Way to go Hoody..

Steroids are one thing, in any sport.. stealing signs in baseball is a time honored tradition, but it only works in certain circumstances..

But when a NY Jet, no one there ever really known for having insight into any any subject, says prior to the bust being announced, "it seemed like he (Brady) new what play we were running.."

The Pats were caught doing the same thing last year. But now there's a hardass commish who punishes every infraction..

SO... here's the question..

Do you think all of the Patriots' wins are tainted?

I do...

Gonna be interesting to see how they fare WITHOUT stealing the signals from the opposing D...

 

Signal stealing has been going on for Decades, not just one game last week..

 

where ever theres competition thers always gonna be cheating, its part of the game. just don't get caught *cough* bonds *cough*

who cares bout last year tho... the new season just started, lets not dwell on the past

lets see how many bengals get arrested this year, my guess is three

 

Agreed, but from what I hear it's been well known amongst the NFL that Belichek has been doing this specific thing for years.. that it's been bitched about but ignored by the league until now. Been against the rules for many years.. but well known that hoody ignored the rule..

Hey, 500K fine to hoody, 250K to the team, lost the 1st round pick next year.

I like this new commishoner...



commisioner even.. drunk here ok

 

well at least theres accounabillity now, I just hope NFL doesn't end up line NASCAR where EVERYTHING ends up with some sort of penalty

 

Agreed, and the NFL doesn't have any rules against trying to "steal" signs, they only have rules against the methods employed to steal said signs. For example, if the Pats looked across the field and determined every time the Jets did one thing, they Blitzed on the next play, not illegal, not wrong, just a part of sports. But videotaping play calling, then comparing those sigals to the poloroids taken of the play to determine exactly what will happen each and every time... That is cheating and should be punished.

 

Other teams may still push the envelope. The Pats just got caught. I think Bellichek (SP) should have been suspended instead of fined. The team shouldn't have to suffer, it was the coach that screwed up.

 

Maybe my take is a bit difference from most but I really don't have a problem with it at all.

If you are going to call plays where the other team can clearly see your signals then it is your fault. Would you be considered cheating in a game of cards if you learned your opponents tells?

Base runners have been reading, errr trying to read, the catchers signals in baseball since the game started but there are still more than enough strikeouts to go around. Watch a catcher he does not throw one signal to the pitcher he does a series and since the pitcher knows which one in the series he is really talking about they can communicate without anyone being the wiser.

Quarterback is setting up for the snap, looks across the line and sees the D in a formation that he knows and calls an audible. What they did was no different than that really except they figured out the D before they lined up on the ball by using info that was readily obtained from simple observation.

Now if they had broken into the other teams locker rooms and got hold of a play book with signals of the plays listed next to every play then yeah thats cheating but if all you have to do is be a good observer where is the cheating in that?? I guess it could also be considered cheating if you watch last weeks game footage on a team you are playing this week right. What is the point of watching their last game footage??? So you can study the way their offense and Defens sets up and executes different plays in an effort to better predict what they are about to do.

 

Exactly, why is it a "time honored tradition" in baseball but cheating in football.
Signal stealing has been going on for years.

 

i just want to see the patriots go like 3 and 13 this season, that would be so awesome. Especially if they lost to the bills, the dolphins, the browns, and the lions. Remember a few years ago when we killed them i nthe season opener 31-3, wonder if they started signal stealing after that game

its time for the overrated pansies to be done. Let someone else have the spotlight, asswipes.

 

You mean like the underrated pansy Bills.

 

underrated bills? err. Bills are rated correctly, average. Theyre not great, theyre not horrible.. Heres to another 8-8 season

 

I'm with ya.

 

I love how people try to justify blatant cheating

It's not just that they stole signals, it goes beyond that. Like others said, if they had simply just been watching with their eyes then no harm no foul. but the fact of the matter is that the commish actually visited every team personally, and put something in writing before the season clearly sating the rules about this, and they still chose to directly break those rules.

People are trying to compare base runners stealing signals to the cheaters, err Patriots. Uh? Put a high-end digital video recorder with zoom abilities in the hands of the base runners and THEN you have an apples to apples comparison.

It was also not as simple as knowing what formation the other team was is, they also knew when to expect a blitz early enough that they could call screens or other short passes to avoid the blitz. I forget if it was the superbowl game, or the most recent game, but I saw a stats breakdown that showed the Pats offense doing horribly in the first quarter, and then magically from then on out they started avoiding the blitz and never got sacked or caught off guard a SINGLE time for the rest of the game.

Being able to perfectly predict the other teams' moves like that is a massive advantage, and something impossible to accomplish without an extensive system to accomplish ripping off that info...

ALSO, someone said the coach only should be punished, not the team? Uh, newsflash, the ENTIRE TEAM/ORGANIZATION was involved. They were being fed that information and must have known where it was coming from. Everyone knew, and no one had the ethics or morals to say or do something about it. For that reason, I and 62% of poll takers on ESPN agree that the "punishment" was too lenient if anything.