Tsk, Tsk (Finger Wag)

Two semi-words: Ha Ha

The New England Patriots ( as if they weren't loaded enough on the field) were caught videotaping the Jets coaches signals during last Sunday's semi-game at the parking-challenged Meadowlands. NFL Security discovered a Patriots employee with the videocamera and confiscated it. And in all the security and urgency of reconnaissance photos of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis being whisked away to Kennedy in Washington, the Patriots camera and tape were delivered to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell examined them and decided that the Patriots were indeed breaking the rules. Apparently the Patriots had been warned about this type of behavior before. All teams received notice in a memo from the Commissioner before the season.


Mark Schlereth, ESPN analyst, described how they would use such a video taping technique at at halftime during the game; Each team is allowed to take pictures before the snap of each play and after the snap of each play, to analyze what the other team is doing and how to attack them. That said, that team can correspond the videotape to the hand signals coming in from the coaches. The advantage in the second half of the game is tremendous! The defensive captain only needs to look over to the opponent's sideline to get the call of the defense.

Now, has long has this been happening? Sports Illustrated's NFL Preview edition of a few weeks ago had a prolonged interview with Peyton Manning. In the article he mentions how the Patriots like to tape him, the Broncos and other teams and shrugs it off like it's all part of the game.


Bill Parcells, the best analyst on ESPN hands down, made a remarkable statement on Monday Night Countdown. He remembered a game in 1951 when the Brooklyn Dodgers were caught stealing the New York Giants signals in a baseball game. Parcells also volunteered a few methods to beat such activity, makes one wonder where Belichick learned it from.

Stealing another team's signals provides an important competitive advantage, much like the Allies enjoyed during World War II when they were able to decipher the coded transmissions of the Enigma machine used by the Nazis. The game of football is all-out war in between those sidelines and end zones, is it not? Millions upon millions of dollars are at stake.

The thing I think the juggernaut Patriots are so stupid for is: get a sophisticated spy camera! How inconspicuous is it to have the freaking ball boy with a Panasonic snickering while filming across the field?! Doesn't Robert Kraft, Scott Pioli and Belichick know what they can do with micro technology? Haven't they ever seen a James Bond film? Put it in Belichick's uncombed hair and have someone controlling the zoom and whatnot. Just look at him here, scratching at his lice, who's going to look in there at some suspicious bump in that rat's nest?