I think in years to come it will be revealed that practices like this are common place in the NFL.It would be naive think of the patriots as the only team to try get a competitive advantage in this manner, in fact I would say multiple teams try stunts like this.

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Make no mistake, this piece is a condemnation of the league.  Not just the Patriots.

 

It's a pattern, a league culture that has allowed it and attempted to "make it go away" whenever possible scandals have come to light.

 

The more all the things the NFL has tried to keep under wraps comes out, the better IMO.

 

Kraft warned he would air dirty laundry if Brady was punished, but backed off that threat.  

 

Looks like ESPN is digging up their own.

 

In the end, it can result in good, if it leads to positive change.  And IMO, that will overshadow any negative hits they may take during the process.

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"You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud."

What i mean is, why didn't this come out when the whole deflate gate thing happened? Why wait until its a few days before the season starts?

Because it will get infinitely more attention dropped days before the season opener than it would have if dropped in July or August.

 

Didn't Vic used to say the Jaguars' headsets always seemed to have some kind of malfunction at Gillette Stadium but almost never anywhere else?

Yes. The malfunctioning headsets in Foxboro and mysterious crowd noise in Indy were his two most common responses when asked about teams cheating.

 

I think in years to come it will be revealed that practices like this are common place in the NFL.It would be naive think of the patriots as the only team to try get a competitive advantage in this manner, in fact I would say multiple teams try stunts like this.

There's an old saying: "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." It would be naive to assume that most, if not all teams use dubious means to gain a competitive advantage when and where they can, but it seems from the article (and from many other articles in the past) like the Patriots are far more brazen and aggressive about it than other teams are? The Falcons were found to have been pumping crowd noise in, but you didn't see any articles after that, a point at which the Falcons were vulnerable to such articles, implicated them in further cheating scandals. Why was that?

 

Make no mistake, this piece is a condemnation of the league.  Not just the Patriots.

 

It's a pattern, a league culture that has allowed it and attempted to "make it go away" whenever possible scandals have come to light.

 

The more all the things the NFL has tried to keep under wraps comes out, the better IMO.

 

Kraft warned he would air dirty laundry if Brady was punished, but backed off that threat.  

 

Looks like ESPN is digging up their own.

 

In the end, it can result in good, if it leads to positive change.  And IMO, that will overshadow any negative hits they may take during the process.

Well said.

 

I think Goodell's poor handling of controversies will ultimately be his undoing as Commissioner. The first Patriots scandal got him in hot water, the collusion scandal involving Washington and the Cowboys got him in serious trouble, the domestic violence outbreak and his ham-handed handling of it nearly cost him his job last year, and now the second Patriots scandal has owners infuriated again. Compounding the problem for Goodell is that his "independent investigators" are obvious league shills who are paid to come to the conclusions he wants them to, and whenever his punishments are taken to a true independent arbitrator or a courtroom, they always seem to end up either significantly reduced or tossed entirely because of factors completely within Goodell's control. At some point, the cat runs out of lives, and Goodell's on his seventh or eighth life at this point.

 

Ultimately, money talks, and as long as the NFL is raking in cash hand over foot, Goodell is reasonably safe. If league popularity, attendance or profit starts to fall off, or if players exploit a legal loophole to end the labor "peace" that currently exists (and they'd have ammo in an argument given that Goodell consistently ignores the CBA), I'd expect that Goodell and his entire senior team would be shown the door, and a relative outsider to be hired on in his place. Of course, if Goodell continues embarrassing the league in the courts of law and public opinion, guys like Jerry Jones and Paul Allen who wield a great deal of influence within that owners' room might just rally support to push him out and install someone new before any decline or labor battle happens.

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Goodell's excuse for destroying the tapes was ridiculous.  "We're going to make sure they aren't used again!  Because you know, those teams aren't going to likely change their signals now after learning about the tapes, making them otherwise worthless."

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I was wrong about Trent Baalke. 

Also notable:

 

"Kraft is a member of the NFL's three-person compensation committee, which each year determines Goodell's salary and bonuses -- $35 million in 2013, and nearly $44.2 million in 2012."

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"You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud."

Also notable:

 

"Kraft is a member of the NFL's three-person compensation committee, which each year determines Goodell's salary and bonuses -- $35 million in 2013, and nearly $44.2 million in 2012."

 

I thought this quote was quite telling as well:

 

"...'This is the way things should be done ... the way they were done under Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue,' a former executive now says. 'Keep the dirty laundry in the family.'..."

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

Patriots are the worse. What a bunch of losers. Goodell is also terrible. I'd be happy to see him go because the permanent London team pipedream would go too. Plus he's incompetent.

