They got away with Deflate Gate and now... Stealing opponents play sheets

[liberal N proud]

Report: Patriots sent team employees to steal opponents' play sheets

One of the most damning parts of the report is when Van Natta and Wickersham get confirmation from anonymous former Patriots employees that the team used to send an employee to opponents’ locker rooms to steal their play sheets.

From the report:

In fact, many former New England coaches and employees insist that the taping of signals wasn’t even the most effective cheating method the Patriots deployed in that era. Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team’s offense. (The practice became so notorious that some coaches put out fake play sheets for the Patriots to swipe.) Numerous former employees say the Patriots would have someone rummage through the visiting team hotel for playbooks or scouting reports.


http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/report-patriots-used-to-send-team-employee-to-steal-opponents-play-sheets

[mythology]

1. If true the team needs to be forcibly sold like the Clippers

And Belichik banned for life.

[Marrah_G]

2. blah blah blah

[trumad]

3. Q the Sycophants.

[madinmaryland]

18. Where's joeybee? Never mind. He had everyone in this

Thread on ignore.

[HassleCat]

4. I don't doubt it

It's professional football, probably the most boring sport in the world. It's so boring they have to reveal Janet Jackson's breast at halftime.

[Orrex]

5. Au contraire! Baseball is far more boring.

It's so boring that it makes football look exciting.

[HassleCat]

7. But relaxing

Baseball is intended to be mostly long periods of relative non-excitement.

[Orrex]

9. In that case, mission accomplished

True fact: no baseball game in history has taken less than 9,000 hours.

Further, each and every player on each every team looks like he's having the worst time of his life during each and every game.

[Dr. Strange]

14. Truth.

I'll never forget that one game when Johnny Bench's first son was born (in the first inning), and Bench had to skip the bottom of the ninth to go to his son's high school graduation.

[Elwood P Dowd]

16. No way. Soccer is the most boring.

I like to turn on a soccer game for naps. The announcer screaming after a goal will wake me up later -- usually about 30-45 minutes later. No need for an alarm clock except that some of the games end up 0-0, and you nap too long.

[Keefer]

23. Golf/Tennis is/are far worse than football,

IMO.

[tabasco]

6. Bellyache has created quite the unethical climate in his organization

Bellichick: "If you're not cheatin', you're not tryin'.

[Logical]

8. I hope pulls a hamstring in the first game. He is a scumbag. Nt

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Scumbags. nt

[B Calm]

11. They all cheat one way or another. Watch the running back spotting the ball

a yard or two ahead of where he was tackled. This stupid deflate and now play sheet gate is a bunch of bullshit!

[cherokeeprogressive]

21. Yogi Berra once said: "If yaint cheatin', yaint tryin'". n/t

[Marrah_G]

12. Patriots statement

http://nep.247sports.com/Bolt/Patriots-issue-statement-in-wake-of-ESPNs-Spygate-report-39265402

On Tuesday morning, ESPN released a detailed 25-page report indicating that the New England Patriots’ Spygate scandal went beyond what was revealed eight years ago. But a sidebar has since been added to the right side of the story.

In full, is a statement from the team.

"The New England Patriots have never filmed or recorded another team's practice or walkthrough. The first time we ever heard of such an accusation came in 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII, when the Boston Herald reported an allegation from a disgruntled former employee. That report created a media firestorm that extended globally and was discussed incessantly for months. It took four months before that newspaper retracted its story and offered the team a front and back page apology for the damage done. Clearly, the damage has been irreparable. As recently as last month, over seven years after the retraction and apology was issued, ESPN issued the following apology to the Patriots for continuing to perpetuate the myth: 'On two occasions in recent weeks, SportsCenter incorrectly cited a 2002 report regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI. That story was found to be false, and should not have been part of our reporting. We apologize to the Patriots organization.'

Related: ESPN report pulls back the curtain on Patriots' Spygate scandal

"This type of reporting over the past seven years has led to additional unfounded, unwarranted and, quite frankly, unbelievable allegations by former players, coaches and executives. None of which have ever been substantiated, but many of which continue to be propagated. The New England Patriots are led by an owner whose well-documented efforts on league wide initiatives - from TV contracts to preventing a work stoppage - have earned him the reputation as one of the best in the NFL. For the past 16 years, the Patriots have been led by one of the league's all-time greatest coaches and one of its alltime greatest quarterbacks. It is disappointing that some choose to believe in myths, conjecture and rumors rather than giving credit for the team's successes to Coach [Bill] Belichick, his staff and the players for their hard work, attention to detail, methodical weekly preparation, diligence and overall performance."

The Patriots will open the regular season Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers, one week removed from learning of Tom Brady’s availability in the fallout from Deflategate.

[liberal N proud]

13. They denied deflating balls too

But that wasn't true, they will just have to get the same judge they had for Brady's balls.

[Marrah_G]

19. You guys can think what you want :)

Love my Pats, my Sox, my Bruins <3

[Logical]

24. LOL, Cheaters, Last place, Boring. Congrats.

[mythology]

25. To be fair, the Red Sox are cheaters as well

While no Red Sox fan ever mentions it, big star David Ortiz has also been caught on performance enhancing drugs. And like every other cheater, had absolutely no idea how that could possibly have happened.

[Logical]

26. Good point. nt

[KamaAina]

15. Wasn't this an episode of The Brady Bunch?

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. I've been calling them The Cheaters for a long time. At least they're not as bad as "take out your

opponent sean payton".

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. I heard fucking Belechik once bragged about points on the board before the game even started.

Oh wait.

That's a different game. You know - the one called the Democratic Primary.

My bad.

[Chisox08]

22. The Cheatriots strike again

This should be their theme song: