Another page in the continuing saga of Spygate, ran on the pages of that great unbiased media source, The Boston Globe, last week. "[In my] entire coaching career, I have never filmed a walkthrough," said New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. "I've never been on a staff that has filmed a walkthrough. I'm talking about when I was a head coach. As an assistant, I've never seen a head coach film a walkthrough the day before a game..."
Everyone scoffed, tittered and guffawed, but I'll tell you what: I believe Belichick.
Why? Because I have to. Because I was living in New Mexico during Election 2000. Stay with me here for a moment and I'll explain.
Every American citizen (and quite a few living abroad as well) clearly recalls sitting president George W. Bush's, um, closely fought election victory that year. Thanks to the mechanics of the Electoral College, Al Gore was in a position to earn more popular votes while still losing the general election. Everyone knows what happened (or didn't happen) next, as folks in 49 states and the District of Colombia saw the same red-and-blue board on CNN for days and weeks thereafter while recounts went on and on.
The Sunshine State wasn't the only disputed state in that contest, however. You may recall how Oregon stayed off the map in neither Bush nor Gore's column for about two weeks; this was thanks to that state's mail-in ballot procedure and an ultra-close race there.
And then there was New Mexico. Originally given to Gore on election night, three days into the Florida vote recounts, on all the scoreboards, the Land of Enchantment was bleached as officials declared the state's balloting may have been compromised; a recount had been called for in my home state as well, a little-noticed event, as like Oregon, New Mexico did not have enough electoral votes to swing the presidency into either camp.
Two days later—four after Election Day—those turning on CNN may have noticed that the Southwestern state had in fact gone red: After a recount, New Mexico had voted Bush, it seemed, by a margin of some 200 votes or so. Twenty-eight days after Election Day, though, New Mexico had miraculously swung back into the Gore camp, with the Wooden One proclaimed the winner of a state of 1.2 million by 366 votes. For those keeping score at home, the problems included:
• Improperly programmed voting machines in Albuquerque, the state's largest city.
• Missing ballots, later "found" by election officials in "a back room in a warehouse."
• Police impounds of ballots.
• Incorrect programming of voting machines in another county of the state; and finally
• A "misread" handwritten tally of absentee ballots which gave Gore another 500 votes and the victory.
1 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Amos Jones about 1 year ago
I believe him too..I believe that he is a CHEATER!!! Did he do anything that other NFL teams probably have done and not got caught at, I am sure. However, it sends a terrible message to our youth as much as the steroid scandal in MLB. I am not a huge fan of the congressional hearings but the NFL has chosen to hide the facts, it is evident by their destruction of the tapes in question. The NFL doesn't want anything bad to come out about them as they have seen what it has done to the MLb and they don't want to take chances of being lumped with them.
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.