he NFL at one point or another.
Even your Vikings had one or more of the coaches that was either a direct, or indirect descendant of the Schottenheimer coaching tree from 1992-2008.
Now do you really think this was an isolated incident that one or two coaches engaged in??