Wow. Just when you thought sports couldn't get more corrupted, the New England Patriots decided to cheat and spy on the jets. According to ESPN.com(http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=30129890) one of the patriots employees had a camera and was taping the defensive coordinators signals that he was sending to the players. Now of course what they did was awful, but the worse thing is that it puts the Patriots in a very bad spot with not only the NFL but all fans through out the country. Fans throughout the country are questioning weather Belichick really did coach this team or did he just cheat his way through. My thoughts after reading all of this, there has been some cheating while he has been their. According to ESPN.com ( http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3017964) players on the eagles and steelers both thought that the Patriots and Belichick new the plays that were coming and changed right before the snap.
Finally after a week Mr Goodell came down with the punishment. Espn.com reported that Belichick got fined 500K (which is unheard of for a coach) and The patriots 250k. But that's not where it hurts. If the Patriots make the playoffs they lose one of there first round picks, but if they don't make the playoffs they lose there 2nd and 3rd round pick. Now you might think that's a fair enough penalty but i don't. Come on Goodell you have done so well with the punnishments but this time you missed it. Personally taking away one of their picks is the worse thing. THEY HAVE TWO FIRST ROUND PICKS NEXT YEAR. So if they take one away they still have another one. Second of all SUSPEND BILLY BOY. Money is nothing to him. He's the guy who is in charge of what was going on. If he would have suspended him that would have sent a harsh messege to the the teams. DO NOT CHEAT. What the Patriots did is a disgrace to the patriots, their fans and worse of all the NFL.
5 comments:
I completly agree that the punishment that the team and Bill received was not enough. That team drafts brilliantly and they will find talent in higher rounds, no question. So I think they should take away all draft picks and settle for picking from whats left to teach them a lesson. This contraversy does raise a lot of questions such as, do they deserve those 3 superbowls? Is Coach Bill really such a great coach or just a cheater? I still believe that they are a great team and would have beaten the Jets regardless, but why cheat and videotape? It's too risky and is unacceptable. If they get any other further punishment, they deserve it.
Brian, I disagree with you on both parts. I know that stealing signs is wrong, but it has been done before. Especially in baseball, signs get stolen all the time, but the commish doesn't step in and discipline, the coaches and players take care of it. They switch signs, bean batters, etc. You even cited evidence where the other teams have suspected and changed plays right before snap. They didn't rat of the Pats, they took care of it themselves. As for the punishment, I believe that it is way to steep. I think at the most a 3rd and 4th round pick should be taken, but not any earlier. That's way to cruel of a punishment for the first offense(being caught anyways).
Everyone knows cheating is bad reagardless of how you do it and what sport you are in but lets be honest here, the pats would of won that game even if they didn't steal signs. Now if they cheated to win all those superbowls then that might make a difference because it may have actually helped them but against the Jets I don't think they needed the camera. When it comes to the punishment he got I don't think 500K is really going to affect his bankroll. He should be more concerned about his reputation then anything else. Now people will always question whether or not he is a great coach or just a cheater.
Brian, I agree with you that the punishment was not severe enough. I think that Goodell should have made the patriots forfit the game to the jets as well as be on some sort of probabtion. In addition I think the NFL should look further into the process going on in Gillette stadium.. Teams have reported that their mikes don't always work and that there seams to be a glitch. The part that puts the patriots over the top is the extreme way in which they want to win. Lets face it stealing signs happens all the time but when you actually film it purposely... thats just ridiculous.
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