Penalties being considered for the Pats - UPDATED 1/1/2020

[Actual Pats Fan]

That's Jan/Feb/Mar 2015 thinking, my friend. When it's "nothing", the NFL clears it up really fast. We're getting inspected triple hard because the NFL's cheapest owner, who never does anything to help the league, is throwing a fit about his horseshit team being "spied on".

I cannot hold Brown more responsible than the other owners and Goodell.

That said, you won't be seeing this statement from him anytime soon:

"With regard to the incident involving Kraft Productions, our organization is satisfied that this was an unintentional oversight by a longtime, experienced production crew. The Cincinnati Bengals endorse and believe in fair play and treatment for all contestants in any competitive endeavor; including sportsmanship, responsibility and the absence of prejudice, malice and malfeasance employed by enforcement to create an intentional, unwarranted competitive disadvantage to a particular team. We look forward to a good, exciting game against the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots."

 

[NENGFAN]

Wait - is this real?

I cannot hold Brown more responsible than the other owners and Goodell.

That said, you won't be seeing this statement from him anytime soon:

"With regard to the incident involving Kraft Productions, our organization is satisfied that this was an unintentional oversight by a longtime, experienced production crew. The Cincinnati Bengals endorse and believe in fair play and treatment for all contestants in any competitive endeavor; including sportsmanship, responsibility and the absence of prejudice, malice and malfeasance employed by enforcement to create an intentional, unwarranted competitive disadvantage to a particular team. We look forward to a good, exciting game against the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots."

 

[Joey007]

I'm done as an NFL fan if Goodell takes another first rounder away for this. Seriously...

The shame is we’ve said this before repeatedly.

They know most of us are addicts. It won’t change anything.

 

[sb1]

That's Jan/Feb/Mar 2015 thinking, my friend. When it's "nothing", the NFL clears it up really fast. We're getting inspected triple hard because the NFL's cheapest owner, who never does anything to help the league, is throwing a fit about his horseshit team being "spied on".

FWIW the original Spygate didn’t take long at all to investigate and it didn’t end well.

 

[sb1]

I'm usually an optimistic guy, but the longer it takes, the less hopeful I am that the Pats will come out of this with a minor penalty. Just taking WAY too long.

I think it’s more that the league can’t get their act together on anything

 

[sb1]

My boycott of ESPN and all NFL coverage aside from the Patriots games hasn't changed since "deflate gate". That was the dumbest **** I've ever gone through as a sports fan. The lasting damage of morons parroting the idea that the "Patriots are cheaters" will never go away. Right there with you in terms of being done with the off field nonsense.

It wouldn’t have gone away even without this incident. Not until BB and Brady move on.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Guys, here's a few things.
1. This really IS nothing, it just is. This isn't even the football side of the house, and the value of taping is severely lessened. Nobody in his right mind would try to cheat w tape. Even less so to defeat a team virtually incapable of winning. Evah.

2. That said, it will look like some fecking brilliant ass illuminati conspiracy by the time Roger's done with it. Comey's cooling his jets (no pun intended) right now, I'm sure he feels like a creative writing project. If Wells can do it, he can do it. What do you think Roger pays?

3. We will lose 282 consecutive first round draft picks, give or take. You know, taking into account the other times they had to take into account that it's more probable than not that someone was generally aware of whatever.

4. This is best viewed as an adjunct to the parity rules invented specifically for the special circumstances of the 21st century New England Patriots. Take it as the compliment it is. They have to cheat, and it doesn't even work.

I'll be pretty salty about it when Brady walks, of course...

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

HAHAHAHA, this is like the old times of deflategate

Indeed.

Crygate on the other hand, was handled quite expeditiously, as Goodell, along with seeing the opportunity to placate the owners' years of crying about the Patriots supposed cheating, sought to dispel the belief that his rapport with Kraft would affect the illusion of his fake objectivity, along with his crusade to lay down the hammer at every chance since he became commissioner earlier that year. I do expect that he got grief from the league and New York for helping us stay in Mass. and build Gillette, especially when we started winning titles.

But anti-Patriots bias built up for decades prior, led by the Boston media. And hatred for Belichick in Cleveland also spread nationally.

Afterwards, Goodell gets to treat the team as forever "repeat offenders".

The Patriots' disciplinary experience under Goodell is entirely analogous to bias and injustice in our judicial system.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Wait - is this real?

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

FWIW the original Spygate didn’t take long at all to investigate and it didn’t end well.

"Destroy the tapes. Destroy them now."

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I wonder how NFL Films documentaries would look with no camera angles that could be taken from some nonsensically forbidden taping location. Better yet, for this particular story, I wonder whether Cinci has any somewhat parallel marketing department to film the ongoing Bungles Story... Eff it, somebody buy a copy of everything Cinci ever put on tape for public consumption, compare w/the rulebook, and start sending open letters to the league office and every celeb pats fan site you can find. (you can try the actual media, but I'm not sure there's any appetite for the Little Hypocrite Who Couldn't story line.)

 

[FrodoBagginz]

Belichick: "I want you to film the sidelines during the filming of the scout to help the team gain an advantage."

Cameraman: "Sure, but, aren't defensive signals now sent through headsets to the defender who has a microphone in his helmet?"

Belichick: "Yes. We are not looking at signals this time since they can't be seen. What we want to look for now is the walking and sitting patterns of the players and staff. Their walking and sitting patterns could give us key insight into what plays are going to come up."

