Apparently the Patriots have been cheating routinely since 2000

[GA Russell]

Now a former Patriot says that the videotaping has been going on for years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/sports/f...rtner=TOPIXNEWS

By JOHN BRANCH and GREG BISHOP Published: February 22, 2008 INDIANAPOLIS — The Patriots’ pattern of illicitly videotaping the signals of opposing N.F.L. coaches began in Coach Bill Belichick’s first preseason with the team in 2000, a former Patriots player said. The information was put to use in that year’s regular-season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Belichick’s debut as New England’s coach.

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Enlarge This Image Victoria Arocho/Associated Press Patriots cornerback Ty Law tackling Keyshawn Johnson in Bill Belichick's first game as coach.

The secret taping of signals, which is against league rules, continued at least through three championship seasons to the 2007 season opener against <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/newyorkjets/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="Recent news and scores about the New York Jets.">the Jets, when the Patriots were caught and subsequently sanctioned by the league.

As coaches and executives gathered here Thursday for the N.F.L. scouting combine, many saying they were satisfied with the league’s investigation and ready to move on, new details were emerging about the history of the Patriots’ videotaping.

According to several executives in the league, the season opener against the Jets was not the first time the Patriots had been spotted taping another team’s defensive coaches at Giants Stadium. In the final preseason game of 2006, the Patriots were caught taping a Giants defensive assistant giving signals, the executives said.

The incident prompted a letter addressed to all teams seven days later from the N.F.L. vice president Ray Anderson that detailed the league’s interpretation of the rules. That letter was cited by Commissioner Roger Goodell when he punished the Patriots.

Belichick has said that he misinterpreted the league’s bylaws, telling Goodell that he thought it was permissible to use electronic equipment as long as the information was not used in the same game. That explanation has been greeted with disbelief by some peers and league officials.

In a news conference last week, Goodell said Belichick’s explanation led to the assumption that he had been videotaping opponents’ signals “as long as he has been head coach.”

The league’s nine-member competition committee spent three days this week discussing various rules changes that it might recommend for next season. After a 90-minute briefing on the Patriots’ videotaping activities Thursday by Goodell and three league vice presidents, the committee said taping rules would not be changed in the aftermath of the controversy.

“The rules are very, very clear,” said Tennessee Titans Coach Jeff Fisher, a committee member. “There is no need to be more specific or clarify any rules whatsoever.”

Questions linger about how much of an advantage the Patriots may have had if they intercepted defensive signals. Under Belichick, the Patriots have often run a no-huddle offense, which forces opponents to quickly call a defensive play. N.F.L. rules allow quarterbacks to hear instructions from coaches — through a headset and into a speaker in the quarterback’s helmet — until there are 15 seconds left on a play clock. When the defensive play call is deciphered, the Patriots could call a play to counteract. The Patriots lost the 2000 opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when videotape of signals was used in preparation, according to the former Patriots player, who was among several former players interviewed by the N.F.L but said he did not want to speak publicly because the investigation is continuing.

The Patriots appear to have continued the practice of taping opposing signals for seven years. Last September, Goodell fined Belichick $500,000, fined the Patriots $250,000 and took away one of team’s first-round draft choices in 2008. After the sanctions were announced, the Patriots submitted six tapes, from games in 2006 and 2007, and some notes that dated to 2002, Goodell said. The tapes and notes were destroyed days after being handed to the league, because Goodell considered the matter closed.

But questions remain about how wide and deep the Patriots’ taping habits extended. Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who met with Goodell last week, is among those still questioning why the league was so quick to sanction the Patriots and destroy the evidence.

Goodell met with the competition committee Thursday to discuss his handling of the spying case. Committee members seemed satisfied and eager to turn the page.

“We were all satisfied, every one of us,” said John Mara, the Giants’ president. “All of us have our different opinions about the Patriots, but we were all satisfied that this thing was investigated properly and that they came to the proper conclusion.”

Bill Polian, the president of the Indianapolis Colts, said: “It’s behind us. It’s time to move forward.”

But emerging details continue to pull the league back in time. On Feb. 2, The Boston Herald reported that the Patriots might have taped a St. Louis Rams walkthrough practice the day before the teams played in the 2002 Super Bowl. The Patriots won, 20-17, on a last-second field goal. Belichick, speaking to The Boston Globe, recently denied that the practice was taped.

In the hallway at the convention center here, Mike Martz wanted to talk about his new job as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator. Instead, reporters peppered him with questions about the Patriots. Martz was the coach of the Rams when the teams met in the Super Bowl six years ago.

