Bombshell ESPN Report: The Patriots Were Huge Cheaters And Roger Goodell Covered It Up

[86WARD]

You should read the story immediately, but the thrust is this—citing interviews with 90 sources in and around football as well as primary documents, ESPN reports that Bill Belichick and the Patriots videotaped opposing teams’ signals from 40 different games from 2000 through 2007. And when the scandal broke, Goodell did everything in his power to protect Robert Kraft, who was one of his strongest supporters and without whom he would not have been named commissioner. The thesis statement in this story is that the cover-up—and if this report is accurate, the league’s actions can’t be called anything else but a cover-up—so rankled other owners that Goodell came down extra-hard on New England and Tom Brady for Ballghazi as “a makeup call.”


http://deadspin.com/bombshell-espn-report-the-patriots-were-huge-cheaters-1729286402

Story link: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart

[86WARD]

ESPN article is very long but very good...

[fansince'76]

Hurr durr, really? And here I always believed the "official" line from Goodell (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3244687)that he had the evidence destroyed so that nobody else could benefit from it, hurr durr...

:jerkit:

[vasteeler]

"bombshell" indicates something of importance. we all know nothing will come of this

[Steelman]

I read the whole thing last night, first bit of decent reporting I've seen from BSPN in quite some time, but the grand point wasn't clear IMO. The report basically "unearths" new details regarding Spygate and says they're connected to Deflategate in that Roger "owed one" to the league based on a quote from an anonymous NFL exec.

The premise seems flawed to me, but hey, I won't complain about any long-form journalism about Roger's loyalties to Kraft and his continuous screwups of league policy.

[BigNastyDefense]

Best ESPN article/reporting that I've read in a long time.

Essentially, it confirmed what I already believed. That the cheating was deeper and more widespread than originally thought/admitted, that they cheated themselves to victory at least in 2004/5 in the AFC Championship Game against us, and very possibly in the 2001/2 AFC Championship Game.

And funny thing is, when Spygate first broke and Steelers players/fans were saying there's more to this than what Goodell was saying, we were called crazy conspiracy theorists and to "get over losing to the greatest QB of all time."

When the Steelers voted no on the CBA and the fans were against handing so much power over to Goodell because they/us felt he was corrupt, once again we were called crazy conspiracy theorists. Now look at everyone saying the same things about Goodell that Steelers fans have been saying for YEARS!

[86WARD]

Yep!! Steelers fans have never been more accurate and correct!!

[ALLD]

They stole playsheets out of visiting locker rooms on game day too. So they had the other team's script and signals. I wonder if they used any of that information to gain a competitive advantage?

[Count Steeler]

They stole playsheets out of visiting locker rooms on game day too. So they had the other team's script and signals. I wonder if they used any of that information to gain a competitive advantage?

Nah, they just ran out of toilet paper. What do you want them to do?

[BigNastyDefense]

Honestly, they should throw Bellichick out of the league with a lifetime ban immediately.

[86WARD]

I can't see how they don't. This whole team since spygate is a farce...from ownership down to the players...

[ALLD]

http://nesn.com/2015/09/ex-nfl-official-patriots-jim-mcnally-acted-suspicious-with-footballs/

[Godfather]

Bombshell? This is about as shocking as Anderson Cooper coming out of the closet.

[fansince'76]

http://nesn.com/2015/09/ex-nfl-official-patriots-jim-mcnally-acted-suspicious-with-footballs/

Lies! Slander! Ideal Gas Law! Jealous hater! :jerkit:

[Edman]

Pats fans: LALALALAIMNOTHEARINGTHISCRYBABIESKISSTHERINGSFREEB RADYJELLYHATERSLALALALALA.

Nope. Not kissing them. But you can kiss the asterisks.

[fansince'76]

Pats fans: LALALALAIMNOTHEARINGTHISCRYBABIESKISSTHERINGSFREEB RADYJELLYHATERSLALALALALA.

Nope. Not kissing them. But you can kiss the asterisks.

Yep, they seem to think that the first two games of the season somehow absolves them of all the underhanded BS. Nope, all it does is prove how dumb they were to do it in the first place.

[86WARD]

One of the two games is still questionable...lol...