Letters to the Editor
Lynx
Published Letters: 1590 Editor's Choice: 126
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Cheating
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This isn't a "How come you haven't talked about this" letter, I'm just interested in your opinion King, should you care to give it. What do you, or other letter writers think about the allegations of the Patriots regularly cheating over at least the last year, maybe longer? If proven, they could face a forfeit of their first game, lost draft picks and face fines. Personally I'd like to see all of these happen if it is true: punative fines as punishment, forfeit the game to the Jets as compensation and lose draft picks to the Packers, Lions and others that they've pulled this on in previous years. Godell says he'll make a decision quickly and that all these punishments are possible.
I think if true, and it certainly seems to be, this taints all their wins since Bellechick came to NE, including the Superbowls.
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Harrington
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My Jets? I'm not a Jets fan. It is pretty obvious that you're a Pats fan though. I live in the Boston area and when I mentioned this that was the main reaction "Well, everyone does it." Except that they don't. The Packers, Lions and Chiefs have all mentioned that they've caught the Pats doing this.
As far as you claiming everyone is doing it? Fine, but you have no evidence it is true, it sounds more like wishful thinking than anything else.
"It doesn't have an effect on the game"? More wishful thinking. After the Packers game last year Al Harris mentioned "They even ran plays designed for us" and other observations about how Brady seemed to know every defensive look they were giving. It has an effect. If you know the Jets D is going to run a Stunt, you're ready for it and can pick it up more easily.
The Jets have been bad "Unless you count the years when Belichick was working for them."? So you're saying he's been cheating that long? Hell, the Pats sucked at least as long as the Jets, perrenial losers.
Pre-2000 Jets playoff years: 8
Pre-2000 Pats playoff years: 10
Pre-2000 Jets Championships: 1
Pre-2000 Pats Championships: 0
"So get over your sour grapes, move out of your parent's basement and stop crying."
And here's where you forfeit any claim to being taken seriously. You're just a desperate Pats fan trying to defend your team, despite the evidence.
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Jaworski
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sadly, I didn't get to see the Monday Night game he announced. If he's really talking about football, I'll have to tune in next week. I'm so sick of the Madden schtick and the guys talking about their barbeque last weekend. Lets just hope the networks don't try to make him ape the idiocy of the other annoucers.
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Baldy
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bottom Dwellers? The Packers, Chiefs and Jets are hardly "Bottom Dwellers" and the teams mentioned are just the ones who've stated they've caught the Pats doing this. Maybe Bellicheck only seems like "the mensa swami and masters of the universe (for the past seven years we're talking)" 'cause he's been getting away with cheating.
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Big Paulie
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]pro football players are paid poorly
From what I saw, he was paid nearly $800,000 his rookie year and has earned more since. While the league minimum may seem "low", I don't think he was making that little.
And there's still hope for him to recover more, though it may be slim. A Jets player playing the Lions years ago suffered a similar injury and was told he'd never walk again, but he recovered enough to walk and have a mostly normal life. Let's hope Kevin Everett beats the odds too. I'm betting the Bills will help out with medical expenses even if just for the publicity.
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Excuses Excuses
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Strange, but every time the Pats spying comes up everyone says "It isn't that bad" or "Everyone does it" or "But the game wasn't close" or "I don't think the Jets have a signal, after all, for 'let Ellis Hobbs run a kickoff back 108 yards.'"
No one denies that they're doing it and most don't deny they're breaking the rules. People are so desperate to maintain the myth of the Pats greatness that they will make any excuse they can think of. However, it wasn't just this one game. If it only gets them 3 points a game, how many games have they won over the last 7 years because of it. If they could get the same out of any of the alternatives King mentions, then why would they go out of their way to do this?
For the price of a ticket -- assuming the Patriots as an organization can't find a free ticket somewhere -- the Pats can put a guy in Row 12 with a video camera and record the opposing team's defensive signals to their heart's content
When's the last time you went to a game and they let you bring a camera in? You can sneak one in, sure, but they don't just let you carry them in.
Again: That's why the signals are coded. That's why the code should be changed every now and again.
The Jets and the Pats meet twice a year, you're thinking they should change them that often? Hell, if the Pats are using this to cheat well enough that the Jets (or others) can't use the same code twice in a game, how often do you expect them to change the codes?
And to use the example I used last time, if the Jets call a stunt and Brady is told through his helmet "They've called a stunt" don't you think he'll have a better play than if he didn't know? If you say no, you're lying to yourself.
As far as it being "ok" in baseball. I remember some story about someone using a telescope to steal signals from the scoreboard area and relay them to his team and everyone called it "cheating". They may have pretended not to care, but it was a big story at the time and it didn't come out for decades.
And either way, it is still being called "cheating".