Why so sensitive, Patriots fanboys? You Patriots fanboys, always thinking the NFL is out to get you, LOL! The paranoia that Patriots fans have is unreal! Everything is a conspiracy!

Hahaha!

Timeline: 

Thursday, September 3rd, Judge Richard Berman rules against the NFL in the Tom Brady case, a decision called nothing less than a scathing rebuke of Roger Goodell and the NFL.

Tuesday, September 8th, within an hour, the following happened:

In Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel, Goldfinger, the title character makes the following statement:

Goldfinger said, ‘Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action.”‘

Mr Fleming was a wise man.

We’re supposed to believe those three events are unrelated? We’re supposed to believe that both ESPN and SI.com both decided, out of the blue, to release articles of similar slant within an hour of each other on the same day – two days before the Patriots open the season against the Steelers?

OK.

A few thoughts from me.

90 sources. All anonymous? How does that equal a shred of credibility?

With all of these allegations, ESPN couldn’t be bothered to check in with their own reporter who has covered the team on a daily basis since 1997?

Hey Mike, do you have any thoughts on these scandalous allegations we’re about to run with about the team you cover?

They had no problem attributing to Mike Reiss that Tom Brady “apologized” for deflategate.

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/641331702816743424/photo/1

I posted this yesterday – I can’t take credit for it though, it was BSMW member Dan Snapp who tracked this down – but one of the authors of the ESPN piece directly contradicted something he said in December.

That’s quite a different shift. So did Goodell preside over a closed-door meeting where all owners decided to destroy the tapes, or did Goodell conspire with Kraft and Belichick to destroy the tapes?

Van Natta wouldn’t come on WEEI to talk:

But he’s been making the rounds of ESPN Radio shows.

Another point from BSMW member Greg Doyle (Not to be confused with Gregg Doyel):

I was intrigued by this line of the ESPN thing

In 2005, for instance, they signed a defensive player from a team they were going to play in the upcoming season. Before that game, the player was led to a room where Adams was waiting. They closed the door, and Adams played a compilation tape that matched the signals to the plays from the player’s former team, and asked how many were accurate. “He had about 50 percent of them right,” the player says now.

I looked over all their transactions prior to that season in the media guide from that year. The only two potential signings that could have any relevance are Monty Beisel and Chad Scott. They also signed Chad Brown but they weren’t going to play Seattle in 2005 and he had been with them in 2004. Beisel was with Kansas City in 2004. The Pats played them in 2005. The DC was Gunther Cunningham. Scott had been with Pittsburgh. Their DC was of course Dick LeBeau who supposedly the Pats knew well. I went to that game out in KC in 2005. The Pats got stomped and did little on offense, so if it was Beisel he was about as helpful doing this as he was on defense.

ProFootballTalk has debunked two more of the allegations from Tuesday.

Martz’s 2008 statement hasn’t changed

SI.com story on Pats has compelling, but inaccurate, anecdote.

Looking at some of the other information, specifically the notes from the late Arlen Specter, at one point he connects John Tomase to MW (Matt Walsh) in September of 2007.

specter-tomase

 

It would seem that Matt Walsh was likely Tomase’s source, the note above mentions the team picture, that MW had taken tapes of walk through. This was from Tomase’s story:

According to a source close to the team during the 2001 season, here’s what happened. On Feb. 2, 2002, one day before the Patriots’ Super Bowl game against heavily favored St. Louis in New Orleans, the Patriots visited the Superdome for their final walkthrough.

After completing the walkthrough, they had their team picture taken and the Rams then took the field. According to the source, a member of the team’s video staff stayed behind after attending the team’s walkthrough and filmed St. Louis’ walkthrough.

At no point was he asked to identify himself or produce a press pass, the source said. The cameraman rode the media shuttle back to the hotel with news photographers when the Rams walkthrough was completed, the source said.

It was suspected that Walsh was Tomase’s source, this adds to that.

Finally, let’s not forget: THE SPORTS DRINKS WERE TOO WARM!!!

