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Entry of a clown in Spygate making circus look like child's play
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</TD><TD noWrap>March 3, 2008
By Mike Freeman
CBSSports.com National Columnist
Tell Mike your opinion!
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</TD><TD width=15> </TD></TR><TR><TD width=210>Herman Edwards didn't seem too bothered in New York by Belichick's spying. (Getty Images) </TD><TD width=15> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>It won't, but it should.
Just in case you missed it this weekend, the New York Daily News reported on a scene involving former New York Jets coach Herm Edwards several years ago. Edwards knew that the Patriots filmed the signals of opponents so the Jets coach took precautions to thwart them by altering their system of signaling plays.
I am told the Jets took even more steps to protect their secrecy when they played the Patriots. Security around the team's practice facility was increased during New England week and Jets personnel were on the lookout for strange men with cameras (sounds like a night in Central Park). That's how well-known Belichick was for his electronic espionage.
Edwards, blessed with a good sense of humor and a prankster's genome, changed the team's signals during games against the Patriots, but then added a little spice. Edwards was so aware of Belichick's practices that when seeing the filming equipment, he clowned it, actually waving to the camera.
The year this happened? It was 2004.
Let me repeat that. It was four years ago.
Four damn years.
If what Belichick did, portrayed by Patriots Haters and Belichick Bashers as the end of civilization as we know it, was so advantageous to them and despicable, why were coaches like Edwards mocking it?
Why didn't he turn in Belichick, if what Belichick was doing was so significant and dastardly?
The answer: Because it wasn't.
The Daily News article, to me, is one of the more important pieces of this Patriots Spygate puzzle. It might not seem so but it is.
If a savvy longtime NFL employee (Edwards has been playing and coaching in professional football for decades) did nothing to stop Belichick's spying and even sarcastically mocked it, then how much of an advantage could Belichick have gotten over the years with this practice?
And since this occurred four years ago, and since NFL coaches are like gossipy teenagers on MySpace, I can guarantee you almost everyone in football knew what was happening.
Within six months of it occurring, the Edwards story had probably spread to every NFL team. Coaches were probably laughing about it.
"Can you believe that Belichick?" coaches were probably saying. "What a card that guy is."
There were probably a few more curse words thrown in but you get the point.
The more information that comes out about Spygate, the less I'm convinced any significant benefit was reached, the less I'm convinced Belichick is some grand cheater and the more I believe Belichick's practices were extremely common in football.
This is not about excusing Belichick for breaking the rules. This is about clarifying the record. Every team in football was doing what Belichick did and it was so common that they knew that you knew that they knew. You know?
Belichick's problem is arrogance, not being the devil.
Belichick might have done a great deal of filming. Maybe he filmed a Super Bowl walkthrough. Maybe he's Steven Spielberg and has been filming practices since he was seven years old. I don't know.
What I do know is Spygate is not some requiem for Belichick (it shouldn't be at least) or this grand moment in league history. It's all hat and no cattle.
The crying and whining of people like Mike Martz has been hard to take. Just be quiet. You got beat.
Damn babies.
And the more convinced I am the NFL's current "investigation" of the Patriots is a piece of extremely well-done theater. Broadway would be proud. Give the NFL its Golden Globe, already.
Why did Belichick spy in the first place, you ask, if the benefit was minor? The same reason probably every team in football does it. They're coaches. They're all psychos. They do things that make no sense. They work 20-hour days because the other guy is, not because they need to.
So teams try to steal the other guy's signals hoping to get something but knowing there will likely be little benefit.
Think back to Edwards clowning to Belichick's camera, followed by the lack of complaining to the league. Edwards is a hardcore NFL man and I can tell you he's fearless. Belichick's power and reputation wouldn't scare Edwards. Why didn't he turn Belichick in?
Why?
Sources have reiterated to me -- again -- that at least some of Belichick's videotapes contained similar images of coaches acknowledging the cameras with mocking gestures as well as shots of cheerleaders.
Maybe we should rename Spygate.
Call it Hermgate.
So when you haters and excuse makers want to continue to bash the Patriots and try to take away the significance of their titles, think of Edwards, clowning to the camera and handling the situation like a grown man and smart coach instead of a big fat baby.
<!-- TEST IT HERE -->
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Without a doubt the most overblown story I have everseen in my life. What a joke.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Entry of a clown in Spygate making circus look like child's play
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By Mike Freeman
CBSSports.com National Columnist
Tell Mike your opinion!
