Spy Gate – Significant Advantage or Much Ado About Nothing

Did the Patriots break the rules? Yes. Did the Patriots cheat? Yes. Did it help them gain an advantage on the field? That is the real point of contention. I believe that it did help them on the field. If you know the defense is going to blitz, you call a screenplay. If you know the corner is coming, you exploit that side of the field. Of course, but the Patriots had to execute the play, but these are highly paid players expected to execute a play.

Think back to the Buccaneers and Raiders Super Bowl. The scuttlebutt after the game was that the Raiders were using the same audibles from when Jon Gruden coached there. The story goes that the coach gave the Buccaneer players a list of the Raider’s audibles. When the game was over, the Buccaneer defensive players said they knew what the Raiders were going to do and it looked like it as the Raiders were crushed that day. No one called this cheating, they said the Raiders were not to smart to use the same audibles that were used the previous year with the same coach from the previous year. The point here is that they knew what was coming and they used it to their advantage.

This is basically the same thing the Patriots were doing for SEVEN years.

Obviously this is all conjecture, but Ronde Barber said it best: "They're still a great football team, but they're a lot better with an ace up their sleeve.'' I agree. It is quite an advantage to know what the other team will do during any given play.

My opinion did not change after watching a recent Matt Walsh interview, where Mr. Walsh did not tell us anything we did not know. Many people now say, he is a disgruntled employee, which may be true, but he did not seek out this publicity, the publicity found him. He was not calling out players, coaches, or doing push ups in his driveway to find this publicity. He was in another profession moving on with his life, but still kept his season tickets. Mr. Walsh claims to still be a fan of the team, although the Patriots have revoked his tickets. Talk about holding a grudge.

There are many analogies one can draw in this situation. If a boxer knows a punch is coming, he can bob and counter punch. When a pitcher tips his pitches, he ends up getting smacked around. If you know what is coming even a quarter of the time, it is a distinct advantage.

I’m upset that the clowns at ESPN insist that the Patriots gained no competitive advantage from this incident. Sure, they did not use the tape in the game that they filmed but when they played a team that they had previously filmed, that is when they gained an advantage.

When the Patriots play teams in their own division, they should do well with this logic. Let’s look at the numbers: In 2007, they went 4-2, 2006, 5-1, 2004, 5-1, 2003, 5-1, 2002, 4-2, 2001, 6-2 (5 team division) (29-9 6 in seasons). Their division record helped them win in 2001 and get home games in the playoffs. Gaining home field in even one playoff game is a huge advantage.

"If this wasn't New England, it wouldn't be that big of a deal,'' Braylon Edwards said. "If this had happened in Cleveland, it'd be a story, but not a big one.''

However, if you win three super bowls in seven years and you are caught cheating, you’ll probably have some ‘splaining to do.

It all comes down to the saying: winning is everything. Belichick should come out and say we tried everything we could to skirt the rules to gain a competitive advantage. Others were also doing this, with or without tapes, but people pay more attention to the Patriots because of their many Superbowl wins, but the truth is that most of the league tries to do something extra to gain a competitive advantage.

Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, and my boy wonder, Eric Mangini are from the Patriots’ coaching staff who directly parlayed their success into lucrative coaching careers. No doubt, these three men would have the most damaging insight into the taping scandal, but they have not spoken about it. I find their silence deafening!

The real problem is players do not want to end up on a bulletin board with comments saying the Patriots gained an advantage through this coaching tactic, since calling them out would likely motivate the Patriots to play harder against the outspoken team. This bulletin board tactic worked for the Pats last year, and I’m curious to see if they can do it this year in light of last year’s Super Bowl loss and all the continued media scrutiny. I expect we have not seen the last of this story.

Since writing this story a day ago, there is new evidence that a former Patriots player states on NFL Live on ESPN that Matt Walsh’s comments of players on the injured list participating in practices was correct. The former player also added that Belichick would do anything to gain a competitive advantage. Which is basically what I stated in how I felt Coach Belichick should have apologized for trying to “skirt the rules to gain what ever competitive advantage he could get”.

I am a long-suffering Jets fan and I do not hide the fact that I do not like the Patriots. I was furious when Bill Belichick left us high and dry after previously negotiating a contract to become the “HC of the NYJ” after Bill Parcels stepped down.

Most of my comments in this entry are in response to the interview with Matt Walsh on HBO Real Sports, Peter King’s column, my general knowledge of football, and reading a lot of stuff on the internet. I am, of course, a bitter Jets fan so take my comments with a grain of salt, but if I were a fan of the one of the teams playing the Pats in many of the playoff games, this videotaping scandal would drive me crazy.

Send your comments to andrew.carrara@ms.com.