spygate

A Brief History of Patriots-Influenced NFL Rule Changes

March 28, 2018 by Mike Dussault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcONqYsQ_w

The Patriots’ dominance of the past 17 years has transformed the NFL landscape in a number of ways. First, their constant iron fist rule over the Dolphins, Jets and Bills has sent all three teams into endless cycles of GM/Coach/QB combos. Every now and then they’ll get lucky in their home stadium and get an early season-defining win over Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, but outside of the 2010 Jets, no AFC East team has beaten the Patriots in a meaningful game in a long, long time.

That goes for most of the rest of the NFL, with notable challengers the 2000s Colts, 2009-2012 Ravens, and the 2005/Peyton Manning Broncos. For almost two decades the division and conference teams outside New England were built to take down the Patriots and yet none could find the “blueprint” to beat the Pats outside of play a near-perfect 60-minute game. It’s amazing how hard that is for the great majority of NFL teams most of the time.

That competitive push against extended into the offseason, especially after the Pats’ dynastic run got kicked off with a game-saving, stupid-rule-called-correct, it’s no surprise that with increasing frequency rules that benefit, or are exploited by, the Patriots get put under the microscope each time the geniuses running the NFL competition committee decide what will improve the game.

Let’s take a look back at some NFL rule changes made because of the Patriots.

Coffin Corner: What Will This Year’s Shocking Super Bowl Narrative Be?

January 23, 2018 by James Conway

As we all know, with the extra week before the Super Bowl there are a lot of pages that need to be viewed. A lot air time that needs to be shouted into. A lot of ‘Tomato Cans’ (read Straw Men) that Need Crushing. That usually means we get an insane, regurgitated, ALL CAPS version of the season’s scandals (unless they involve Peyton Manning’s wife chewing HGH like Pez). But this year, I think we will see something decidedly different. Before we look forward, let’s reflect on the media narratives going into the Patriots previous eight appearances:

Coffin Corner: The Ringer’s “Patriots Week” Sucked For Patriots Fans And It Matters

August 17, 2017 by James Conway

Let me be upfront, I love Bill Simmons, I know it’s lame, but I love him. I love the Ringer, I loved Grantland. I love his editors. I love their podcasts. I love the Maester, I love Mallory Rubin. I love Tate. When my wife and I had our son, our brains were so stupid that we watched our first and last season of the Bachelor like a junkie needing a fix because of Juliet Litman’s hilarious Bachelor Party pod. The Ringer also has one of the best and most expansive rosters of writers on the Internet. It’s amazing!

So when Simmons announced on his podcast that they’d be running “Patriots week” on the gloriously insufferable “25 greatest Patriots wins” podcast, I was thrilled. Like an Indiana Jones fan going to a midnight screening of Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull, I was left sneaking out before the Q & A with a stoned Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg.

“Patriots Week” Sucked. For Patriots fans at least.

Blogging Reflections on the 2007 Pats

August 9, 2017 by Mike Dussault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNVN5TePlyA

A couple really good and long pieces reflecting upon the 2007 Patriots popped up yesterday — one from The Ringer’s Kevin Clark, the other from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. I suggest you check both out, assuming you’ve gotten over 18-1 in the last 10 years. I know I have, two Super Bowl wins certainly helped.

I thought it was a good chance to do some reflecting myself, without getting into the nitty gritty that Clark and Barnwell do, instead focusing more on what it was like to be a Patriots fan that season, and how that season gave birth to the very blog you’re reading right now.

I can’t talk about 2007 without first talking about 2006. 2006 was the year I truly became Pats obsessed. I think it was because they lost their first playoff game in Denver that year and suddenly it dawned on me that Brady-Belichick had a long road ahead of them, but a finite number chances to win more Super Bowls.

So in 2006, I made my first trip back home to see them live, hitting up the opener against the Bills. My sister Mary and I were so excited to get down to Foxboro we ended up in an empty parking lot just as the gates opened with nothing more than a case of beer and a tennis ball. Still, it was a glorious day that saw the Bills score a touchdown before we even made it to our nosebleed seats.

Coffin Corner: Happy Two-year Anniversary, Rog! Seriously. Thanks.

May 11, 2017 by James Conway

This Coffin Corner is to honor the two-year anniversary of Roger Goodell’s verdict (5/11/15) as it related to Ted Wells propaganda-for-hire report. And to celebrate the fact that with the ’17 draft in the books, Deflategate’s “punishment” is too. The reason I put punishment in quotes is because it really has been nothing but gravy since the Sheriff shot his six-shooter til it was spent. Today, we will look back and laugh at what horseshit they put us all through and thank the people… er… the person that’s responsible.

