Just the thought of this boils my blood. Anyone who truly knows me, knows that not only am I an avid football fan, but also a gigantic New England Patriots fanatic. I love the team. I always have. I was there (in spirit) in the 1985 season when they won a wild card bid for Super Bowl XX against the Chicago Bears under the leadership of Raymond Berry. I saw them score first in that game with a pitiful, yet successful field goal attempt. And then I watched as the breath and momentum was sucked from my very soul as Chicago went on to clobber us 46-10. I was there (in spirit yet again) in 1996 under the reign of Bill Parcells as we earned another berth for Super Bowl XXXI against the Green Bay Packers and watched as Desmond Howard almost single handedly stole our game away from us in the second half on two kick-off returns ... one that scored and the other that gave the Packers tremendous field advantage. I was there in heart and soul during the 2001 season when Bledsoe got hurt and some unnamed, unheard of commodity sitting on our sideline named Tom Brady came in to quarterback out team. I was never a true Bledsoe fan. He hung onto the ball too long ... endangered his offensive linemen ... a true pocket quarterback who seemed to crumble and get sacked way too often when the defensive line broke through. But who the hell is Tom Brady, I said to myself. It didn't take me too long to hop on his band wagon and to ride it all the way to Super Bowl XXXVI. Wow! What a year. I had met my wife-to-be a couple years before and as our relationship built, she understood my passion for the game. She knew that if she was going to stand a chance in hell of seeing me at all on Sundays, she was going to have to try and understand this game of football. As with many New England sports venues, the locals are brought up to love or hate the local teams. You loved or hated the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Bruins, and of course, the Patriots. I've loved football and the Patriots for as long as I can remember. I am not what one can call a fair-weather fan. I've been through thick and thin with the Patriots and I'm proud to say that in spite of this recent allegation of cheating, I am still a proud fan who will hold my head high and flaunt the facts and hardware that this team earned in the past six years. They did not get there by cheating. Anyone who thinks that is simple minded and damn jealous of our accomplishments.
Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, and Tom Brady & Co. have created a dynasty in New England that is unprecedented to anything anyone has ever tried to accomplish before. A club of humble gentlemen, some late in their careers that were given up on by their former teams, that banded together and instilled a level of camaraderie and team spirit that existed nowhere else in professional football. Too many teams that built dynasties before were created by efforts of a team, but highlighted only a few. The Patriots took the field as a complete unit. No one was to be highlighted above the next. No wide receiver or running back was going to play primadonna and become a distraction to the club. Not under the coaching of Belichick. No one got high numbers. Few made Pro Bowl appearances. They traded fame for hardware. They earned there jewelry by three Super Bowl appearances in four years and by winning all three of those games by a margin of nine points combined ... three points more than their opponents in each appearance. A field goal decided all three games and two of them were at the end of the games. Nail biters. They made me cringe, they made me cry, they made me cheer for joy, they made me scream, they gave me so much emotion ... so much joy ... so much pleasure.
And now ... a man on a sideline in the first game of this season ... a season when many are projecting that they'll be making yet another bid for the Super Bowl, are caught cheating. The key word here is "caught." Shame on them for that ... and I truly mean that. Especially since this same guy was caught last year by the Packers doing the same thing and made to stop. Come on. Are we that confident in ourselves that when we get warned like that we believe we can ride under the radar and lack stealth? Lack common sense? It was a mistake. The mistake was getting caught so flagrantly. Almost belligerently. Belichick is a master of the game, and one would think he could master cheating, if in fact that was what he was doing. Just because you're good at what you do, doesn't mean you're going to get so cocky and start being good at what you're doing by exploiting how bad you need to cheat to get there. Seriously? Did a team as stacked as the Pats were going into the Meadowlands really need to even stoop to this allegation to win this game to begin with?
My belief, and no one out there will change my mind one way or the other, is that we got caught doing what many teams are guilty of. Every coach out there wants an advantage. Every team wants to win. Every coach is pressured into a winning season and jobs are lost and lives are changed when the winning stops. Everyone knows this.
Looking at the article Sean Jensen wrote for AOL sports under the title (which I plagiarized for my blog entry (with a high percentage of silent sarcasm in mine) ... sue me Sean ... I am spitting nails mad. How deep does this go, he speculates in his article. He alleges rumors of defensive linemen being wired with microphones so they could hear signal calling and audibles. He alleges this could very well have gone on since the beginning of the Belichick reign. Only a couple things wrong with this theory, Sean. Watergate. They're actually already coining this Videogate and that's so appropriate for my argument.
