Dylan Rhoads

0900
Essay

The Mighty Gates

Over the years the New England Patriots have been accused of cheating and
personally, I believe that they have not done anything wrong. Head coach Bill Belichick,
and as of last year Tom Brady, have been accused of two major gates. These are
known as Spygate and Deflategate. Spygate was a videotaping controversy that
occurred back in 2007, due to the Patriots being caught illegally recording the New York
Jets defensive coaches signals. Now, the act of recording another coaches signals isnt
illegal, depending on where you are. During a week one game in East Rutherford, New
Jersey, the Patriots cameraman Matt Estrella was approached by Jets security for
videotaping the coaches while on their sideline. They took him to a small room in the
stadiums tunnel where they confiscated his camera and tape, which was sent to the
NFL headquarters the very next day. Though after that, Commissioner Roger Goodell
and the NFLs investigation on Spygate lasted a little longer than a week, due to their
findings falling short. Goodell eventually enforced a maximum, and historic, fine on Bill
Belichick, hoping to end the entire thing, but on account of the many teams, coaches
and fans that were obsessed with Spygate, it continued on. It eventually caught the
attention of U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, who met with the Commissioner and concluded
that destroying the materials was the best thing to do. Eventually, a former Patriots
video assistant Matt Walsh came forward with evidence that the team recorded the St.
Louis Rams walkthrough the day before Super Bowl XXXVI, which was reported by the
Boston Herald. The Patriots denied the claim, which was proven false when Walsh sent
the footage he had to league officials ahead of a meeting agreement between him and
Goodell. The footage he had contained several games that were recorded, but none of
them were of the Rams walkthrough. After a meeting between Walsh and Arlen
Specter, Specter called for a private investigation, but he eventually said he had gone
as far as he could and called it off.
Amid the biggest cheating scandal in football history, the New England Patriots
were yet again under scrutiny by the NFL and Roger Goodell. Though this time, it was
aimed at Bill Belichick, along with quarterback Tom Brady. This scandal emerged after
the 2014 AFC Championship game in which the Patriots hosted the Indianapolis Colts in
Foxborough, Massachusetts. During the game, Tom Brady threw an interception to
Colts linebacker DQwell Jackson, who gave the ball to an equipment manager. The
equipment manager felt the ball, and thought it felt a little flat, so he decided to check
the balls pressure. This eventually led to the 8 month scandal known as Deflategate.

Over that time, evidence emerged of text messages exchanged between two equipment
managers, one of which was the ball handler. The messages included conversation of
the handler expressing his dismay towards Brady. In one, he claimed he was going to
make one of the balls hard as a rock and see how Tom likes that. Now the
investigation is aimed directly at Brady. The NFLPA discovered that Tom Brady had
destroyed his phone ahead of the investigation, which he claimed was a normal thing
for him, and eventually gave him the punishment of being suspended 4 games without
pay. Tom Brady, as many could probably guess, fought the decision and appealed it. 4
months later, after several up-holdings and appeals, a Judge threw out Bradys
suspension, due to a lack of fair due process on Bradys behalf. The NFL has since
decided they will appeal the decision. Ironic enough, on the first week of the 2015-16
season, the Pittsburgh Steelers picked up the Patriots radio transmissions in their
headsets. The same week, the NFL announced they would launch a full investigation on
Headsetgate, but several coaches came forward and said it has happened to them
several times during games, including Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who said
thats always the case here (Pittsburgh). Headsetgate, fortunately died off and has not
been looked into, or at least the general public is unaware of it, if it is now.
All of these scandals, I feel, were either pointless or were wrong, and I can back
that up. First, I will give my view on Spygate. I really feel that the extent they took the
whole thing to was a little unnecessary. Partly because other teams did it, and some
coaches in the NFL were trained to record just like the Patriots did. More specifically,
Jimmy Johnson. Johnson is a former NFL head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, and a
couple days after the footage was aired, he came forward and said thats exactly how I
was taught to do it. Yes, Belichick did do this after a memo was put out that said not to
do so, but that means the previous footage should have been forgotten about. Which, to
me, shows that the whole investigation was not needed. Especially a senator getting
involved. One of the main reasons I believe he put an end to his own investigation was
because of a comment made by fellow Senator Ted Kennedy, who said, With the war in
Iraq raging on, gasoline prices closing in on $4 a gallon, and Americans losing their
homes at record rates to foreclosure, the United States Senate should be focusing on
the real problems that Americans are struggling with. Only a month after this comment,
Arlen Specter announced his withdrawal of the investigation, and basically Spygate was
dropped. Now, onto Deflategate, I personally believe it never should have been an
issue, at all. During the game they were caught cheating, which was during the first
half, they won 45-7. The balls were replaced before or after halftime, which shows me
Tom Brady didnt need a deflated ball to win. Even if tampering with the balls is illegal,
who did it really affect? Tom Brady admitted he, likes the balls a certain way, to his
teammates, but obviously it doesnt matter. He still plays great, and as a matter of fact,
several other quarterbacks have admitted they have done the same thing. But the
Patriots needed to be the bad guys again, of course. I personally believe the purpose

for the punishments made by Roger Goodell and the NFLPA were influenced by the
commissioners failure to act on Spygate previously, even though I dont think anything
should have been done.
If you ask me, I think the patriots are going to be very very hated on for a long
while, at least as long as Belichick is the coach there. People are always going to find
things to accuse the Patriots of, and its probably happening as we speak. There are a
lot of people that cannot stand greatness, so they will always hate, and I believe that is
the case for the Patriots.