No way! 16 - 0!
Week 1 of the NFL 2007 season started the Patriot season at the Meadowlands with Spygate. Week 17 ended the Patriot’s season at the Meadowlands with a perfect 16 – 0. How will history view the Patriots perfect season though?
Due to SPYGATE, the NFL fined Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and the New England Patriots $250,000 plus a first round draft pick in the 2008 NFL draft (harshest penalty handed out in the history of the NFL). By doing this, Goodell branded the Patriots as cheaters. Bill Belichick’s take on Spygate was that he “misinterpreted” the memorandum that was sent out by the NFL. This was a costly misinterpretation!
There were also accusations by other teams (Lions, Packers) that this was not the first time the Patriots had tried to video tape signals. Everyone came out of the woodwork with his or her opinions on Spygate, from outrage (Tony Dungy) to acceptance (Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long). The NFL tried to gain control of the situation at the beginning of the season by confiscating all of the video tapes kept by the Patriots. The NFL felt the Patriots gained no competitive edge by the tapes and destroyed them. Many felt it was wrong to destroy the tapes without letting the public see what was on them first. It smelled of an NFL cover-up. All of this cast the Patriots in a bad light. Should all of their previous success this decade have an * placed next to it? Only sports historians in years to come will be able to answer this one.
What Spygate really did was cause the Patriots to play with a chip on their shoulders! That is always a bad thing! Players like Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi were outraged that people felt they had cheated. If there were any questions still lingering about how well these Patriots players can perform, you only have to point back to this season.
Does Spygate taint the 16 - 0 Record? Not to this Pats fan!!!
Onto the Playoffs!
BTW, I still like QB Trent Green comparing Belichick to the megalomaniacal Marine played by Jack Nicholson in the movie "A Few Good Men." "Belichick is sitting there, and you know he is getting peeved that he is even in there -- the audacity to bring him in and question him," Green said, laughing. "The visual I have is that eventually Belichick kind of snapped and said, 'You're darn right I [did].' "
Due to SPYGATE, the NFL fined Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and the New England Patriots $250,000 plus a first round draft pick in the 2008 NFL draft (harshest penalty handed out in the history of the NFL). By doing this, Goodell branded the Patriots as cheaters. Bill Belichick’s take on Spygate was that he “misinterpreted” the memorandum that was sent out by the NFL. This was a costly misinterpretation!
There were also accusations by other teams (Lions, Packers) that this was not the first time the Patriots had tried to video tape signals. Everyone came out of the woodwork with his or her opinions on Spygate, from outrage (Tony Dungy) to acceptance (Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long). The NFL tried to gain control of the situation at the beginning of the season by confiscating all of the video tapes kept by the Patriots. The NFL felt the Patriots gained no competitive edge by the tapes and destroyed them. Many felt it was wrong to destroy the tapes without letting the public see what was on them first. It smelled of an NFL cover-up. All of this cast the Patriots in a bad light. Should all of their previous success this decade have an * placed next to it? Only sports historians in years to come will be able to answer this one.
What Spygate really did was cause the Patriots to play with a chip on their shoulders! That is always a bad thing! Players like Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi were outraged that people felt they had cheated. If there were any questions still lingering about how well these Patriots players can perform, you only have to point back to this season.
Does Spygate taint the 16 - 0 Record? Not to this Pats fan!!!
Onto the Playoffs!
BTW, I still like QB Trent Green comparing Belichick to the megalomaniacal Marine played by Jack Nicholson in the movie "A Few Good Men." "Belichick is sitting there, and you know he is getting peeved that he is even in there -- the audacity to bring him in and question him," Green said, laughing. "The visual I have is that eventually Belichick kind of snapped and said, 'You're darn right I [did].' "
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