ANTI-PATRIOTS PARANOIA REACHES NEW HEIGHTS – Jerry Thornton has more on the silliness.

But you Patriots fanboys are the ones with the agenda!

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

36 thoughts on “Why Are You Patriots Fanboys All Worked Up???”

  1. It still boggles my mind that some people think stealing signals is a big deal. We can argue until we’re blue in the face about the advantages of filming them rather than deciphering them the old fashioned way (binoculars and a notebook — which really isn’t that hard if you know what you’re doing). But, in the end, we’re still talking about trying to decipher opposing signals. It’s a practice that has gone on as long as professional sports (particularly football and baseball) have been around, and it’s a practice that continues to this day. Why on earth do people think those offensive and defensive coordinators are putting their play sheets up to their lips all the time? Could it be because they know that opponents have gone so far as to hire lip readers to help them decipher signals? EVERY honest former coach who’s been interviewed about the subject since 2007 has admitted to either filming signals, or stealing them some other way, AND using that information during the playing of a game (Shanahan, Cowher, et al). Moreover, teams change their signals all the time, for that very reason; they know they’re being watched, just like they’re watching everyone else. I was never one for conspiracy theories, but the going’s on since January have convinced me that, yes, Goodell and his ex-Jets in the NFL offices have had it in for the Patriots (and BB in particular) ever since they got there…..or is it just a coincidence that the “cheaters” label and the obnoxiously heavy penalties levied against the team since 2007 just happened to begin occurring right after Goodell became the commissioner?

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    1. I agree that people getting worked up over stealing signals is difficult to understand, especially since they are selective in their outrage. After the Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl, a member of the Seahawks defense said that they had figured out Manning’s hand signals prior to the game.

      No one made a big deal about this. No one questioned how Seattle was able to do it. People saw the story, shrugged their shoulders, and moved on. The Broncos didn’t even complain. Somehow, that example of signal stealing is accepted to the point that it’s largely forgotten. If that story came out after the Patriots had beaten the Broncos in the AFCCG (hypothetically), the reaction would be completely different.

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      1. To me, the most glaring example of the double standard was how some Miami players bragged to the Palm Beach Post (I think) about how they either purchased or somehow got their hands on an audio tape of Brady’s audible calls prior to the Pats/Dolphins game in Miami in 2006. The Pats got absolutely, positively creamed that day, and were shutout, in fact. The question was raised about the article and the overwhelming, consensus, if not unanimous response from both league people and media people was, “Well, that’s just football.” The collective yawn was loud enough to be heard over in Siberia. Ten months later, however, when Matt Estrella’s camera was confiscated in The Meadowlands, it was no longer “just football”; it was a crime against truth, justice, the American Way, the integrity of the game, and probably humanity as a whole.

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        1. This is from USA TODAY, 12/13/2006;

          Saban says the Dolphins took the audio feed off a television broadcast and the revelation that teams study that stuff is … hardly revolutionary.

          The NFL, which fines players for not wearing their socks in rulebook fashion, has said it will not investigate.

          Even Brady, when asked about it Wednesday, seemed more upset about his performance than the chance any signs or signals were stolen.

          “Someone told me about that on Monday, but I don’t see that,” Brady told New England reporters. “I would love to see evidence of that. They could know exactly what our line calls are, but that’s … I mean, our defense knows what our line calls are. It doesn’t matter.

          “They can say that, but I think that is a big crock of you know what. I think it’s a matter of how we played. If you ask them, it probably sounds good for them to say that they have it all figured out. But, you know, they’re 6-7 and we’re 9-4, so you tell me who’s got it more figured out.”

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          1. Good find. Notice how no one in that NE locker room whined or made excuses, and even downplayed the amount of “intelligence” the Dolphins may have gleaned from having the line calls. Quite a contrast to what we’ve been hearing from the foes the Patriots have vanquished since 2001, right? Winners analyze what went wrong and try to get better; losers whine and cry about “deceptive” formations, deflated footballs and filmed hand signals.

