Gregg Easterbook Nails It

Wow, strange things happen when you get a real reporter covering sports, don't they?  I strongly encourage you to read Gregg Easterbook's detailed report on his attempt to get further information out of the NFL regarding why it was in such a hurry to destroy all the evidence the Patriots turned over regarding their past cheating. 

Look, we all know the Super Bowl is never coming back.  You could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Tom Brady had been replaced by an advanced cybernetic organism that had been perfectly designed to shred NFL defenses and it wouldn't change the result of that game one bit.

But the NFL's decision in this case reeks.  Badly.  And I'm glad Easterbrook is on the case. 

(I try not to move beyond the boundaries of sports on this blog.  It's just not worth it.  So I'm not going to link to too much of his non-NFL work to make the point that this is a guy who almost infallibly asks the right questions -- if sometimes I'm not sure about his answers.  But if you want to read one of the most devastating, prescient takedowns of a government boondoggle you'll ever see, you can't go wrong with this.)

Comments

[BrianS]

Great article, Easterbrook nails it. It would always be questioned whether the Pats cheated in any of their Superbowls, but in destroying the evidence, the NFL almost has created the proof.

I think the Eagles, Rams, (blech) the Panthers, should hang up banners and sell hats that say "200X NFL Champions." Really embarrass the league here, guys.

I know Lurie won't do that, since Kraft is one of his allies in the big-market vs. small-market infighting, but it would be awesome.

[pawnking]

I'm no advocate of conspiracy theories, but I will say the there is absolutely no doubt that this taints the Patriots' SB wins. There's a lot of accusations of Sour Grapes on the Eagles' part by many, but we may be on to something.

Check out this article written in 2005 after the loss:
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=3907

Quote: 'Dawkins said the Eagles tried to disguise their blitzes for New England quarterback Tom Brady as much as possible. But with the two weeks to prepare for everything and the kitchen sink, Brady was poised and confident even in the most aggressive of blitz schemes.

"He does a good job of holding the ball, checking out the coverages and getting himself into the right situations," Dawkins said. "He caught us on a couple of blitzes and they were able to block it. '

Or, is it possible that Mr. Brady had a little help in recognizing the blitzes JJ and Co. tried so hard to disguise? Could have made just a little bit of difference in his stats that day?

[Walsh]

They did destroy the tapes but that’s does not mean anything. Even though they had those tapes you still got to go out there and execute the plays. It does not matter if you know there signs. You still got a professional football player coming at you to block you and we all know that they don’t suck because they are Professional s and they made it there through hard work and detection. You should not have hats that for the other teams saying that they are super bowl champs because the pats won fair and square they did not cheat they were just all talent. Also the only reason this came up it because Mangini was Belichick apprentice and he knew everything he was doing and he was tired of getting his butt wiped so he had to cry about something. Like I said before it doesn’t matter if you got tapes with signs on it you still got to go out there and play the game. Have you guys ever heard of the saying “any team any Day” it don’t matter if you 10-0 or 0-10 “any team any day” anyone can win.

[Me]

I didn't know I had any Patriots' fans reading this blog...

[pawnking]

OK, walsh, you win. From now on, to prove your point, the Patriots will announce all of their plays and signals in advance of the games. There is no advantage to be gained by their opponents by this, so they shouldn't have a problem agreeing to it, right?

[BrianS]

Ok Walsh. Belicheat...sorry, Belichick, is a genius, right? So if there's no advantage to it, why is he doing it?

And they won 3 Super Bowls by a combined 9 points. Their cheating doesn't have to give them a HUGE advantage, it only has to be worth those 3 points per game. If it helps them beat a blitz on even 1 play in each that got them in field goal range, that could have been the difference between being a Dynasty and being the Bills of the 21st century.

I don't mean to cry over spilled champagne now, but this whole evidence-burning looks very shady.

I've only seen my favorite team play in 1 championship game, and I've resigned myself that they lost to a better team. To find that might not have been the case makes me rather angry.

[jaybird]

Well so much for the NFL doing an investigation.
To think I once respected Goodell.

And why the fuck has the National media bailed on this story?

Nothing to see here people move along.