The NFL is finally starting to resemble other sports, where trading for players is one of the primary ways to improve your team and not some rare occurrence.
Only the Cowboys and Patriots have the combination of unwavering arrogance and structural fortitude to confidently trade a 4th round pick for a player like Pacman; in other words, I love the trade for Dallas.
Okay, babeee!!! It’s March Madness time!!! Except, the madness is the NFL free agency period, not college hoops. NFL teams have been making big name cuts and signing free agents to big, BIG contracts.
RealGM Search
Sports fans are very curious. Often the truth is not enough, and that leads to speculation.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell couldn’t say it any plainer. After a three hour conversation with former New England Patriots' video assistant Matt Walsh, he learned there were no new allegations related to the New England Patriots’ illegal videotaping procedures. Nor was there a St. Louis Rams' walkthrough recording just prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. As far as Goodell is concerned, Spygate is over.
Patriot loyalists are satisfied after hearing Goodell’s statements as well as viewing the pirate game footage. But those unsatisfied with this conclusion are already racing through numerous possibilities.
The first thought that crosses the mind after watching the clips from the Spygate tapes is how much of an advantage could be gained from this? By linking the hand signals to the defensive plays, the Patriots will know exactly what is coming and how to counter it every time.
If only it was that easy. Stealing signs in football is nothing new. The difference was New England’s method had an added detail, the hand signals, the rest of the league lacked. But teams watch each other from across the field. Whether intentionally or not, coaches and players see the signs and associate them with the plays they remember.
Football is a game of adjustments. I can’t imagine that the hand signals never change during the season. Coaches, already known as a paranoid bunch, would change the signs week to week, if not in-game as well. Rubbing the left forearm in week one could be a middle linebacker blitz but be changed to an outside zone blitz between the outside linebacker and defensive end by week 10.
It works the opposite way, as well. The sign for the MLB blitz could be changed to tugging on the visor, leaving the left forearm rub to be assigned a different play, or left out completely for a week.
These kinds of changes can be made during the course of the game also. Suppose the offense ripped off a huge gain after someone recognized the sign for the MLB blitz. By the second half, that same sign could be a four-deep zone.
And even with the right play for the right sign, pre-snap adjustments or audibles would render the intel gathered from the illegal tapes useless. If anyone doubts that thinking then go watch Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning before every snap.
Don’t forget it works both ways. Teams study each other for tendencies, patterns, and routines weekly. They design plays to counter formations, personnel groupings, and so on. What was the right play in October is a completely different play in December.
Could Bill Belichick’s system give him and his Patriots an advantage over their opponent? It could, only if the signs for each play never change over the course of the season. Otherwise, there are so many variables when adjustments are taken into consideration that the chances of getting the exact right play every time is almost impossible.
Goodell also put to an end the rumor of a Rams' pre-Super Bowl walkthrough tape. Walsh told him he didn’t film it nor did he know of anyone who did or the existence of a tape with those contents.
But Walsh did say he was on the sideline during St. Louis’ walkthrough and even gave two details from the practice to a position coach: Running back Marshall Faulk got in position to return kickoffs and how the tight end lined up on some plays. Did this information help the Patriots in any way?
The chances are remote. Faulk returning a kickoff is obvious. It was a point of emphasis to know where Faulk was on the field before every snap. Special teams wouldn’t be an exception. As for the TE alignment, how can it be useful information if the play is unknown?
OK, so the TE gets in a three-point stance next to the left tackle. Does he stay there, or does he motion? Which motion: Out wide, into the backfield, or the opposite side of the formation?
Next the ball is snapped; is it a run or pass? If a run, is the TE a lead blocker, pulling, double-teaming or running a pattern as a decoy before going after the safety? How about a pass: Does the TE stay in as an extra blocker or does he run a pattern? If he’s blocking, is it a play-action pass, three, five, or seven-step drop, a rollout pass or screen pass? Does he release into a zone if there is no one to block? On a pass play, what pattern is the TE running? Short curl, quick out, seam or does he sit in the soft spot of a zone coverage? Is he the primary read or a decoy?
There are more possibilities but the point is obvious. A lot can happen based on one alignment. A team would have to be lucky to guess the exact play the TE runs from that one detail. Next they’d have to figure out what the other 10 players will do on that play. That’s like multiplying exponentially. How can a team get it right?
Despite the odds of gaining an unfair advantage are next to none, Belichick and the accomplishments of the three-time champion Patriots will be questioned mainly because Belichick wasn’t up front when admitting his guilt.
He said he misinterpreted the rule. But if it was a misunderstanding, why did the instructions to Walsh and the other the cameramen include to be careful to not get caught? That raises fair suspicion that Belichick knew recording defensive signals was wrong, but did so anyway.
With that bogus statement, Belichick lost the trust of fans across the league, and rightfully so. Goodell says he doesn’t believe coach Bill and millions of fans share Goodell’s opinion.
With Belichick’s legacy tainted by Spygate, a dark cloud casts a shadow over his three Lombardi Trophies in the mind of skeptical fans. The Patriots could win the next three championships, and it wouldn’t matter. Belichick can say Spygate is behind him, but the controversy will follow him for the rest of his career.
Randolph Charlotin is a contributing writer for www.bostonscore.com and also maintains a New England Patriots blog at NewEnglandPatriotsNews.com/randolphc/weblog. His email is lordrc@netzero.net.