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  2. This quote was published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal in relation to a completely different story, but I think it has relevance here:

    Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.

    — Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

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  3. Great fact compilation Bruce. I also have a fact to pass along from my unnamed source. BB pees in the Gatorade that’s why it’s warm.

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  4. As a Patriots fan I ‘ve always been a little worried that a another Spygate was going to drop, a smoking gun if you will, but this ain’t it. In fact, this is proof positive that there is no smoking gun. I’d like to hear why this “expose” has been undertaken now, when if there was something to it a good investigative journalist would have sniffed out the smoking gun a long time ago, but a. I know the answer and b. I’d like a lot of things out of ESPN that I’m not gonna get.

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  5. More actual journalism in this web post than in 10,000 words of ESPNFL press release. Good job as usual, Bruce.

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  6. There once was a time when journalists had standards, and would laugh at an attempt to use them as puppets.

    Boy are those days over.

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  7. WBZ’s Johnny Miller…still trolling like a champion. This is from Alex Speier’s daily email:

    Jonny Miller of WBZ Radio noted to Bradley that in 1962, Red Sox outfielder Lou Clinton had a 31-day, 29-game stretch in which he hit .384/.439/.777 with a 1.216 OPS; he never again tapped into such a stretch, finishing his career with a .247/.308/.418 line and 100 OPS+.

    “Don’t tell me that,” Bradley said with a grin. “I don’t want to hear that.”

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    1. Tuned into Mazz’s baseball show last night trying to get some shelter from Deflategate. I should’ve known better. He spent most of the show raving that the Sox need to “tank” the rest of the season so that their first round draft pick will be protected in case they sign a big-name free agent. He’s been pretending to be an idiot for so long that it’s become his default personality.

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      1. Has the blood stopped pouring out of your ears yet. Last time I listened to mazz it took a day and half for it to stop

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  8. Just to supplement what Bruce said about the DVN, Jr. differences, I’ll relink the actual podcast where you can hear the audio. He says it around 45:00 but go to around 43:30 to hear the context.

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  9. This is ROFLCOPTER worthy (h/t Portnoy):

    Did cheating Pats cost Chargers titles, new stadium?

    So today we must wonder: Did the New England Patriots cheat the Chargers out of a ring, maybe two — or at least a chance at becoming Super Bowl champions?

    And, with that, did they cheat them out of a new stadium?

    How about LT quitting? Rivers being a choker?

    This is an actual, real-life newspaper in San Diego–not some blogger or guy on a forum.

    I have no clue if this ran in print but it’s online and has a generic 6AM timestamp, so I assume it did run in the sports section of today’s paper.

    http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/sep/09/patriots-cheating-cost-chargers/

    How soon before you’ve got Lester Munson appearing on 4AM infomercials on ESPN76 advertising his legal services for fans in mental anguish due to the Patriots cheating?

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    1. “How about LT quitting? Rivers being a choker?”……or how about a DB making what should have been the game-clinching INT in the 2006 AFC Divisional Round, and then foolishly trying to return the pick instead of getting his butt on the ground immediately, thus allowing Troy Brown to come up behind him and hack the ball out of his arm, causing a fumble that the Patriots recovered? Change of possession, fresh set of downs for New England. They tied the game on that GIFT of a second-chance drive, then forced a three and out on defense and took the ensuing offensive possession down the field for a game-winning FG. San Diego was a dumb team, period. They were very long on physical talent and very short on brains, not to mention very short on clutch performers. Marty was a great regular season coach and a playoff choker, let’s face it, and then SD doubled down on stupid by hiring Norv Turner to replace Marty. But, yeah, it was because the Patriots cheated……ARGGHH

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      1. Wasn’t that when Shawn Merriman was their best player? Said player who subsequently got busted for using PEDs and was never the same player again? Can you say CHEATERS!?!?!

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  10. Wonder if this might help turn some things in the other direction?

    (Has to do with Exponent and their photos of the gauges. First response is a local fan who has the pic.)

