Posted on 02/14/2008 12:56:36 PM PST by JewishRighter
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bill Belichick has been illegally taping opponents' defensive signals since he became the New England Patriots' coach in 2000, according to Sen. Arlen Specter, who said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told him that during a meeting Wednesday.
"There was confirmation that there has been taping since 2000, when Coach Belichick took over," Specter said.
Specter said Goodell gave him that information during the 1-hour, 40-minute meeting, which was requested by Specter so the commissioner could explain his reasons for destroying the Spygate tapes and notes.
NFL ping
Hilarious
How long has it been illegal?
What law does this violate?
Tell me there is somebody, anybody, out there who is surprised by this. Everybody knows the Patriots have been cheating, all along.
http://www.arlenspectersucks.com/
Seems like old Sphinctor is getting money from two groups that have some interest in this and he’s using his office on their behalf.
Do the People’s business, not your contributors’.
No laws. Just the rules of the NFL.
I don't see what Specter hopes to accomplish here, no law has been broken, only the league rules. The league dealt with the issue and has (most likely) closed the case.
Is he threatening to revoke the league's anti-trust status? GO ahead and try it Arlen, let the anti-trust laws be subjected to the light of public pervue. Let America at large in on the hypocrisy of the government.
Hey Arlen, while you're revoking the NFL's anti-trust status, how about enforcing affirmative action on the NBA?
I don’t know. I’m just askin’ if it makes a difference.
To be honest, not much.
There is a reason that coaches at ALL games cover their mouths and have players hold up towels to hide signals. It’s because sign stealing is very common and has been for some time.
The outrage at the Patriots is simply because they got caught, and the NFL is burying the case because they don’t want it to get out how widespread it is.
I’m not a big enough football fan to know that this has been common knowledge. But I was always interested in the debate about who the best coaches were and it seemed, after Belichick had such a string of success at New England, that he was being hailed as a big coaching genius and, probably, the real brains behind Bill Parcell’s success at the Giants.
So, I wanted to hear the wise men of FReepdom opine on whether this is telling of something akin to the steroids scandal in baseball. Should Belichick’s coaching record have an asterisk. Conversely, is it no big deal and no worse than watching game film, for example. I really don’t know. It seems to me that it’s a kind of cheating, but I don’t know how serious, how much it affected outcomes, etc.
BTTT
Frankly, I think Belichick would have had a good deal of success in Boston even without the cheating. He is a good coach and has had some great players. But it is impossible to say how much of their success is attributable to the cheating.
The Patriots apparently have a great play-caller in the booth. I do not know his name, but he is, apparently, a genius at detecting defenses and making appropriate adjustments, and Belichick is said to rely on him heavily. I suspect that this man, who's name escapes me at this moment, is the one who made good use of the videotaped signals.
The taping of opposing coaches is expressly against the rules of the NFL, precisely because these tapes can be very useful in just this way. Belichick knew the rule, was reminded of the rule, was sanctioned by the league, but never stopped doing it. This should indicate how valuable these tapes were to his team, that he was willing to break the rules to get them.
What would your Rabbi say if you asked him if it was permissible to use information from a competitor that came into your hands either through his carelessness or by chance? You know what he would say.
Now, that’s a very good clarification. Thank you.
You’re probably right about that, too. I just know, that, as someone pointed out, coaches in all sports try to steal signs. I didn’t know if its all illegal, or kind of like part of the game: just the same way pitchers and catchers are trying to deceive the batter about what the next pitch will be and the quarterback tries to fool the other team about the play, that maybe it was part of the competitive battle of strategy to defeat those signals. If not, then your analogy is very effective. Could it be that there are legal ways of counterspying and the use of film is illegal because it gives too much of a capability?
That's it exactly.
Apparently, there's nothing wrong with trying to overhear the signals, or read lips (which is why coaches cover their mouths), only in using electronic equipment to record the signals.
Something else Belichick's defenders keep forgetting is that leagues were specifically warned about this by the Commissioner and the Pats kept right on doing it.
Does this tarnish his legacy? Certainly. What's bizarre is that he probably didn't need to do it.
I look at it a little bit like Barry Bonds, who was one of the best natural athletes who ever played baseball. He'd have been a first-ballot hall of famer if he didn't ever pick up a needle, but he decided that he needed to cheat to stay in the game a little longer, or to go from "elite" to "once in a generation" or whatever fool reason he had.
Statement 2: "There was confirmation that there has been taping since 2000, when Coach Belichick took over," Specter said.
Statement 1 and 2 are not the same. Kindof like reading about how horrible it is that Bush opposes Embryonic Stem Cell research, and supportin gthat by citing all of the breakthroughs in (non-embryonic) stem cell research.
What do FReepers think this means for Belichick's vaunted success during this stretch?
Not much, at least if the taping is as described. It allows a few inferences among thousands of other pieces of information, which many coaches couldn't even make use of.
Just to be clear, signal stealing is not illegal. What was illegal was doing it via videotaping.
They can videotape the games - as long as the coaching staff doesn't use the tape during the game. They can use broadcast footage of the signals, as long as the teams don't do the videotaping themselves. They can take still shots of the opposing team at will. What they cannot do is the very fine point of one particular method of recording of one particular action...which rule the NFL Chief of Operations mis-stated to be proscribed only if the taping was viewed during the game (Bellichek says he never saw that "reminder" memo anyway, so it is only minorly relevant).
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