Posted on 05/08/2008 11:37:23 AM PDT by tobyhill
A former New England Patriots employee has sent the N.F.L. eight videotapes showing the team recorded play-calling signals by coaches of five opponents in six games between the 2000 and 2002 seasons, in violation of league rules.
But the group of tapes does not include video of the St. Louis Rams walk-through practice the day before the 2002 Super Bowl. The employee, Matt Walsh, had been linked to such a tape by news media speculation.
Walsh emerged as a pivotal figure in the spying controversy that enveloped the Patriots last season after they were caught taping Jets defensive signals in the season opener.
Walsh, who worked for the Patriots from 1997 to 2003, agreed to turn over the tapes and other evidence by Thursday under an agreement reached last month between lawyers for the N.F.L. and Walsh. The agreement indemnifies Walsh from all future legal fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Who didn’t know what play the Steelers were running?
That had to be one of the most predictable offenses I have ever seen.
I have never once attended a professional game (football, baseball etc.) that allowed fans in the seats to video the game.
The TV networks pay big bucks for the 'exclusive rights' so if you pull out a video camera and start taping the action on the field, you will soon feel a tap on your shoulder from and usher and a stadium security officer.
Not when Kordel Stewart was at QB. They did all kind of razzel dazzle gimmick plays then.
That is correct if you overlook the fact that the NFL is a privately owned corporation operating with an anti-trust exemption granted by congrees and they have potentially perpetrated a fraud on the public using the public airways while executing that fraud in a $750M facility that was in large part paid for using tax dollars.
Perfectville
Population: 1
No Cheaters Allowed
And just how was your "special" wedding at the Universalist Rainbow One Love Church? Did you march down the aisle to a Broadway tune, or was it the Village People?
That had to be one of the most predictable offenses I have ever seen.
Not hardly. That was the 'Slash' offense days.
You are stretching. If he's a 'representative of the team' that already has a guy way up in the press boxes making game films, what's he doing in the stands shooting the sideline action? The teams actually are required to trade game films with each other. They are bird's eye views of each play and they are studied intently during and after the game. Those game films are intended strictly for the action on the field, not to record the coaches on the sidelines, and then to match that up with game film at halftime to 'break the code.' In reality, it ain't much different than bugging the other team's headphones.
Sorry, but at some point, you have to say, this just ain't right.
Even 15 years ago, it would have been impossible to 'break' the code of coaches signals during a game, but with digital editing, after a half of football, it would take only a few minuets to match the coaches signals with game film and figure out what the calls were. Especially true with defensive calls on blitzes etc. If you know the safety or corner back is coming, it's pretty damn easy to block him.
I never heard of Matt Walsh either.
Even cheating, the Pats lost.
LOLOL! That’s too much. You can’t do it no matter how hard you try. :-)
One of the NFL’s teams may have cheated (i.e. violated the rules of the GAME they play).
It is an extreme leap from there to “...NFL...may have perpetrated fraud.”
Again, please cite the section of the CFR which the NFL violated.
PS - If some localities are foolish enough to use their precious tax money to build stadiums for GAMES, and if said loaclities’ citizens are willing to be subjected to it, that is their (local) problem. It STILL does not rise to the level of federal scrutiny.
Enterprises cannot broadcast frauds over public, e.g. FCC regulated, airways. Cheating during a nationally broadcast event brings you into Interstate Commerce with advertisement and ticket sales. The players are paid to perform ergo pay federal income taxes. Stadium operators pay taxes. The franchises pay taxes. Like or agree with it or not, there are intersections between the business that is the NFL that are well within the federal jurisdiction.
Do I think NFL cheaters are a high priority? No.
If that's the case, I'd suggest we go after CBS News before we worry about the NFL.
It's also very big business - in fact, interstate. That falls squarely within Congress's Interstate Commerce jurisdiction.
Let's see if you can admit what the Patriots did had no material effect whatsoever on the game as played on the gridiron . . .
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