Bill the Plumber

Yesterday I read that Bill Belichick did an exclusive interview with CBS.  I first heard about the interview through  this Associated Press summary.  Reading the summary I was like “What the hell?  Belichick are you an idiot?”  From the format of the AP story, and the CBS preview, it sounded like Belichick was a bitter man not taking the high road and attacking his attacker.  I thought, damn, why the hell did the guy talk and make himself look worse?

I thought that until this morning when CBS News finally linked the whole interview on their website.  When you watch the whole interview, you see an even-keeled, forthright, sincere Belichick.  Not the raving madman portrayed in the AP summary.  Its amazing how as the media, if you want to portray somebody in a certain way, it is really really easy to take a few words from their statements to portray the image and story you want.  Facts, reality, be damned.   It is the way of things which is why I personally try to find out the facts themselves rather than reading any  one independent analysis or report.

One thing that I really pulled out of the article was that Belichick said they have video of Walsh taking video.  That he was in plain view and wearing patriots gear.  That they were being obvious and non-discrete.  That in even one video, a taped coach of another team waved to the camera.  Add this statement to the fact that stealing signals is not illegal in the NFL, and you start to get an entirely different picture of what the ESPN’s, Peter Kings, and Spectre’s of the world want you to think.

I listened a lot to the Spygate controversy this week on the radio and TV. Yes, I’m a biased Patriots fan, but my opinion of the whole thing dramatically changed after listening to Goodell’s press conference, the Boston Herald retracting the walk-thru tape story, and John Tomase officially apologizing for printing the story. Let’s review some things I learned anew this week:

Fact #1: It is illegal to have cameras in unauthorized places. THAT’S IT! No more no less. Go re-read the rule.
Fact #2: It is NOT illegal to steal signals. Goodell said as much.

“According to NFL policy, it is permissible to scout people’s coaching signals, and as you know, clubs go to great lengths to protect those.”

Fact #3: It was NOT illegal for Matt Walsh to see the walkthru or tell anybody about it. Again, re-read Goodell’s statements.

Until this week, I didn’t know Fact #2 and #3 were true. So, what the Patriots are *really* guilty of is using a camera in an un-authorized place. (They are actually allowed to use cameras in authroized places, again, go read the rules). When you put it in that perspective, how trivial is this whole thing? Pretty….

If the media hadn’t made such a big deal out of this, the Patriots would probably have lost at most a 3rd/4th round pick, about as stiff of a penalty as your Superbowl winning Broncos, who CHEATED on the salary cap, not once, but twice.