As of today, the New England Patriots sit on the precipice of the 2017 season, fully loaded with a real chance to repeat. I want to take a moment to thank the architect of this latest iteration of the greatest modern sports dynasty. No, not Robert or Jonathan Kraft, or Bill Belichick, or even Ernie Adams, there’s a man whose responsibility has gone unsung in these parts. Because two years after he tried to cripple Bill Belichick, the Krafts and Tom Brady, the New England Patriots are now loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. Patient Zero of HPV (not the STD that causes cervical cancer, though I am not sure how Hate Patriots Virus is transmitted, so maybe it is an STD). I digress, it’s you, Rog. Thank you, Roger Goodell. Okay, let me explain…

Patriots Gameplan: Super Bowl Bye Week vs. The Haters

January 27, 2017 by Mike Dussault

No game this weekend so instead of a gameplan for the Pats I’m writing a gameplan for us, the Patriots fans.

It’s hard work being a Patriots fan when the games aren’t on, when we’re not kicking ass up and down the gridiron. Because we’ve been doing it for so long the countless blowhard pundits who need people talking about them often have our team in their crosshairs.

All you have to do these days is have a dumb opinion about Tom Brady and it’s going to spread like wildfire. Just ask Chris Simms.

The Pats’ merits are debated both at macro (Deflators! Videotapers!) and micro (Tom Brady can’t throw deep!, the defense hasn’t played anybody!) levels, because that’s what “sports media” is now and it’s annoying as hell to have to deal with for Patriots fans.

What can you do, New Englanders are passionate about their sports and that passion only seeps into all the other Patriots fans around the globe. I know because I hear from them. From places like Brazil and Germany and Hungary to name a few.

The support of this team runs deep everywhere by those who can appreciate excellent, once-in-a-lifetime quality football.

But this weekend let’s take a moment to appreciate what we have in this football team. How lucky we are that in this crazy world we have a diversion that has brought us all so much joy over the last decade-and-a-half.

Let’s take a short trip down memory lane for some perspective.

We’re on to… Spygate? Again?

September 8, 2015 by Mike Dussault

I took it slow over Labor Day weekend. With Deflategate appearing to be in the rearview mirror until at least after the season and the Patriots about to kickoff another season with a Super Bowl banner-hanging, it was nice to take a little break when it felt like there was non-stop Patriots news all offseason.

But what do I wake up to? Both ESPN and SI.com drop new articles that both rehash Spygate, but also play up every single silly rumor of anything the Patriots ever might’ve done.

The bottom line, the Patriots are firmly entrenched in the minds of every other NFL team.

But it’s extremely curious that two major outlets come out with essentially the same story, rehashing the same details, without any real new information, at the same time.

With all the NFL’s leaks during Deflategate, this certainly feels like their handy work in some part, because when you can’t attack someone’s argument, you attack their credibility. The NFL lost in court and now it’s a hard tack to “HERE’S EVERY RUMOR WE COULD EVER FIND ABOUT THE PATRIOTS MAKING THINGS HARD ON THEIR OPPONENTS”.

The ESPN article would almost have you believe it’s about how Deflategate was payback for Spygate. That’s interesting, and not surprising. But instead of really hitting on that, instead the focus is all the rumors that have built up over the years.

Now, there’s no actual proof nor are any of them technically against the rules, but that doesn’t mean everyone can’t cry about them? No one questions that the Patriots are ALWAYS competing. Always. Whether it’s at the scouting combine or Wednesday’s injury report. Everything they do has purpose toward winning.

Now where’s the line between gamesmanship and cheating in professional sports? It’s easy to get the hyper competitive asshole out of your men’s pickup basketball game, not so much in the NFL. To lose a job in the NFL you have to lose, and the Patriots don’t lose very often.

I really don’t want this to now take away from the start of the Patriots season. I worry that the team might be as tired of these media firestorms as I am and that it could affect their play. But there’s also some fun in being the big bad wolf.

None of the items mentioned in either article won any games for the Patriots, but the perception of them, a perception which these articles will cement in everyone’s minds, has certainly caused opponents to spend more time worrying than preparing and that’s what their effectiveness is.

Once again it feels like things are coming full circle. I started blogging roughly because of Spygate, and my first published article was about embracing the dark side. Here we are eight years later and not much has changed.