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<!-- T10683571 --><!-- Sesame Modified: 03/03/2008 11:24:53 --><!-- sversion: 4 $Updated: bjstubits$ -->Recently, a new piece of information regarding accusations that the New England Patriots cheated their way to dynastic supremacy was published and it should cause a lot of people to finally shut the hell up.
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Just in case you missed it this weekend, the New York Daily News reported on a scene involving former New York Jets coach Herm Edwards several years ago. Edwards knew that the Patriots filmed the signals of opponents so the Jets coach took precautions to thwart them by altering their system of signaling plays.
I am told the Jets took even more steps to protect their secrecy when they played the Patriots. Security around the team's practice facility was increased during New England week and Jets personnel were on the lookout for strange men with cameras (sounds like a night in Central Park). That's how well-known Belichick was for his electronic espionage.
Edwards, blessed with a good sense of humor and a prankster's genome, changed the team's signals during games against the Patriots, but then added a little spice. Edwards was so aware of Belichick's practices that when seeing the filming equipment, he clowned it, actually waving to the camera.
The year this happened? It was 2004.
Let me repeat that. It was four years ago.
Four damn years.
If what Belichick did, portrayed by Patriots Haters and Belichick Bashers as the end of civilization as we know it, was so advantageous to them and despicable, why were coaches like Edwards mocking it?
Why didn't he turn in Belichick, if what Belichick was doing was so significant and dastardly?
The answer: Because it wasn't.
The Daily News article, to me, is one of the more important pieces of this Patriots Spygate puzzle. It might not seem so but it is.
If a savvy longtime NFL employee (Edwards has been playing and coaching in professional football for decades) did nothing to stop Belichick's spying and even sarcastically mocked it, then how much of an advantage could Belichick have gotten over the years with this practice?
And since this occurred four years ago, and since NFL coaches are like gossipy teenagers on MySpace, I can guarantee you almost everyone in football knew what was happening.
Within six months of it occurring, the Edwards story had probably spread to every NFL team. Coaches were probably laughing about it.
"Can you believe that Belichick?" coaches were probably saying. "What a card that guy is."
There were probably a few more curse words thrown in but you get the point.
The more information that comes out about Spygate, the less I'm convinced any significant benefit was reached, the less I'm convinced Belichick is some grand cheater and the more I believe Belichick's practices were extremely common in football.
This is not about excusing Belichick for breaking the rules. This is about clarifying the record. Every team in football was doing what Belichick did and it was so common that they knew that you knew that they knew. You know?
Belichick's problem is arrogance, not being the devil.
Belichick might have done a great deal of filming. Maybe he filmed a Super Bowl walkthrough. Maybe he's Steven Spielberg and has been filming practices since he was seven years old. I don't know.
What I do know is Spygate is not some requiem for Belichick (it shouldn't be at least) or this grand moment in league history. It's all hat and no cattle.
The crying and whining of people like Mike Martz has been hard to take. Just be quiet. You got beat.
Damn babies.
And the more convinced I am the NFL's current "investigation" of the Patriots is a piece of extremely well-done theater. Broadway would be proud. Give the NFL its Golden Globe, already.
Why did Belichick spy in the first place, you ask, if the benefit was minor? The same reason probably every team in football does it. They're coaches. They're all psychos. They do things that make no sense. They work 20-hour days because the other guy is, not because they need to.
So teams try to steal the other guy's signals hoping to get something but knowing there will likely be little benefit.
Think back to Edwards clowning to Belichick's camera, followed by the lack of complaining to the league. Edwards is a hardcore NFL man and I can tell you he's fearless. Belichick's power and reputation wouldn't scare Edwards. Why didn't he turn Belichick in?
Why?
Sources have reiterated to me -- again -- that at least some of Belichick's videotapes contained similar images of coaches acknowledging the cameras with mocking gestures as well as shots of cheerleaders.
Maybe we should rename Spygate.
Call it Hermgate.
So when you haters and excuse makers want to continue to bash the Patriots and try to take away the significance of their titles, think of Edwards, clowning to the camera and handling the situation like a grown man and smart coach instead of a big fat baby.
<!-- TEST IT HERE -->
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Without a doubt the most overblown story I have everseen in my life. What a joke.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