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Bill belicheck and Tom Brady's HOF bids should be thrown out. This is a major stain on the league. 4 championships have now been called into question in the last 15 years. 

 

Just to add to what you expressed,  it's possible even more than 4 championships have now been called into question.   Teams that the Patriots ended up beating in the playoffs in seasons the Patriots didn't win the Super Bowl might have gone on to win the Super Bowl if not for the Patriots cheating repeatedly and in multiple fashions.  

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Man, this is only going to get uglier.

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After reading that long article I gotta say.


Belichick should be banned from coaching

Kraft should be stripped of ownership

Goodell should be removed from power

Brady should have a *  in front of all career achievements 


Eric Mangini should probably be given a medal


*added to all playoff games determined to have an unfair advantage in the Patriots favor

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Go Jags!
*To stay up for atleast 2 years 3/6/17
2016 draft players I think will be good

• On the Fournette train, will be best back of his class 3/6/17
  
• Lattimore please,  Lockdowns on both sides would be nice
  
• Engram at TE and the MJD clone Samaje Perine
  

Man, this is only going to get uglier.

 

It probably needs to.

 

IMO, they (the entire league) needs to come clean on what goes on behind closed doors and address it all moving forward.

 

Take the lumps, but truly fix what's wrong and all will look better moving forward.

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"You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud."

Man, this is only going to get uglier.

 

  One thing for sure,  it's a nightmarish P.R. situation for the NFL.   Last season,  the Ray Rice,  Greg Hardy,  and Adrian Peterson situations were a dark cloud over the league.  While thankfully no one was physically injured in the Patriots latest scandal,   it's yet another dark cloud over the league at a time when fans across the United States and beyond look forward to the games. 

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Belichick should be banned from coaching

Kraft should be stripped of ownership

Goodell should be removed from power

 

I wish

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Ridiculous that they haven't been punished properly. And yet they still get more success as the years go on...

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Brady won.

 

Which is interesting, because it makes Goodell and the shield look that much worse, in the way that investigation (and response) was handled as well.

 

This. What, did you think The GodCommishner was gonna sit back and let some pansy [BLEEP] federal judge tell him what to do? Nope, he's gonna get those Patriots no matter what he has to do to make it happen. Just like that official NFL tweet that left Brady our of the pic of the best QBs in the game, they're gonna punish Brady other ways for his impudence before the Don. The thing that will be most telling is when we get to season's end and Brady didn't benefit from a single Roughing call all year. The refs are gonna have their flags hot glued to their boxers.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

Goodell's excuse for destroying the tapes was ridiculous.  "We're going to make sure they aren't used again!  Because you know, those teams aren't going to likely change their signals now after learning about the tapes, making them otherwise worthless."

 

Also don't forget what Goodell said right after the initial Spygate "investigation" that the tapes didn't give the Cheatriots an advantage or influence the outcome of any game. If true, then why destroy them?

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This is big. That article confirms my suspicians 100%.


This is definitely too big for the same level of damage control we have seen from the NFL.


Roger bailed out the Pats repeatedly. NE should have quietly accepted this latest 4 game suspension.


BIG THINGS will have to be done about this.


I want wins evacuated, rings and trophies returned, suspensions, forfeitures, names stricken from record books, monetary fines imposed that could finance a revolution...

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This is big. That article confirms my suspicians 100%.


This is definitely too big for the same level of damage control we have seen from the NFL.


Roger bailed out the Pats repeatedly. NE should have quietly accepted this latest 4 game suspension.


BIG THINGS will have to be done about this.


I want wins evacuated, rings and trophies returned, suspensions, forfeitures, names stricken from record books, monetary fines imposed that could finance a revolution...

 

   If this was College Football,  most,  if not all of this,  would have happened already.  

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Who knows, but ESPN may have done more digging after the new allegations came out.

 

The longer employees are away from working there the more stuff they are probably willing to talk about.  Of course they aren't going to throw their employer under the bus at the time.

 

Regardless, there was a culture within the Patriots of cheating.  From "minor" things to really big things. Stealing play sheets, stealing signals, rummaging through coaches/players stuff at hotels.  Pretty crazy.

Since when does anyone on this board believe anything ESPN says?  I would take what they say with a grain of salt...they are pathetic in so many ways.

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I think in years to come it will be revealed that practices like this are common place in the NFL.It would be naive think of the patriots as the only team to try get a competitive advantage in this manner, in fact I would say multiple teams try stunts like this.

 

This might be true, but why do we only hear about the Pats keeping on "trying to gain a competitive advantage" and not any other teams, except for the "piped in noise" with the clots?

 

Do all the other teams just despise them so much that they want everyone to know what the Pats are willing to do to win games?

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I survived the Gus Bradley Error.