My Thoughts on Spygate

(Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News), NFL Coach of the Week for Week 17 (NFL.com), NFL Coach of the Year (USA TODAY), The Bill Walsh Award (USA TODAY), Earle 'Greasy' Neale Award: Pro Coach of the Year (Maxwell Football Club) and NFL Coach of the Week for Week 6 (NFL.com). That was just this past year. He's coached his team to 16-0 regular season, 18-1 including the playoffs, helping his team set records, brake records, all while dealing with Spygate, his personal life and the personal lives of his players. I'd say that's pretty special.

With that said, most, if not all teams love their head coaches, specially the ones that help to create dynasties and win 3 Superbowls in 4 years along with 4 AFC titles in 7 years, and making it to the playoffs 6 out of 7 years, and managed to coach successful seasons with winning records from 2001-2007 (all from 2000 to present day).

With all that said, I'm probably missing a few records someplace, but I'm sure that by now you get the idea.

Moving on....

What about those cocky, trash talking players? Hmmmm...I won't deny that there's a TON of smack talk going on in the NFL. I will say that the Pats did, IMHO, the least amount of it. You won't find a Pats player from 2007 saying how they guarantee a victory over an opposing team or talk smack about an opposing team even when an opposing team talked smack about them (Steelers and Chargers). It wasn't Pats fans whom booed a 14 year old girl due to the jersey she was wearing(Note that Robert Kraft, in a show of "class", honored the teen by having her watch the coin toss at center fieldby making her guest captain of the Patriots for the game).

Oh behold! The spygate scandall continues to grow because the "powers that be" deem it so! Nope, wrong there, too. The NFL's competition committee said "It was a thorough, fair process with lots of integrity. We were satisfied with what was done." As of this post, we're still waiting on Matt Walsh to strike a deal with the NFL so that he can show his tapes to the world. To whatever evidence he's got, I'll have to hear Belichick or Kraft on the tapes saying "Ya, go tape that other team, it's ok, it's worth the risk to get caught!"

The point of this post was NOT to bash any other team (sorry to those fans of the teams I did bring up), nor was it to justify the Patriots actions, or the actions of it's employees (including head coach).

The point of this post WAS to shed light on the subject of spygate, bringing up points that the average Joe might not know...to show that the Pats fans aren't classless, nor are the players or staff (I'd like to think the same of all the NFL's teams). That the Pats didn't get fined for what they were video taping, but how they were video taping it. I'd also like to note that Goodell stated that the taping in the Jets game was not a factor in the outcome of the game, and that nothing had been presented that showed that the Pats were using the tapes for in game use or halftime adjustments. Goodell also mentioned that he didn't think that spygate tainted the Pats accomplishments for the 07 season.

The reason why the tapes and notes were destroyed (the tapes and the notes that the Pats gave to the commish) was because Goodell didn't want them leaked out into the public where other teams could get hold of them and use them against the Jets. "We thought we had locked it up, and it got out five days later," Goodell said. "That was one of my concerns."

Here's how I'm looking at the whole spygate thing: We were caught doing something wrong even though we thought it was OK. We were punished, we paid our dues and we moved on. It's been 6 months (SIX MONTHS!!!) and people still carry on about it, saying such things as "they're classless", "they should have their Lombardi trophies taken away", "they're all cheaters", and blah blah blah. I've been a Pats fan since I was a fetus. I was a fan when they were wining one and 2 games a season. I was a fan when they won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years. I was a fan in the 2007 season when they went 18-1 and lost in a crushing upset to the NY Giants. I'll be a fan through out the entire spygate scandal. When all the smoke clears, I'll still be a fan of the New England Patriots. Chances are that I'll die a Pats fan.

The Patriots should be proud of what they've done this season. I know I am.

 

Respectfully,

 Steve

 

You can participate in discussions about this topic HERE at TheScoreBoards.com 

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?