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Originally Posted by squiggs96
It's not a great article. It's a biased, leading article that doesn't shed light on any new facts. It should have been a far lesser story than it was at the time, and there's no reason it needs 11,000 words on it 8 years after it happened. Let me debunk some stuff from the article and what is thought of as fact.
Rams - There are thoughts that the Patriots videotaped the walk through before S36. This has been refuted many times. Not one shred of proof tied them to a disgruntled, fired, former employee's statement. Papers have run full page, front and back, apologies for reporting on this. They said the Patriots must have taped the walk through because they broke out some new plays in the red zone. The Rams entered the red zone one time in the game. They scored a touchdown on that possession. What are they complaining about for that one? They are also saying somehow knowing that Faulk was the KR on one play made them kick it so that Faulk ran out of bounds after catching it. This is baffling. If it was going out of bounds, the Rams would get the ball on the 40. That's a bad decision by Faulk, not a cheat by the Patriots. It also said Martz lost his career over that game. He coached St. Louis for five more years. Yeah, that devastated him. Next!
Eagles - The article says the Eagles feel they were cheated. They fell apart down the stretch, like they did in countless games under Reid/McNabb. Did they make McNabb barf in the huddle too? Child please.
Steelers - Kordell Stewart is a terrible QB, and their special teams had an awful day. I can give you stats to back this up, but they are in plain sight.
The article was made to look like the Pats wouldn't comment on it. Do you mean that Belichick might have something better to do in 2015 than comment on something that happened in 2007? Shocking.
I could go on and on, but the main point is this article is garbage. If you learned something new from it, you haven't been paying attention the previous 8 years.
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I see somebody follows Bill Simmons since those were the exact points he flagged on his twitter feed.
It is a good article that outlines the timeline from the evolution of Spygate, the aftershock that even had, and why people feel the NFL was overly harsh on Deflategate.
It is not a coincidence that in 2007 all the rules that the NFL implemented, were exactly the things that the Patriots were rumored to be doing up until that point.
Patriots fans can refute the effectiveness of the teams actions all they want, and we will never know what impact it truly played, but in terms of the Patriots and cheating there has been more then enough smoke over the last 10 years, and where there is smoke there is usually fire.
In the end it probably doesn't matter much because Brady is a great QB, and Belichick is a great coach even with the cheating put aside but really you have to be a homer to think there is no truth to the allegations.
The part that stands out the most to me is that the Patriots were fined a first rounder, and had two maximum fines levied against them, yet in the years after both the NFL and it's other owners feel like they may have been too lenient with their punishment.