50yrpatsfan":96enpnz8 said:
SnoCoHawk":96enpnz8 said:
50yrpatsfan":96enpnz8 said:
But the reality is this: Spygate was a much SMALLER issue than it should have been, magnified by Goodell into an insanely bigger one. And what you saw by the league with Deflategate is exactly what happened with Spygate - a small issue that Tags would have dealt with in 5 minutes, transformed into a year long crisis fed by the ESPN trolls.
Even if you think Brady deflated footballs, you almost all agree that wasn't a huge crime in and of itself, and Goodell's leaking, lying, overstating, and over-punishing was over the top (I don't agree that the crime even happened, but I'll grant it to you for the moment).
Well, Spygate was exactly the same. The 1st round draft choice and huge fine don't indicate the severity of the offense, just that Goodell was equally clueless. Throw BountyGate in there against New Orleans, and you have a trifecta of Goodell's hysterical over-punishments.
You truly think that sending employees into opponents' locker rooms and hotels to steal plays is no big deal? Ditto with using illegally manipulated equipment, or paying bonuses to inflict potentially career-ending injuries on other players?
No I don't. And if any of that had actually happened, I'd be outraged.
The Patriots have not run the cleanest ship.
Despite all that is being reported which has substance to it whether you believe it or not and I know what you choose to believe.
There are other minor abuses. The phony injury reports just to name one.The whole OL lined up as WR last year while technically not breaking the rules. They exploited the referees which shouldn't have happened. There have been several complaints about the headset issues in Foxboro for several years and several instances. Sure some of those are smaller, but NE does not run a clean ship by any stretch of the imagination.
The FO proceeds to make up excuses that a child would make like Deflating = Fat loss that the fans buy into like an abused spouse because they refuse to see reality.
NE Robs, steals, and murders childhood dreams of players and fans alike. Players that have played the game since 5 years old dreaming of the day they can score a game winning touchdown. While a dishonest team steals the glory because of small advantages that got them there. Whether its stealing signals, stealing playbook, messing with communications, deflating balls, exploiting refs the list continues. There is no integrity of that team. The ones I truly feel for are those that sacrificied their blood, sweat and tears that just might have won had an honest game been played. In a 16 game season winning one game is a big deal. And I am sure the Patriots have played in games they shouldn't have been in due to an extra win here and there.