Let's take a look at all the variables in Sean Jensen's article. Jensen may or may not be a fan of the Patriots. Maybe he was writing the article in a completely biased based opinion. It did not seem that way to me. The sources for his information sounded paranoid and that carried over into his article. First of all ... for the sake of believing Jensen's article ... let's say the Patriots have indeed been cheating since Belichick took over the helm. This would implicate every other coach that has been by his side since the winning of Super Bowl XXXVI, Super Bowl XXXVIII, and Super Bowl XXXIX. That would mean ... Eric Mangini himself was in on it. Not to mention Romeo Crennel who took over the Cleveland Browns in the AFC in 2005. Mangini was promoted to defensive coordinator as Crennel's successor until 2006 when he was offered the head coaching position of the New York Jets. This would mean that two key components of Belichick's coaching staff who would have undoubtedly be in on any cheating going on the sidelines of the Patriots during the games decided ... what? ... that they were going to bet paid better as a head coach, cheat themselves, and play against a coach that was already a proven success at cheating. The Jets are in our division and our conference so they're going to play us twice a year in regulation. Would Mangini be able to leave the Pats, knowing that we cheat, play against us twice a year, and take this long before someone in his security personnel finally accused us and exploited us? Once he left, why not taint the organization right then and there? Make a name for yourself before the start of regulation football. Watergate proved to the American people that secrets cannot and will not be held to the utmost delicate foundation. When there is a neck the needs to be chopped, man will preserve his own and openly point fingers at the people he so closely worked with and next to before sticking his own head on the chopping block. And this is a gigantic secret to have been holding onto for six years. Way too many people in personnel have come and gone in the Patriots organization since their winning ways, and not all of them have left on spectacular terms. Many have left feeling bad blood. The Patriots do not pay their personnel highly compared to some of the other teams that seek talent. The Patriots exemplify the word "team" to anyone joining their organization and even if the player has had a history of being a "self-made" individual, they either comply with the beliefs and values of the organization or they find themselves pumping gas or playing for another team. It's that simple.
With that said, Jensen alleges that defensive linemen could have even been micked up to listen in on audibles and play calls from the opposing offense. How many players from the defensive side of the ball have left the Patriots organization in the past six years on good enough terms to not only have this information, but also not disperse it out to the public once they were elsewhere? Give me a break!
Do I think what the Patriots did was right or justified? Absolutely not. Do I think they've been cheating all along to get as good as they are? Absolutely not. They got caught and that sucks because I'm one of their biggest fans. What sucks about that is that the football commissioner Roger Goodell has now made an example out of Belichick and the Patriots organization to announce to every other team out there committing the exact same travesty ... stop it, or be punished.
The videotape in question against the New York Jets was confiscated in the very first quarter of the game and had no impact on the 38-14 trouncing the Pats gave the Jets. Belichick and the Patriots organization have been fined a combined $750,000.00 ... $500,000.00 of that going directly to Belichick himself, they have lost one first round draft choice if they make the playoffs or two lower draft choices if they do not ... and in this punitive statement have set precedent for all other teams to say ... "hey ... we better be more careful." I would like to offer my opinion. Y'all shoulda been kinda more careful from the get-go. That goes for my beloved Patriots and every other team out there. I am a fan of football after all. Yes ... I love the Pats, but what are they if they have no one to play? It's the integrity of the game.
As for Jensen and his article which opened all kinds of possibilities in smearing one of the most prolific teams of the new millennium with paranoid delusions ... for the sake of ... what? ... opening Pandora's box and shouting to the world ... "Look what I just did?" ... consider all the facts that would be included in the allegations you are claiming. To believe what it appears you're hoping the reader might speculate after reading your article is to claim that the NFL has been dirty for years and now it's spreading across the entire organization and it all started in the Patriots camp ... and oh yeah ... you found it. Shut up! I got news for you, Sean ... dirt can be found on every football field if you're looking hard enough for it and the way you write ... hell ... you can implicate just about anyone with your paranoia.
I'm glad this is now a door ... not entirely closed, not entirely forgotten ... I'm sure it will be brought up by many nay-sayers of the Patriots organization for every game we win this year and for years to come ... but I am now going to do what I've been wanting to do since the beginning and end of last weeks season opening kick-off ... enjoy football and watch my beloved Patriots with all the angst and emotion of a full-blooded fan who will defend their team at all cost ... when they win ... and when they lose, they have nothing to be ashamed about. Go Pats ... 2007!
Jody L. Campbell
Below is a copy of the article written by Sean Jensen from AOL sports which sparked my inspiration for writing and defending my champions.
"Bill Belichick is the contemporary Vince Lombardi without the fedora, Bill Walsh without the charisma.
