[Hacksaw]

Here's a real long article about how the Patriots have gone about the business of cheating the NFL and certain teams in particular. This get's my blood boiling. The NFL's new theme song is going to be "Where have all the good times gone?" as this story gets more run.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/ ... iots-apart

Some key points;

From the article "Now it was Goodell's turn. The league office lifer, then 49 years old, had been commissioner just 18 months, promoted, in part, because of Kraft's support. His audience wanted to know why he had managed his first crisis in a manner at once hasty and strangely secretive. Goodell had imposed a $500,000 fine on Belichick, a $250,000 fine on the team and the loss of a first-round draft pick just four days after league security officials had caught the Patriots and before he'd even sent a team of investigators to Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Those investigators hadn't come up empty: Inside a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others, they found a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents' signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons. Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17. Yet almost as quickly as the tapes and notes were found, they were destroyed, on Goodell's orders: League executives stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette Stadium conference room.

"At least two teams had caught New England videotaping their coaches' signals in 2006, yet the league did nothing."

"Goodell, Kraft and Belichick had acted like partners, complicit in trying to sweep the scandal's details under the rug while the rest of the league was left wondering how much glory the Patriots' cheating had cost their teams. "Goodell didn't want anybody to know that his gold franchise had won Super Bowls by cheating," a senior executive whose team lost to the Patriots in a Super Bowl now says. "If that gets out, that hurts your business."

"Why were the league's premier franchise, led by a cherished team owner, and Brady, one of the NFL's greatest ambassadors, being smeared because a little air might have been let out of some footballs?
But league insiders knew that Deflategate didn't begin on the eve of the AFC Championship Game.
It began in 2007, with Spygate."

"That Sunday against the Bucs, Walsh later told investigators, the Patriots played more no-huddle than usual, forcing Kiffin to signal in plays quickly, allowing Weis sufficient time to relay the information. Years later, some Patriots coaches would point to the score -- a 21-16 Bucs win -- as evidence of Spygate's ineffectiveness. But as Walsh later told investigators, Friesz, who did not respond to messages to comment for this story, told Walsh after the game that the Patriots knew 75 percent of the Bucs' defenses before the snap.
Now, the Patriots realized that they were on to something, a schematic edge that could allow their best minds more control on the field."

"There were regular rumors that the Patriots had taped the Rams' walk-through practice before Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002, one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, a game won by the Patriots 20-17 on a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal"
"He told me, 'The league doesn't need this. We're asking you to come out with a couple lines exonerating us and saying we did our due diligence.'"
Mike Martz, ex-Rams coach, about commissioner Roger Goodell.

This is total crap. we got jobbed. Billecheat should go down for this. Ingratriots should be stripped of their titles,,, or at least add an asterisk.

[Rams the Legends live on]

Here's a real long article about how the Patriots have gone about the business of cheating the NFL and certain teams in particular. This get's my blood boiling. The NFL's new theme song is going to be "Where have all the good times gone?" as this story gets more run.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/ ... iots-apart

Some key points;

From the article "Now it was Goodell's turn. The league office lifer, then 49 years old, had been commissioner just 18 months, promoted, in part, because of Kraft's support. His audience wanted to know why he had managed his first crisis in a manner at once hasty and strangely secretive. Goodell had imposed a $500,000 fine on Belichick, a $250,000 fine on the team and the loss of a first-round draft pick just four days after league security officials had caught the Patriots and before he'd even sent a team of investigators to Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Those investigators hadn't come up empty: Inside a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others, they found a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents' signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons. Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17. Yet almost as quickly as the tapes and notes were found, they were destroyed, on Goodell's orders: League executives stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette Stadium conference room.

"At least two teams had caught New England videotaping their coaches' signals in 2006, yet the league did nothing."

"Goodell, Kraft and Belichick had acted like partners, complicit in trying to sweep the scandal's details under the rug while the rest of the league was left wondering how much glory the Patriots' cheating had cost their teams. "Goodell didn't want anybody to know that his gold franchise had won Super Bowls by cheating," a senior executive whose team lost to the Patriots in a Super Bowl now says. "If that gets out, that hurts your business."

"Why were the league's premier franchise, led by a cherished team owner, and Brady, one of the NFL's greatest ambassadors, being smeared because a little air might have been let out of some footballs?
But league insiders knew that Deflategate didn't begin on the eve of the AFC Championship Game.
It began in 2007, with Spygate."

"That Sunday against the Bucs, Walsh later told investigators, the Patriots played more no-huddle than usual, forcing Kiffin to signal in plays quickly, allowing Weis sufficient time to relay the information. Years later, some Patriots coaches would point to the score -- a 21-16 Bucs win -- as evidence of Spygate's ineffectiveness. But as Walsh later told investigators, Friesz, who did not respond to messages to comment for this story, told Walsh after the game that the Patriots knew 75 percent of the Bucs' defenses before the snap.
Now, the Patriots realized that they were on to something, a schematic edge that could allow their best minds more control on the field."

"There were regular rumors that the Patriots had taped the Rams' walk-through practice before Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002, one of the greatest upsets in NFL history, a game won by the Patriots 20-17 on a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal"
"He told me, 'The league doesn't need this. We're asking you to come out with a couple lines exonerating us and saying we did our due diligence.'"
Mike Martz, ex-Rams coach, about commissioner Roger Goodell.

This is total crap. we got jobbed. Billecheat should go down for this. Ingratriots should be stripped of their titles,,, or at least add an asterisk.

Yea there does seem to be some kind of culture of cheating going on. I don't think anyone will be able to but if some kind of evidence did emerge they did jam or interfere with opposing teams radio waves. It would not be anything the league could sweep under the rug since the FCC would have to get involved since it is illegal on the federal level to intentionally jam or interfere with signal. I don't think there really is any evidence this was intentionally, but I kinda wish there was so the feds would get involved and for once we could see some kind of investigation not controlled by the NFL's appointed "internal affairs".

[Hacksaw]

I don't know about the radio waves, but the spying and the cover up by Goodell is just plain bad. So he made matters worse by covering it up and now it's coming out anyway. That will turn out to be bad career move as their "internal affairs" are spread out for all to see.
Back when the Rams lost that Superbowl, I remember TV announcers mention that it seemed the Patriots knew the Rams plays before they ran them I remember the house full of guests in my home drew that conclusion. Afterward, I thought I was just being a homer, well now I feel a bit vindicated but more so ripped off as a Rams fan having lost a title to a cheater.