Letters to the Editor
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Re: "Excuses Excuses"
Agreed Lynx. All of the tortured rationalizations and pooh poohing by some here is ridiculous though not as hysterical as the craziness going on in ESPN's comment section. There was a rule against it, the Pats were accused of doing it before, the league warned eveybody at the start of the season about it and then the Pats got caught redhanded in the very first game of the season. End of story.
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Jonathan
So you've fallen back on the "everybody does it" excuse, accepting that he's cheating. Got it.
If "everybody's doing it" and the consensus is that no-one is hurt by it, change the rules. Until then if you are doing it and you're caught, you've been cheating and should be penalized. If the Dolphins and others are cheating, they should be punished too.
As far as Marino is concerned, I just think he's overrated and was just joking about your citing him.
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@ el riddler
Um no. They aren't "being accused of anything." Goodell has determined that they DID IT.
Actually, Goodell hasn't hasn't yet officially "determined" anything. So at this point it's accusations in the press, based on unnamed league sources, before the Patriots have presented their case to Goodell. That's why I used those words.
Don't get me wrong. I think Belichick should be punished for breaking league rules, if in fact that's what he's done. Hell, suspend him for a game if they've been caught illegally recording the Jets' sideline between plays. What I was objecting to and trying to ridicule is all the hyperbole and innuendo about what the Patriots were doing, especially the ridiculous Boston Herald story.
Also, I may have missed it, but I haven't seen any indication from any legitimate source that the Jets "outed" Belichick. Only that same Boston Herald story, which is full of shit. Everything else I've read indicates that league officials at the game initiated it. I even seem to remember hearing on television that the Jets did not complain about it. It was the first game of the season -- the league officials were probably looking for it. The Patriots might even have made a conscious decision to test Goodell and his promised enforcement of the rule this season, foolishly forgetting the idiotic media environment we live in. The fact the Patriots were playing the Jets is just happenstance.
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A Pat’s fan speaks.
First, for all you Pat’s haters, get a grip. Except for a few brief flashes, this team has sucked for 40 plus years. They finally won something. So now they are the Cowboys or the Yankees or something? Jeepers, if Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl tomorrow, would they suddenly become the Evil Empire?
Second, they’ve won all those close games because they have been consistently good on defense, sometimes great, while the offense has been up and down. Last year, Reche Caldwell was their top receiver. Remember, they’re supposed to be stealing the defensive signals, which doesn’t explain the offensive comeback in either the Carolina Super Bowl or the Indy AFC championship game.
Third, it’s cheating, or something very close to it. I wonder if we’ll ever get to see the video tapes?
But my little boy’s faith is finally broken. Rodney Harrison. Rick Ankiel. King, you win. Everybody is doing it. Ah well, it’s still football. And baseball too. At least Harrison and Giambi actually stood up and said I did it. I was wrong. (Though would they if they hadn’t been caught? Nah!)
I bet Bob Kraft, the Patriots owner, is pretty pissed right now. He treasures his reputation for probity and an organization that does things “the right way”. But hell, let’s get completely cynical. The guys a multi-multi-millionaire and could afford to build his own stadium. He’s probably cut more corners and shat on more heads than a pair of scissors and a pigeon, respectively.
I think Harrington has it kind of right. I think Belichick has gone monomaniacal with football. He’s all Captain Ahab now, persuing the Great White Whale of Super Bowl Championships. He got divorced last year, which is not an excuse, but more likely a symptom or effect of his increasing obsession. He lives football, his father was a coach, he’s been breaking down film since he was a wee tyke. What else is there for him? He doesn’t even take time to wash his sweatshirts. So what if Ted Johnson is all screwed up now?
Shit.
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touche, harrington
Fair enough, Harrington. The team currently stinks, and we've been blown out four straight times. That's not good. Weis can't do that on an ongoing basis and escape the wrath of the zealots.
But it has nothing to do with racism, does it?
And help is on the way. We'll be fine. Maybe even by the end of this year. The biggest reason ND fans are giving Weis the benefit of the doubt right now is that there's so many reasons to hope, while near the end of TW's third season, there was horrible recruiting news and the team was going into games with a defeated look in their eye. It was despair, and we had a coach who didn't seem to want to be there.
I'd be shocked if the irish went to Ann Arbor this weekend thinking they'd already lost. Now we very well might lose, but I don't think we'll go in with our heads hanging as TW's teams did.
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Ahh Lynx..
What's it like in heaven? Must be pretty boring with all those perfect people...
As far as "falling back" on an argument, it's hard to fall back on what you've been asserting from the get go. You really aren't all that good at reading comprehension, are you?
And tell your brother, Mr. Pure Sport the second, "the Jets still suck". What part of the Chad is broken this week?
Work's over. See you peeps tomorrow...
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Cheating is prevalent, not respectable
It is not respectable to steal signs. It is prevalent. 'If it weren't prevalent, teams wouldn't need coded signals'. See the difference, with 'prevalent' the sentence addresses the fact that it happens very often, and avoids an odious endorsement of cheating.
Which raises the question, is something respectable because it is prevalent? Is greed respectable? Almost everyone is guilty of greed at one time or another. But we shouldn't make the mistake of saying that greed is respectable because it is prevalent. All cities have police forces for the purpose of preventing theft. Is theft respectable because it is prevalent?
Cheating is not respectable. In a football game there is the assumption that two teams will face off and compete with different levels of talent and philosophy. There is great excitement in determining which team has a better philosophy, and which team has greater talent. When teams cheat, they negate all philosophy, and talent. When a team cheats, instead of being able to say that they are a good team because they win, you can only say that they win when they cheat. Cheating makes the entire game meaningless in terms of which team is better, which is the entire point of playing the games.
It is true that there are many cameras and fans watching the game, and also the sidelines. The emphasis is that the fans and cameras are WATCHING the game. They are not attempting to sway the game in one way or another except by cheering for their team. The players and coaches on the sidelines expect that they will be seen by fans and cameras. But they do not expect that their calls will be videotaped by the other team. They expect that much privacy. After all, if their is no expectation of privacy between teams, why are they on different sidelines?
What the Patriots did shows a complete lack of integrity. Cheating is an emphatic refusal to play a game by its rules. Which raises the most important question: Why should the Patriots be allowed to play in the NFL when they do not agree to play by NFL rules? The Patriots should have to forfeit the game, if not the season.