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  11. Odd that in the ESPN reports there’s no mention of Jay Glazer’s set of Spygate tapes, the NFL’s attempts to get them back, and the fact that the NFL played the tapes for reporters at the RG press conference.

    I’ve always assumed that he destroyed the tapes because they weren’t proof of anything. Now we hear that maybe the tapes were destroyed because Patriots lawyers wouldn’t let them leave the premises as proprietary product, so presumably some sort of compromise was reached to destroy them at site.

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    1. Another good point. Why hasn’t TMZ contacted him and offered him.. I don’t know.. a million? Another owner offering a million (because those in the public could open up something bigger than Tim Donaghy) or how about the NFL/ESPN to smear the Patriots further? They make no secret of paying for stuff. How big of a scandal would that mean for them on all sorts of fronts? TMZ would be the place here since they’ve got no direct connections.

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    2. Are you referring to RG’s press conference three months after Super Bowl 42? If so, those were Matt Walsh’s tapes that were played for the media…..the tapes he squirreled out of Foxboro after he was fired, and that were supposed to provide the “smoking gun” about the Rams’ Super Bowl 36 walkthrough being filmed. Alas, much to the media’s chagrin, they contained nothing that we didn’t already know — cheerleaders’ butts, coaches flapping their arms on the sidelines, and then down/distance shots of the scoreboard. We already knew those details because the Matt Estrella tape that was confiscated by NFL Security in Sept. 2007 at the Meadowlands was somehow duplicated, and a copy ended up in Jay Glazer’s hands, and Glazer’s employer then showed the film on Fox NFL Sunday the following Sunday morning (Week 2 of the 2007 season). Glazer still boasts that he has that “original” Spygate tape and shows it off at parties.

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  12. HOW DOES BILL BELICHEAT KNOW WHO’S GOING TO BE ON THE INJURY REPORT AND WHO WON’T BE!?!?!?

    AT THIS RATE, I THINK BELICHEAT ALSO ONE OF THE MASTERMINDS BEHIND THE LUFTHANSA HEIST IN 1978!!!!!!!!!

    CHEATRIOTS!!!!!!!!

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    1. AT THIS RATE, I THINK BELICHEAT ALSO ONE OF THE MASTERMINDS BEHIND THE LUFTHANSA HEIST IN 1978!!!!!!!!! He probably was, and he’s still telling his henchmen: “don’t buy anything; don’t attract attention; we got a million effin’ bulls out there watching us.”

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  13. Stephen Brown, who gained fame during the first court session for posting what was going on, has been posting some of the letters Judge Berman received after his decision. If you want some laughs, check his timeline.

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  14. I plan on listening to “Josie” about, oh….50 times today leading up the game. 50. Seems like a nice number. :-p

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  15. America’s Game & Do Your Job. Patriots porn like you read about. Going to bed tonight with a Lombardi in my shorts.

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    1. Do Your Job was amazing. I loved the fact that they actually showed at least two examples of those formations that “nobody has ever seen” (per Mr. Harbaugh) as an explanation of how the Pats’ coaching staff came up with the idea — including an NFL example of Tennessee using something similar against the Jets. Bittersweet, since Harbaugh’s post-game rant about the formations begat Brady’s “study the rulebook” quip, which begat the Baltimore-Indy-Kensil/NFL sting operation, which begat the phony Wells Report, which begat 8 months of hell and two stolen draft picks (one very high pick, to boot). Need to take a BP pill now…….

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  17. Portnoy making some fun shirts but I thought he would have already had the C+D in his Inbox (using a trademarked logo):

    https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/641421052078366720/photo/1

    You know what’d be great? I forget the name for when soccer fans have organized signs held up and make huge signs, but make one that says just that. I’m sure you’ve seen it on TV when 1/4 of a 40k stadium makes a symbol or sign with 5k fans holding up synchronized cards.

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  18. Felger and James Stewart are now using the “You’re right, Mike” line to, I suspect, make fun of both Tony and those of us that dislike their show.

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