mr. blackandwhite

There is a story in the Boston Globe today which features Bill Belichick’s and Scott Pioli’s comments regarding the videotaping scandal that dogged the Patriots all of last season and still refuses to go away to this day.

Belichick’s comments on the subject confirmed what I had personally hypothesized about the issue all along, that he had interpreted the NFL’s videotaping rules to mean that the taping of opponents signals from the sideline was legal as long as the tapes were not used during the actual game being played.

The actual rule, as taken from The Boston Globe article, states: “Any use by any club at any time, from the start to the finish of any game in which such club is a participant, of any communications or information-gathering equipment, other than Polaroid-type cameras or field telephones, shall be prohibited, including without limitation videotape machines, telephone tapping, or bugging devices, or any other form of electronic devices that might aid a team during the playing of a game.”

Unfortunately the Globe article did not discuss or disclose Belichick’s thoughts on the memo from the NFL that was given to all 32 teams in 2006 emphasizing that taping was not allowed from the sideline (and various other locations) during games.

Belichick admits in the article that he felt there was a gray area in the videotaping rules, which he misinterpreted. I can only guess that Belichick believed that the information in the NFL’s 2006 memo regarding videotaping locations still fell under the umbrella of his interpretation of the NFL’s videotaping rules and that as long as the video was not being used during the actual game being played, his ass was covered.

Sadly, as we are all well aware, that was not the case.

Overall I thought the Globe article did a great job of allowing us to finally hear some of The Patriots’ side of the story regarding ‘tapegate’, (a term that I loathe by the way,) but I felt that the lack of discussion regarding the NFL’s 2006 memo was a pretty big omission from the article.

Honestly, I am surprised that this videotaping story continues to live on. In my opinion it has been completely and totally overblown. I think the main reason that this story continues to live is because The Patriots don’t give the haters much to latch on to. Except for a few exceptions here and there, members of The Patriots generally stay out of trouble, keep their mouths shut and win a lot of football games. ‘Tapegate’ is a story that Patriots haters have finally been able to sink their teeth into and the haters are acting like a dog that doesn’t want to give up it’s chew-toy. It’s time to let it go. This horse was beaten to death a long time ago.

Yes, there is still the Matt Walsh aspect of the story. We are still waiting to hear what the former video assistant has (or doesn’t have) on the Pats, but at this point, if anything substantial comes of that angle I will truly be surprised.

As I have said before, hate my team all you want. I hated the 49ers in the 80′s and the Cowboys in the 90′s. We’re in good company.

GO PATS