Three Super Bowl rings as the New England Patriots head coach earns him a spot in the same sentence as the two aforementioned NFL coaching icons and the distinction of being the gold standard by which the other 31 NFL head coaches are judged.
But if an ESPN report is true -- that the Patriots violated league rules by videotaping the defensive signals of the New York Jets coaches in the season opener -- then Belichick should be meted unprecedented discipline by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
If true, this is bigger than the individual transgressions of Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, and Tank Johnson because it threatens to undermine the entire league.
If true, this is a conspiracy that blatantly defies league rules outlined in the Game Operations manual and a memo issued a year ago by an NFL executive that reiterated that "videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals" is prohibited.
If true, this puts the spotlight on the game's integrity, and the Patriots' legitimacy.
If true, then, Goodell's punishment should include more than one or multiple draft picks, as various media reports have suggested.
Unless there is concrete evidence, the league cannot touch Belichick's three titles, although they could forever be clouded, like Barry Bonds' home run record. But if Jones, a player, is suspended an entire season for his assorted fiascoes, then shouldn't Belichick, a coach, be held to an even higher standard?
This also might not be a first offense.
The Boston Herald reported that the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions have caught the Patriots filming defensive signals.
This revelation may surprise the general public, but not other NFL coaches and personnel.
"Where there's smoke, there's fire," Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told local reporters. "Those rumors are founded on something. So it's not totally shocking, no."
There could be even more.
ESPN reported that the league is also reviewing a possible violation in the number of radio frequencies the Patriots were using, and Pro Football Talk suggested Tuesday night that the Patriots were planting microphones on defensive linemen in order to capture the offensive line calls and quarterback audibles.
"Then, the audio and the video of the game would be matched up," according to Pro Football Talk, "and the defensive players would be given the code at halftime."
If you're not sure Belichick is involved, then you obviously don't know Belichick.
His fingerprints are all over the franchise, and owner Robert Kraft provides him barrels of ink.
Kraft may sign the big checks, but Belichick is the one writing them.
After taking over the moribund franchise in 2000, Belichick has craftily constructed the NFL's model franchise. They have done plenty right and by the rules, like ingeniously unearthing stars such a quarterback Tom Brady (sixth round) and cornerback Asante Samuel (fourth).
But is the real secret of the Patriot Way (the title of a Boston Globe book) to cheat?
Could underhanded tactics have delivered each of the three titles by a combined nine points?
Imagine what's running through the mind of Peyton Manning, who could be trying for his third or fourth Super Bowl ring, instead of his second. Or imagine what former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher must be thinking about that 41-27 drubbing his club suffered in the AFC Championship game in January 2005.
The question is this: How dirty is this dynasty?
Intelligence agencies could learn plenty about subterfuge from NFL clubs.
Advanced scouts, armed with their binoculars and notebooks, are sometimes called upon to try and decipher coaches' signals on the sidelines, as they watch games from press boxes of NFL stadiums on Sundays. Teams fudge injury reports, and they tap ousted players from rival teams for information. Players scour over film and try to glean inside information and pick up tendencies.
But assigning an individual to violate NFL rules and tape the opposing team's sideline?
That doesn't just cross the proverbial line, that flatly ignores it.
NFL security officials are reportedly in possession of a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella, who is in his fourth season with the team. And the footage on the videotape certainly isn't for NFL Films or Estrella's personal collection.
Since all teams have access to tapes of every NFL game, from multiple angles, why would the Patriots want Estrella's tape?
The most devious scheme would involve Patriot officials cracking the opposing team's defensive signals and relaying that information to an offensive coach. For instance, if they figure out that a particular signal calls for a Cover 2, then the offensive coach may be more inclined to radio in a running play to Brady. While the run could still be stuffed, the Patriots improve their chances of a successful play.
Going one step further, imagine if Brady were apprised of the signals and calls. How helpful would that be him when he's got the defense on their heels, as he runs the no-huddle offense at the end of halves or games?
Multiple Packer sources told the Herald that a man identifying himself as a Patriots employee was granted permission to shoot footage at Lambeau Field in November. He told the stadium security staff that he was filming Brady for the coaching staff. But he was soon spotted filming the Packers' defense and signaling Patriots' coaches.
He was asked to leave, but he continued to film and again appeared to signal coaches.
After the Packers lost 35-0, cornerback Al Harris said, "It's almost like they knew what we were doing, you know?"
Maybe they did.
And, if so, then the Belichick and the Patriots should be stiffly punished for their treasonist actions."
Sean Jensen can be reached at nothinbutlovefor@aol.com
