With Senator Arlen Specter’s inquiry into Spygate seemingly not going away any time soon, I thought it prudent to point something out that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else.
The constant refrain from Patriot apologists, defenders and fans (and people who just want the whole thing to go away) is that the Patriots couldn’t have gained a competitive advantage from the small amounts of info they could glean from things like taping defensive signals or taping a team’s final walk through. Time and again, players and coaches both past and present have indicated they were mystified as to how the Patriots could use the little information they could have gotten to their advantage. The answer to how the Patriots used it is buried but it is there. You just have to connect the dots.
Say Bill Belichick had someone, um, smart analyze the tapes. Not just anyone. Someone with a photographic memory and an off-the-charts IQ. Someone who he trusted, say, whom he went back decades with, who he knew would never, ever do anything to hurt him, and ensured that no one, not even the people on the team or in the organization, would know what exactly it was he did. And say during games this person sat in a box watching the game unfold as it did on those tapes. And just suppose this person with the photographic memory was in Belichick’s ear every game, using his brilliant, photographic mind to interpret those tiny bits of info gathered from those tapes and bring their inherent advantage to the Patriots sideline without anyone but the coach and his friend knowing exactly what it was they were doing.
Because, ladies and gentleman, that’s exactly what I think Belichick and Ernie Adams have been doing.
Who’s Ernie Adams? Here you go.
Far fetched? You bet. But riddle me this - Belichick was taping defensive signals and, possibly, an opposing team’s final walk through because A) He felt like the video department needed some busy work or B) Because he could gain a competitive advantage. The answer, of course, can only be B.
And if that is the case, the above sounds less like lunacy and closer to a plausible theory. Why does NO ONE know what it is Ernie Adams does for the team? The players don’t know. The coaches don’t know. Hell, Bob Kraft, THE OWNER who pays the man his salary, doesn’t know. Only Belichick and Adams know. But if Specter gets things going in Congress, I think there’s a chance you and I could know soon enough…
Keith said in February 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
