Spygate: Final Verdict.

By Derek Lofland

I’ve been holding off on writing an article about “Spygate” since reports surfaced days before the Super Bowl that former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh had taped a Rams’ walk-through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI.

I wanted to see what new information came out of this, which quite frankly wasn’t much. Now that Matt Walsh has met with the Commissioner and the tapes have been shown to the public, what is the final effect of Spygate on the Patriots' legacy?
  
The problem that we have on this topic is that there are too many people who are emotionally attached to the situation.

You have a number of fans who are huge supporters of the Patriots. They believe this is an attempt by fans of other franchises to discredit the accomplishments of the most successful franchises in the league since 2001. They believe giving this matter any credence is pure jealousy.

Conversely, you have another group of people who hate the Patriots so much that they will take any bit of negative information and use it to discredit the entire Patriot dynasty. They want to believe the Patriots were a 6-10 team transformed into a Super Bowl Champion with this conduct.

The fact of the matter is that both positions are utterly ridiculous. Many Patriots fans have lost their minds in trying to justify or explain this. It was against the rules and if the Patriots didn’t know it was against the rules, the only reason they didn’t know is because they didn’t want to know. Blind eye, anyone?

The method they were using to tape these games was very systematic. On every play, they would tape the scoreboard showing the clock, score, down, and yardage. Then they would show the signals being used by the coaching staff on the other sideline. They had done this practice as early as 2001.

Common sense dictates two things:

1. In a league where coaches spend 15-20 hours a day preparing for their opponent, why would they use those valuable hours viewing footage that didn’t give them any advantage?

2. If it wasn’t working, why did they continue to tape opposing sidelines from 2001-2007?

It obviously gave them an advantage; otherwise they wouldn’t have gone through the painstaking systematic approach in taping these signals over multiple seasons. If it weren’t a competitive advantage, the league wouldn’t have fined the Patriots $250,000. They wouldn’t have taken away a first-round pick nor fined “The Hood” $500,000.

However, the anti-Patriot crowd has also lost their minds. First, do you honestly believe the Patriots were the only team in the league engaged in this activity?  In reading and watching TV about this topic, I have heard two interesting stories on ESPN from unconfirmed sources:

1. There was another team in the league that had tried to tape coaching signals. When the opposing coaching staff saw what was going on, they sent a huge security officer to stand in front of the camera to block the taping.

2. When Herm Edwards was with the Jets, he knew the Patriots were engaged in this behavior and would wave to the cameras to let the Patriots know that he knew the signals were being taped.

Opposing coaches who had no idea their signals were being taped were naive. I have a very difficult time believing that the Patriots were the only team engaged in this type of activity and that no one in the league had the foggiest notion that the Patriots were taping signals. Teams that were playing the Patriots should have known this practice was going on and could have taken measures to prevent it or minimize it.

If I been the coach of the Patriots and put together a game plan based on those signals, the Patriots would have gone 0-16. I am a follower of the game, have very strong opinions on what I watch, and consider myself a historian of the game. I can call plays on John Madden Football. That does not qualify me as an NFL Head Coach.

Taking steroids will make someone stronger, but it doesn’t guarantee they will have the hand-eye coordination to hit a 95-mile an hour fastball. The same is true for this argument.

Taping signals is not going to make an unqualified head coach smart enough to win three Super Bowls. Had the Patriots done the same exact practice with The Ole Ball Coach running the helm, they wouldn’t have won three Super Bowls. They probably wouldn’t have won more than six or seven games a season.

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