More blogging about the Cheatiots

by Brad Wells on Sep 20, 2007 10:33 AM EDT in Colts Analysis

Got this photo from Deadspin, who got it from the NY Post.

No, I'm not going back to a full week of Pats bashing no matter how much BrianG wants me to. I will, however, continue to cover Spygate and other incidents of cheating involving the Patriots for the very simple reason that what they have done has tarnished the game. Pats fans try to down play it. Media whores try and rationalize it. All garbage. These boobs tarnished the game, and despite their petty attempts to make it go away (Belichick refuses to discuss it publicly and Patriots players are "mad" they are being "disrespected"), the story continues to grow and grow and grow. Forgotten in all this is just how pissed off the fans are. A 38-14 blowout win doesn't sweep this under the rug or disprove the very real prospect that the three Super Bowls New England won a few years ago are tainted.

We already know at least one Super Bowl is tainted (2003), and that the AFCCG played in Foxboro is also tainted. How do we know this?

We all know Rodney Harrison was recently suspended because he was named in a government investigation as a recipient for HGH from a shady pharmacudical company that delivers drugs via the Internet. What we now know is Rodney has taken this stuff for a while. According to an article by Brendan J. Lyons, Rodney had a shipment of HGH delivered to his house before the 2004 AFCCG against the Colts. In the game, and in the Super Bowl, Rodney was one of the key players, and without him playing well the Pats would not have won:

Rodney Harrison, one of the Patriots' star defensive players, was on his game in the subzero temperatures that Saturday night as he picked off a pass from Titans' quarterback Steve McNair, setting up a crucial second quarter touchdown for his team. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl that season while Harrison, a scrappy safety with a reputation for aggressive play, emerged as one of their standouts in the championship run.

But a few days before the game, according to law enforcement sources, Harrison made what would be his first of several discreet calls over a three-year period to order drugs from a South Florida wellness clinic -- a clinic that later became a target of the Albany County district attorney.

The clinic's workers knew they had a star athlete on the phone -- he wasn't their first pro sports client -- yet they crafted a phony prescription, signed by a doctor, for the drugs that Harrison, now 34, believed would help prolong his career, sources said.

Later that month, about two weeks prior to the Patriots' Super Bowl victory over the Carolina Panthers, a package containing human growth hormone in preloaded syringes arrived at Harrison's New England residence.

I guess this means Rodney, who claimed he took HGH only to rehab a recent injury, has been "rehabbing" for the last four years.

I'll put it in language that general idiots and New England apologists can understand, because like Bill Belichick they seem to have trouble understanding plain and simple English: Rodney took HGH prior to playing those two playoffs game. That means he cheated. Had he not taken HGH, he would not have had the same impact on the games, and in both those games he was a big reason why New England won. If Rodney were playing within the acceptable rules of the game, New England would have last one of those games and not been rewarded a championship. Thus, Super Bowl 38 is a tainted Super Bowl and has a gigantic * next to it.

I feel most sorry for guys like Brady and Vinatieri. I think players like them are clean, and not illegally caught up in this whole Spygate thing or this HGH scandal. But these activities undermine their accomplishments as well. It is truly a sad, sad state of affairs for the NFL.

I'm not harping on this folks simply because I enjoy writing about cheating. I don't. A tainted sport ripe with cheating is not a sport worth following. It's a reason why baseball is disgraced, the NBA is a farce, and boxing is little more than pro wrestling with big gloves. When I see the same kinds of things begin to be tolerated in a sport as great as the NFL, I simply cannot turn my head away. The mistakes made by baseball, basketball, and boxing were that they refused to acknowledge the problem when it was happening. Then, when it blew up in their face, they lacked the balls to do anything about it. Roger Goodell has shown he is willing to do something about problems. He'll kick you out and publicly disgrace you if you piss on this sport. I hope he continues this course of action as the tactics of several New England employees continue to drag this league into the gutter.

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Comments

Honestly

I believe that to think Brady had no idea what was going on is bs. He runs the offense, and is probably the closest player to Belichick. It just doesn't seem logical that Brady had no idea about the whole taping deal, as well as what else was going on.

Go Colts!

by KingRichard on Sep 20, 2007 11:37 AM EDT reply actions

woops..

Was going to add this:

And if he didn't know, then obviously he's nothing more than a dog and follows orders all day long.

Go Colts!

by KingRichard on Sep 20, 2007 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions

Disagree, somewhat

I know what you're saying, but I'm not sure I believe that. I think it's very reasonable -- even somewhat obvious -- to assume that Brady benefitted from the cheating (after all, why else was Belichick videotaping the signs if not to use the information in a game? Maybe he was putting together a project for art class?) So I think it's very fair to say that Brady probably received knowledge gleaned from cheating.

The question is: did Brady know that the knowledge was gleaned from cheating? I don't think I can make that leap. Belichick, cheater though he is, is a very smart guy. I would think that only those who absolutely needed to know about the cheating were the ones who knew. After all, the fewer people who know, the fewer people who can turn on you later, or let something inadvertently slip in an interview.

I think it's perfectly plausible that Belichick, during a game, could radio in to Brady that there was a safety blitz coming, and Brady would just think, "Wow, coach really knows what he's doing," without realizing it was all the result of cheating. At any rate, it seems pretty obvious to me that Belichick probably did not get on the headset and say something like, "Tom, our illegal videos show that a safety blitz is coming."

It is certainly not absurd to think that Brady knew about it; the more we see coming out of NE, the less creditibility the entire organization has. But I certainly don't think it's a foregone conclusion. Just my two cents.

by ctnyc on Sep 20, 2007 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions

Ok.

I understand what you are saying. But I mean come on. Let's be real here. Eric Mangini was first the DB coach, and then the Defensive Coordinator, and he knew. Why would Belichick need to tell Mangini, if he was only taping DEFENSIVE signals? That makes no sense. Which is why I think it would be absurd to believe that Brady didn't know, or hell even the entire team. I mean, Belichick was pretty sloppy about the whole deal anyways. Not to mention his excuse was laughable at best.

Go Colts!

by KingRichard on Sep 20, 2007 6:10 PM EDT up reply actions

if brady has half a brain

if brady had half a brain over the years he must have realized something was up if they actually managed to read defenses that well by taping and analyzing signals. he may not have known about the taping per say, but he had to at least be suspicious that something was going on. And if you turn a blind eye to cheating or suspicions, they you are equally guilty and he certainly got the benefits.

What pisses me off is for selfish gain, these guys have given the sport a black eye... and everyone now wonders about the legacy of this patriots team...

i wonder if this will come up when these characters are being considered for the hall of fame... would you vote for either brady or belichick given this situation?

by bluegirl on Sep 21, 2007 3:17 PM EDT reply actions