Thanks for the explanation. That’s kinda what I figured was going on. “The “cheat” aspect of the signal stealing is not that signals were stolen, it is that video was taken.”

Still seems an ultra-dumb rule to me. If signals were passed via walkie talkie (aren’t quarterback’s helmets wired these days?) and another team intercepted the “private” call, something that wasn’t out there for everyone to see, I’d get how that could be something to complain about. But to essentially say “Hey, we’re going to do something right out in the open where anyone can see it but you’re not allowed to record it” seems really, really stoopid.

Would it be against the rules to hire someone with photographic memory to watch? What if I hire a consulting firm to help me improve my game and they are able to provide me with really effective analysis of the other teams signals. I don’t know how they do it, but they’re really good at it. Now, maybe they record the game, including the activities of the coaches on the sidelines, as any fan at the game can. But I don’t know that. All I know is they give me good advice and analysis of the other teams play. Is that a rules violation?

I get it is the rule and, yeah, if they broke a rule then an appropriate punishment should follow. But it certainly doesn’t make them cheaters for all eternity. And a far better solution would be to tell everyone to act like grownups and realize that if you do something in full view of the other team they may be record it, analyze it and improve their play against you because of it.

As for the Jon Gruden story, Bill Callahan was supremely stupid and is in no position to complain that someone else beat him because he didn’t change the locks after they left. Seriously, I thought football was supposed to be highly competitive. Do the people running/playing the game really cry-baby and cry unfair this much whenever someone else does better than them?

The “cheat” aspect of the signal stealing is not that signals were stolen, it is that video was taken. The rules state that video is a verboten medium for this practice.

Understand, then, that the actual “action”–signal stealing–is not against the rules. Every coach is attempting to do this, because you gain a competitive advantage. There are no penalties for breaking an opposing coaches’ code and then using it to pound them into submission.

The penalty enacted against the Patriots was because of how they attempted to do it. If they had used binoculars from the owners’ seats, there would have been nothing to sanction.

A rules violation is not, per se, a cheat. A horse-collar tackle is a rules violation, and when the refs catch it they enact a penalty. Videotaping an opponents’ signals is a rules violation, and the commissioner enacted a penalty.

I’m a Bears fan, but the constant drumbeat to label the Patriots cheaters for infinity throughout the universe is silly.

I’ll end this explanation by bringing up a Super Bowl from a few years back, when Jon Gruden’s Buccaneers took on Bill Callahan’s Raiders. The Bucs pasted the Raiders–intercepting Raider QB Rich Gannon an historic five times–and after the fact it was discovered that one of the chief reasons for this domination was that Gruden knew the signals and plays being called.

Why? Because Gruden had left the Raiders for the Bucs that year, Callahan had been installed as Gruden’s replacement, and Callahan, the yutz, never changed the playbook.

If signal-stealing constitutes “cheating,” then one would have to logically declare that Gruden cheated his way to a Super Bowl victory, and that the only noble thing to do would have been to act as though Gruden didn’t know the signals being called.

One team watched what another team was doing during a game and that’s a No-No?

I thought that was WHY signals were always so convoluted and cryptic. A third-base coach making seventeen different gestures so your guys would know what they meant but the other team wouldn’t know which particular gesture was significant.

Postseason Schedule & Results
Date Game Score Record
Jan. 12 Patriots vs. Jaguars W 31-20
Jan. 20 Patriots vs. Chargers W 21-12
Feb. 3 Patriots vs. Giants L 17-14

Superb season- just beaten on the day by a younger team that wanted it more – oh and a fumble

Four words: It was a fumble.

1. The NFL by-law (or whatever they call it) in question basically says that a team can’t tape the other team’s coaching signals for use in the game.

2. Belichick interpreted this to mean that they could be taped for use in preparing for another game. When I read the text of the by-law, I thought his was a reasonable interpretation.

3. Consistent with that interpretation, the Patriots had a vast library of tapes of coach’s signals.

4. The NFL interpreted its by-law such that no taping of coach’s signals is allowed, no matter when the material was to be used. It sent memos to that effect.

5. The Patriots ignored the memos and got caught.

6. When Belichick had his big meeting with the Commissioner last fall, he explained his interpretation of the rule and said that the Patriots had a library of tapes. When requested, the Patriots delivered the library of tapes.

7. The Commissioner ruled that the League’s interpretation was the correct one, issued the fines and forfeited the draft choice as sanctions and had the library of tapes destroyed.

8. The only potential for additional sanctions of Belichick/Patriots is if the confession was not full and complete. That’s why the report that Sean Walsh had tapes of the Rams’ walk-thru before the Super Bowl were potentially a big deal. The Patriots hadn’t confessed that sin and so additional sanctions could have been imposed.

9. According to the news reports today, Walsh’s materials are just tapes of coach’s signals – more of the same. Nothing that would trigger additional sanctions.

I understand that you pine away, wistfully imaging that more and dire things are going to come of this. But that just ain’t gonna happen. You’ve got to move on.

You could use your ‘pining’ time more constructively by posting about the possibility of dating Jessica Alba, complete with hot photos. That ain’t gonna happen either, but they improve my mood tremendously.

Rod

Yes.