there's no excuse for the hysteria over what will probably amount to be nothing.
yes there is blood in the water because the pats are a successful team, and other owners/coaches want them to pay for whatever it is they supposedly have done.
however, that doesn't mean anything will come of it.
it is not illegal to steal signs. it's illegal to videotape signs.
that's like saying it's ok to write down everything in a team's playbook just so long as you don't photocopy the pages.
it's a technicality.
And there is STILL no account I have read anywhere as to how videotaping signals gives a team a competitive advantage.
I'll say it one more time. violating league policy does not equal cheating. Urlacher was fined 100,000(!) for wearing the wrong hat to media day! the league has lots of stupid rules. this is one of them.
It is kind of a stupid rule (and WHY aren't aren't defensive players given headsets?! That'd solve the problem right there!), but the Patriots have apparently been warned repeatedly in the past and violated it again.
So while teams like the Dolphins purchase recordings of Tom Brady's cadence or teams like the Colts steal signs in their own way, the Patriots are supposed to sit back and do nothing to gain a competitive advantage. That does not add up.
It is kind of a stupid rule (and WHY aren't aren't defensive players given headsets?! That'd solve the problem right there!), but the Patriots have apparently been warned repeatedly in the past and violated it again.
So while teams like the Dolphins purchase recordings of Tom Brady's cadence or teams like the Colts steal signs in their own way, the Patriots are supposed to sit back and do nothing to gain a competitive advantage. That does not add up.
The team is supposed to listen to the league when it tells them specifically to stop. The team is supposed to take the warning seriously. The team is supposed to not be so unbelievably arrogant that it thinks it can get away with it after getting caught once already, and suspected other times. The team is not, in Goodell's league, supposed to take inane, stupid risks that they know will incur this type of punishment.
Of course, 'the team' being Belichick. There is absolutely no excuse. Whatever they get they absolutely deserve. I feel for the players who have to deal with this sh*t.