For Football Fans - Just For Fun

Here in New England we're headed into the dark days of winter, when one of our few joys is our football team.

What do you think?

 

I guess Sunday's game showed that a coach who cheats and a star quarterback who drops his pants (as it were) will prevail over a decent modest coach and a quarterback who also drops his pants (resulting in a $300,000 payment to she who was offended when he did that).

The main relevance to this forum, however, is that Robert Irsay, who sneaked the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis under cover of night, also had, according to Sports Illustrated, two fake degrees on his resume.

 

Oooh...that one either snuck under my radar, or I just plain forgot about it.

Do tell!!!

Oh, and I hate all you anti-Patriots people who voted in this poll, even though I have no idea who you are.

 

There are surprisingly few.

 

Bruce, re Robert Irsay's fake degrees: "Do tell."

John: It was mentioned in Bears Guide, none of which are nearby this moment. He didn't buy degrees from a fake school. He was one of those who listed degrees in Who's Who and on his resume from real schools (Yale, I recall) which he simply didn't have.

 

The Patriots are on cruise control to the Super Bowl. The Red Sox sweep effortlessly through the World Series. Even Boston College was near the top of the BCS rankings a couple of weeks ago.

What do I think? I think that something strange is happening in Beantown and that it's time that the police find out what's in those beans.

 

Bill, we also shouldn't discount the new-look Celtics this season. Beans, yes, the local beans.

 

I am usually the one who is shown to be naive but in this case I must say to Dr. Bear that he is being hopelessly naive if he thinks that in the multi-billion dollar world of the NFL the Patriots are the only team that has ever stretched/broken the rules. The Pats are going to beat everyone this year and Don Shula can cry himself to sleep win the Patriots go undefeated and win the Superbowl. (guess what I voted)

 

Karma - John Kerry's revenge.

 

I seriously doubt the good senator can name anyone on the Patriots besides Tom Brady & Randy Moss.

 

What he said!

 

Kizmet, et al: "Dr. Bear...is being hopelessly naive if he thinks that in the multi-billion dollar world of the NFL the Patriots are the only team that has ever stretched/broken the rules."

Duh. They just happen to be one of the few that were both caught and seriously fined for doing it.

 

An unfounded doubt indeed:

http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=274263

 

Oooh....you got me; he knows a third player out of fifty-four.

 

Bruce, you're a fish in a barrel. Say uncle, already:

http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=272291

 

You're over a half-decade too late with that one; Bledsoe played his last game with the Patriots in 2001.

If Kerry could explain Cover-2 or the merits of the 3-4 vs. the 4-3 without being prepped, coached, and rehearsing it beforehand, I'd probably drop dead.

 

I note in this morning's sports pages that the Colts have been accused of playing extra-loud crowd noises through the public address system, during their game with the Patriots, in order to try to improve their home-field advantage. I bet they won't be fined for that.

--John Bear who, incidentally, knows what the
Red Zone is, but wonders where the phrase comes
from, and how long it has been around; certainly not
when I began watching football (Go, Red Grange! How
about that Jim Thorpe!)

 

If you can explain to me, in some detail, how the Pats might have gained some competitive advantage by the filming in question then I'll be suitably impressed. Otherwise I'll have to conclude that you're simply repeating the blather from the national media.

 

Kizmet: "If you can explain to me, in some detail, how the Pats might have gained some competitive advantage by the filming in question then I'll be suitably impressed. Otherwise I'll have to conclude that you're simply repeating the blather from the national media."

You seem to be suggesting that Mr. Belichick risked a $500,000 personal fine (the NFL's maximum) plus a team fine plus loss of a first round draft pick in order to attempt something that could not possibly give him a competitive advantage.

As to how inside information could provide a competitive advantage, one of the blatherers offered some interesting statistics on Super Bowl 39, suggesting that nearly every time the Eagles' defense blitzed, the Patriots threw a screen pass. If NFL quarterbacks do this 30% of the time and the Patriots did it 90%, what are the options? Masterful coaching? Coincidence? Inside information?

 

Dr. Bear, I asked you a simple question and you answer me with nothing but speculation. The fact is that even Commissioner Goddel stated clearly that no competitive advantage was gained by the filming. You are aware, of course, that this very same filming can be legally done from the Coaches Box. It's done by most teams every week. Maybe Belichick was arrogant enough to believe that he could stretch that rule by putting the camera on the field. But make no mistake, the fine, etc. was for the location of the camera, not for the filming because the filming can be legally done from the Coaches Box. So neither you nor the NFL can say where the competitive advantage is found. You only speculate that it must exist. Goddel has a rep for coming down hard on offenders. What about Michael Vick? There are other examples of Goddel wanting to make an example of people who break the rules and in so doing tarnish the NFL. This is just another example of his hardline policy.

As for the screen pass stats (I'll assume you've citied them accurately), you are surely joking when you try to use this example. Tom Brady is the best QB in the NFL. That is the answer. You are not going to try to say that Cleo Lemon or Marc Bulger are even half as good as Brady, are you? They are both terrible QBs and so their stats look dismall compared to Brady's. There is no other answer required.

The filming in question was stopped 8 minutes into the first quarter of the first game. There is no evidence of any kind that any other rule infractions occurred during any other games during any other seasons. Since the infraction the Pats have gone undefeated and will likely finish the season that way. This issue is one that has been promoted heavily by the national media who would just love to pull Belichick down because he does not give interviews and otherwise pushes them aside. He's not often a nice guy when it comes to the press. They're getting back at him with this "spygate" issue. Which team do you root for Dr. Bear? What's their record this year?