Cameraman: "I'll get right on it."

Belichick: "Don't forget to get permission to film in the press box from the Browns first. The key to cheating is to get permission first."

Camerman: "I'll contact the Browns now."

Belichick: "Also, make sure to film in front of Bengals employees. You want to be cheating right in front of them. Another key to cheating is to do it in front of the employees of the team you are cheating against so that you are less likely to be caught cheating. None of that filming in secret locations nonsense where nobody can see what you are doing...it always leads to you being caught."

Cameraman: "Do you think it would be better to do this against a better team than the 1-12 Bengals?"

Belichick: "Don't underestimate the Bengals. They are a sleeping giant. We have to prepare just in case they make the playoffs."

Camerman: "I'll get to work right now."

Belichick: "If you do get caught, just deny that you knew filming the sidelines was illegal. I do not care if we are caught in this operation as long as our bigger operations are not discovered. The NFL doesn't need to know about our massive spy ring. Secret agents infiltrating every team, high tech spy satellites, listening devices in every locker room and on the sidelines, and secret alien spy technology installed in every stadium."

Cameraman: "What?"

Belichick: "Nevermind. Just do your job!"

 

[Clonamery]

Belichick: "I want you to film the sidelines during the filming of the scout to help the team gain an advantage."

Cameraman: "Sure, but, aren't defensive signals now sent through headsets to the defender who has a microphone in his helmet?"

Belichick: "Yes. We are not looking at signals this time since they can't be seen. What we want to look for now is the walking and sitting patterns of the players and staff. Their walking and sitting patterns could give us key insight into what plays are going to come up."

Cameraman: "I'll get right on it."

Belichick: "Don't forget to get permission to film in the press box from the Browns first. The key to cheating is to get permission first."

Camerman: "I'll contact the Browns now."

Belichick: "Also, make sure to film in front of Bengals employees. You want to be cheating right in front of them. Another key to cheating is to do it in front of the employees of the team you are cheating against so that you are less likely to be caught cheating. None of that filming in secret locations nonsense where nobody can see what you are doing...it always leads to you being caught."

Cameraman: "Do you think it would be better to do this against a better team than the 1-12 Bengals?"

Belichick: "Don't underestimate the Bengals. They are a sleeping giant. We have to prepare just in case they make the playoffs."

Camerman: "I'll get to work right now."

Belichick: "If you do get caught, just deny that you knew filming the sidelines was illegal. I do not care if we are caught in this operation as long as our bigger operations are not discovered. The NFL doesn't need to know about our massive spy ring. Secret agents infiltrating every team, high tech spy satellites, listening devices in every locker room and on the sidelines, and secret alien spy technology installed in every stadium."

Cameraman: "What?"

Belichick: "Nevermind. Just do your job!"

Classic comedy skits can never be wrong. Well done, Frodo.

 

[sb1]

No Friday afternoon news dump today on this. Yeah they’re going to stretch this out. Lol

 

[blackglass3]

BASELESS SPECULATION

I think they're trying to tie it to Belichick. I will not be surprised at all if he gets a Deflategate-style Ted Wells investigation. This should be finished by now.

 

[farn]

The shame is we’ve said this before repeatedly.

They know most of us are addicts. It won’t change anything.

Lucky for us : the winning doesn’t change either ! More SB wins SINCE the stolen picks than most franchises have in their history.

 

[BradyFTW!]

While most of us can appreciate why there would be another penalty, it should be limited to a fine and a low level draft pick. More importantly, it should come with a brief explanation that this had nothing to do with the team’s practices, but was limited to the documentary.

Goodell has the power to bring real facts to everyone, in terms of an explanation and an attempt to help smooth things over. Let’s see if he does what’s right for the game or if this is another example of trying to ruin the Patriots’ dynasty. We’ll know soon enough.

And hey, if he takes a 2nd rounder the corners we draft there are worse than the 7th round/UDFA corners we target anyway

 

[supafly]

And hey, if he takes a 2nd rounder the corners we draft there are worse than the 7th round/UDFA corners we target anyway

Win/win

 

[upstater1]

Well--if it's worth anything, the Bills main sports radio station who never stop going on and on about the Patriots cheating, had their regular team reporter on for insight today, and he gave a pretty good rendition of how the whole spygate2 was a nothing story. They kept going at him and asking why and he just said it is so much easier to get any info about the sidelines by looking at either the All-22 or filming it from other areas. He said it wasn't the intent because from up there that high, and especially from behind the backs, they would have difficulty getting info that they could have easily gotten otherwise.

 

[upstater1]

I should add that the kind of stuff that's piled up against the Patriots over the years is so laughable, it's like something out of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Every scandal has had really odd moments to it that only a comedian could make up.

My favorite is how the equipment guys made jokes about losing weight, and they texted "Deflate!" to each other. Given the context of those texts, I believe them 99% that that's what they were referring to. But whoever would have thought that a scandal concocted by a Colts ball boy, with all sorts of lies (D'Qwell Jackson knew it was deflated, the balls were at 10.3 PSI, etc., Brady claimed he never talked to the equipment guys, etc.), would ultimately rest on equipment guys tweeting deflate to each other, and the words deflate didn't even refer to balls!!!!

Larry David couldn't have written it any better.