So I'm watching the first half of tonight's Pats-Chargers game and it strikes me. Spy-gate, Patriots-gate, Belichick-gate, whatever you choose to call it was not Belichick trying to cheat or gain an advantage, but Belechick being a motivational genius.
Just walk with me for a moment. Here's Belichick, with the best team in paper in the NFL, a guy with a team which thrives on being the underdog, unable to play that role with the team they have on paper. So how do you provide motivation to the clear favorite?
Welcome to Spy-gate. By introducting the video-tape, you get every Tom-Dick and Sheldon Brown in the NFL questioning and doubting that what the players did on the field was legitimate.
What better way to piss off Tom Brady and the Pats than question whether what they accomplished was legit? What better way to get Tom and Company pumped up to show the NFL that yes, we the players, really are as good as our past performance and oh yeah, by the way, if you want to see how good we really are, just doubt what we've done in the past.
Now, whether this was Belichick's purpose or not (and I personally don't believe it was because the Patriots have been masters at gaining extra draft picks and using them to their advantage and know the value of draft picks; they wouldn't pull a stunt like this if there was a chance that they thought they'd lose picks), I think it's put a burr under the players butts. Watch out NFL. The Pats players have something to prove.
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WOW, I never looked at it like that...man, what if this IS true!?!?!?!
Big Ben68
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Not bad for a team that is winless by forfeit in it's last 130+ games since Belicheat took over. good 1st half... but here come the Bolts..
Ruby salutes…
Los Angeles , CA
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Yes, here come the Bolts.......
Losing 38-14.
Big Ben68
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Crud, I wrote that right after the Pats fumbled on their own 20. They Rivers did his thing... his no-thing...
Ruby salutes…
Los Angeles , CA
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WHY BELICHICK QUALIFIES AS A HUMANITARIAN AND NOBEL PRIZE CANDIDATE
Belichick did so much to bring this game out of the Neanderthal era. His complex defensive schemes -- encrypted by design, so to speak -- require smarter and more versatile players. If there were a category for Sports in the awarding of Nobel Prizes, I think Belichick, a humanitarian and visionary, would qualify. He made the game more intellectual, more strategic, more chessmatchy. In fact, if he's willing to go through the effort to make guile part of his winning formula, then he shouldn't be punished when his opponents do not put in the same hard work at this. It embodies the evolutionary spirit to require losing teams to adapt to (or account for) the ways of the winners.
The videotaping is a extension of this analytical game Belichick plays, albeit pathological in its obsessive-compulsiveness. But it's not a get rich quick scheme. It's neither a short-cut, nor a sure thing. In fact it's a risky investment of time and energy from intelligent and hardworking coaches. It also assumes you will meet a team again and that the team will not have changed its signals.
But does this fall outside the circle of NFL football? Is Belichick playing a different game (like Axis & Allies)? Hard to say. For me, the NFL has embraced espionage and even condones signal stealing, by the right methods.
For example, the NFL allows Mangini (AKA Mangini / AKA ManBoy / AKA ManJudas / AIKA ManJello) to bring in a parade of players the PATS either just released to get down to the 53 roster (or restricted free agents like Deion Branch and Randle G @ Y) -- all to pump them for information on the PATRIOT gameplan, playbook, or player injury status.
NOW THAT'S A SHORT CUT FOLKS!!! It doesn't require the hard work or intelligence involved in decrypting videotaped signals.
Teams are vulnerable before the first game of the season b/c they have to cut a slough of players to get from about 80 to 53. Mangini took advantage of the fact he drew the PATS for their home opener and decided to invite all the ex-PATS in. How many of these visiting ex-Patriots did he actually sign? If I'm correct. Zero.
BLUESILVER
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