He took exception to the theory that the Patriots could not have gleaned much information from taping the walkthrough. He said indeed they could, but added that was not the point.

“For somebody to say that, it’s kind of disgusting,” Martz said. “The whole point is if they really cheated. To say he took some steroids and it did help or it didn’t help, that’s never the point. The point is, to all these high school coaches and high school kids and college kids, that if they did cheat, that’s the point.”

Martz said he assumed the walkthrough report was false. A similar sentiment was voiced by Chicago Bears Coach Lovie Smith, the Rams’ defensive coordinator that season.

“It’s just hard for me to fathom anyone would do anything like that,” Smith said. “I’m sure, if there’s something to it, No. 1, it will come out later. Time has a way of taking care of all things.”

Martz was asked if he wanted the N.F.L. to continue investigating the walkthrough. “Of course,” he said. “I was involved in that. I was responsible for a lot of people in that game.”

Executives dismissed any lingering notions that the Patriots’ taping opponents was a common practice around the league.

“I don’t want the outside perception to be, ‘Boy, there are all these teams and they’re all doing all these things,’ ” said Rich McKay, the Falcons’ president and a member of the competition committee. “Because it’s not true.”

Belichick was not seen in the hallways of the convention center Thursday. Representatives of 21 teams are scheduled to meet with reporters for news conferences from Thursday to Sunday. Belichick and the Patriots are not among them.

[zen archer]

Taping has been going on for years in the NFL , also the NFL is screwy what is the difference

between all those guys up in a booth with headsets on looking down at the field communicating with the

coach and videotaping?

And why would the NFL allow coaches to send messages to quarterbacks 15 seconds before the start of a play ?

The NFL has brought this on themselves , did Tom Landry ever wear a headset ?

Back when i was a kid there were no headsets , quarterbacks didn't have fancy wrist bracelets with the plays on them

players just went out and played .

maybe the NFL should ban all headsets and all video taping and PHOTOGRAPHS , these teams get photos on the sideline

they print them out and look at them .......jeeez.

[Dan Gould]

It seems silly to me too - like you said with the guys in the booths - is there a rule against keeping someone with a pair of binoculars trained on the guy giving the signals? There's no difference in the result - figuring out what defense is being called.

I hope though that people keep bitching about it - maybe it will give them the same "F-you" attitude they had last season only this time it will carry them all the way through to 19-0.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Two points.

1) You added the word "cheating" to your topic. It is not cheating to tape signals. In fact, it is STILL perfectly legal to tape those signals as long as it's from an approved spot.

2) The rule forbidding sideline filming was not instituted until 2006.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I reject the whole notion that one shouldn't try to take advantage of these situations and employ 'codebreaking' skills/techniques to try and decifer code that Person 'A' is sending to Person 'B' out in the open. Come up with better signals.

[connoisseur series500]

We do have an NFL thread for these kinds of posts.

[Jazzmoose]

Gotta go with the crowd on this one. I don't see any problem with stealing signs in baseball, or this sort of thing in football. If a team is using 'secret code' or whatever, it's up to to the other team to try to break that code. Calling this cheating is just silly.

[GA Russell]

Two points.

1) You added the word "cheating" to your topic. It is not cheating to tape signals. In fact, it is STILL perfectly legal to tape those signals as long as it's from an approved spot.

2) The rule forbidding sideline filming was not instituted until 2006.

Kevin, your argument is with the New York Times, not with me. The article posted above states in its first sentence that the Patriots were "illicitly videotaping the signals of opposing N.F.L. coaches" beginning in 2000.

I agree with the sentiment expressed by most of you that it shouldn't be against the rules. But it is, and everyone should play by the rules IMO.

[Bright Moments]

two words:

SNOW PLOW!!!!

[Dan Gould]

Two more words:

Stop whining!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

two words:

SNOW PLOW!!!!

Now THAT was cheating! :D

[BERIGAN]

I think football fans just except cheating more than fans of other sports. You will hear a football fan joke, or mock baseball players using steroids....but mention to them how likely it is that most football players that aren't kickers are using HGH and steroids, you get comments like, yeah, you are probably right...but there just doesn't seem to be the upset you get from baseball fans about performance enhancers, and what they have done to the game.

If a football player who was caught using steroids comes up for voting for the HOF down the road, will it keep them out of the hall as it has McGuire????

[GA Russell]

Berigan, one difference between the two sports is that the baseball players started taking steroids surrepticiously. The pro football players in the mid-60s started taking them under orders from the strength coach.

I remember reading that in the pro football locker rooms they would have out in the open a bowl full of steroid pills like a bowl of candy.