Gaslight wrote:
Which is why apart from you, and cry baby Faulk, everyone else thinks the fines (and loss of a draft pick) were harsh?
Yeah a $750,000 fine (since the Patriots pay Bellicheats wages) is a massive dent in the pocket of an owner with an estimated wealth of $1.5 BILLION. As for the draft pick. Losing 1 draft pick is nothing when you can trade up still and your pick is usually in 25-32 range.
In comparison McLaren were fined $100 million and excluded from getting championship points in 2007 for that spy scandal.
Equally quite recently Tom Lewand, Lions president, was suspended for a month and fined $100,000 for driving while impaired. I'm not saying that isn't serious but he was suspended for an incident entirely seperate from football yet you cheated and nothing?
If anything the NFL was easy on you. For cheating you got $750,000 and 1 draft pick. Like i said you could have been excluded from the play-offs for a number of years, excluded from the draft completely, suspend Bellichick or fined far far more heavily. To say it was harsh is ridiculous.
Gaslight wrote:
Not to mention, the tapes were what, 7? games, 3 of which were losses so it gave such a massive advantage. Not to mention, they were used in the same game, meaning the same thing could technically be done by a bloke with a notepad and good eyesight (probably is actually).
I thought Bellichicks argument was that he thought he was within the rules provided the tapes WERE NOT used in the same game? It gives you an advantage because you get a better understanding of signals and there will be a certain continuity which extends to teams who run the same systems or come from the same coaching background.
Gaslight wrote:
It was pretty much a non-issue ESPN turned into a big hoo-ha when it was all over nothing games that meant nothing, there was no Rams walkthru, but the Rams WERE stupid enough to let a bloke in a Patriots track suit stand their and watch it, which is nobodies fault but St Louis.
I think it is a pretty big issue that irrelevant of the meaningfulness of the game you breached clear NFL rules bringing the integrity of the game and honesty into question.