Easy E
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[quote="Pete C"]I'm not sure what real advantage was gained here. Now, apparently everybody says it's common knowledge that the Pats were doing this for a long time. If that's the case, how stupid would a coach have to be to not use this against them? Decoy signals, dummy signals, multiple signal callers, etc...[/quote] Pete, it's scary when you have the same take as Sean Salisbury, isn't it? Here's my deal. I think this was cheating, and wrong, and should be punished. I have heard a couple people say, now, "ah, it's not that big a deal and they didn't gain anything by doing it anyway, they would have beat them anyway..." First off, who cares, if it's cheating it's cheating. That's like saying "ah, who cares if the guy held, it didn't affect the play anyway". The NFL doesn't do that, a penalty is a penalty and cheating is cheating. The second thing, though, is.... WHY would Bill B go to all this trouble, and risk all this shame, fines, etc..... if there truly was no point in it?!?!? Everyone probably knows who the Sports Guy is and how to get to page 2, but here it is anyway. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070912 Look, even a die hard, extreme Bahstin apologist know it's a seedy thing to do. But it brings up a real connundrum. In an effort to convince themselves that there really wasn't a competetive advantage being gained, Patsy fans are going to have to convince themselves that their "genius" coach is really a dithering fool who risked his legacy and the leagacy of the Patsy's run, over something that didn't help them at all. Because he'd really have to be an idiot to keep doing this, when they know the NFL is pissed off and trying to stop it. And if he did it all the while knowing it gained him virtually nothing, he's one of the dumbest people in the histroy of sports. Do not be fooled. Bill B is a very smart guy. If he was doing it, it was for a damn good reason, you can bet he made a lot of good use out of this competetive advantage. He probably has a library of calls on every team in the leauge. One last point, the other apology Sean Steakman made for Bill B... a "smart" team would just change their signals anyway. Helllloooooo, that's the point of videotaping it, so that you know what the changed signal is. For crying out loud, it's hard enough to find 11 defenders that are all on the same page after an entire offseason, training camp and preseason that can keep the plays straight, can you imagine if you had to change signals every 5 minutes? I still say, since the Patriots argument and only defene is going to be "eh, it's not that big a deal, who cares if we knew the other teams plays, we'd have beaten them anyway", that the most suitable punishment is to allow every opponent they face that same advantage. Make sure they know what plays and coverages the Patriots are going to be in. We'll find out pretty quickly if it's an advantage or not.
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