12-11-2019, 12:10 AM
The report details Spygate as we've never heard it, painting a
picture of systematic cheating that went way further and looks way worse
for the Patriots than people previously realized.
First, the
Patriots had a detailed, efficient system for finding out opponents'
plays. ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham describe a scene in
Patriots coach Bill Belichick's office before a season-opener against
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
"[A backup
quarterback named John] Friesz was told that the Patriots had a tape of
the Bucs' signals. He was instructed to memorize them, and during the
game, to watch Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and tell
[offensive coordinator Charlie] Weis the defensive play, which Weis
would relay over the radio headset system to quarterback Drew Bledsoe."
Van
Natta and Wickersham report that although the Patriots lost that game,
they realized a "schematic" edge over other teams. They "streamlined the
system," finding a more efficient way to note the plays and relay the
information, cutting out the quarterbacks, with only a few people,
including Belichick.
Soon, advanced scouts would be sent to the
games of upcoming Patriots' opponents to film the play signals. The
scouts would go undercover as media members, with media credentials
listed under "Patriots TV" or "Kraft Productions" and were prepared with
excuses of what to say they were filming if security asked.
Peyton Manning is reportedly paranoid about the Patriots' methods of cheating; he leaves the Patriots' visiting locker room to discuss schemes with coaches in case the room is bugged.
Still, the spying was reportedly the biggest deal. The entire operation
came to a head when Eric Mangini, coach of the New York Jets and a
former Patriots coach, realized that the Patriots were filming teams. He
ordered security to be on alert, and they caught a Patriots employee
taping the Jets.
Roger Goodell, then only 18 months into his role as
NFL commissioner, fined Belichick $500,000, the Patriots $250,000, and
docked the team a first-round pick before investigators ever even went
to Foxborough to look for the tapes.
There, investigators found "a room accessible only to Belichick
and a few others" with a "library of scouting material containing
videotapes of opponents' signals, with detailed notes matching signals
to plays for many teams going back seven seasons."
However, as Van
Natta and Wickersham report, "almost as quickly as the tapes and notes
were found, they were destroyed, on Goodell's orders: League executives
stomped the tapes into pieces and shredded the papers inside a Gillette
Stadium conference room."
The report says the Patriots never told
the league how many games they filmed and offered up only eight tapes,
and the league never asked.
https://www.businessinsider.com/espn-rep...dal-2015-9