The Patriots May Still Take A Step Back In 2015 Even With Brady On The Field

[therealbig3]

whoooa, pull them reins back and slow that horse down! Your owner agreed and accepted those terms and penalties! Bill belichek said "ASK THE QUARTERBACK". Those fines and levies were, according to many of you Patriot fans these past few threads, these fines were not the organizations fault. Therefore, THIS IS ALL ON TOM!
But lets all go down to the bar and cheer..."HOOORAAAY TOM! I WUVE YOU TOM! THANKS FOR GIVING MY FRANCHISE 1 MILLION DOLLARS IN FINES! YIPPEEEE, YOU SHOWED ROGER SOMETHIN DIDNT YOU!" As Ocho Cinco used to say, child pleeeeeeze!

A player is not stripped of draft picks. The fine was not against Brady, but against the organization...thus, Kraft paid it.

These penalties were against the organization, not against Brady. Hence, those punishments had NOTHING to do with Brady. And no, they're not the organization's fault either. It's the NFL's fault. Because yes, they're punishing the organization because they wanted to punish a player, even though they knew the organization had nothing to do with what they were trying to punish. That's the definition of crooked if I ever saw one.

Kraft deciding not to appeal, however, IS his fault. He showed that he was pretty spineless and was willing to accept penalties for something he didn't do, and gave in to Goodell's massive power trip. THAT is absolutely Kraft's fault, he could have easily appealed that and won if he wanted to, but he chose not to.

It's like if a student was accused of cheating on a test, and the principal has video proof (Wells report) that this student did in fact NOT cheat, but still decided to suspend them anyway...and that student decided to just accept the punishment without taking it in front of the school board or whatever higher authority there was. The fault lies with two people in that scenario...the principal (NFL) for handing out a punishment to a student (Pats organization) for something that he knows they didn't do, and the student (Pats organization) for accepting a punishment for something that they know they didn't do.

And btw, Kraft isn't my team's owner. I'm not a Pats fan.

[Higga]

Of course they might take a step back. They won the effing Super Bowl, and teams don't repeat often, so anything less would be a step back.

I fully expect them to win 10+ games again and be a factor in the AFC, although I do believe their division is tougher with an improved Miami and Buffalo.

[bwgood77]

Those investigators hadn't come up empty: Inside a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others, they found a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents' signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons. Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17. Yet 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.

When asked about the connections made between Spygate and Deflategate, he said he had not yet had a chance to read this story but:

"I am not aware of any connection between the Spygate procedures and these procedures here. There is no connection in my mind between these two incidents."
To many owners and coaches, the expediency of the NFL's investigation -- and the Patriots' and Goodell's insistence that no games were tilted by the spying -- seemed dubious. It reminded them of something they had seen before from the league and Patriots: At least two teams had caught New England videotaping their coaches' signals in 2006, yet the league did nothing. Further, NFL competition committee members had, over the years, fielded numerous allegations about New England breaking an array of rules. Still nothing. Now the stakes had gotten much higher: Spygate's unanswered questions and destroyed evidence had managed to seize the attention of a hard-charging U.S. senator, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who was threatening a congressional investigation. This would put everyone -- players, coaches, owners and the commissioner -- under oath, a prospect that some in that room at The Breakers believed could threaten the foundation of the NFL.

Goodell tried to assuage his bosses: He ordered the destruction of the tapes and notes, he insisted, so they couldn't be exploited again. Many in the room didn't believe it. And some would conclude it was as if Goodell, Kraft and Belichick had acted like partners, complicit in trying to sweep the scandal's details under the rug while the rest of the league was left wondering how much glory the Patriots' cheating had cost their teams. "Goodell didn't want anybody to know that his gold franchise had won Super Bowls by cheating," a senior executive whose team lost to the Patriots in a Super Bowl now says. "If that gets out, that hurts your business."

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart

Looks like Simmons is a little angry with the ESPN report today.

https://twitter.com/BillSimmons

[LAKESHOW]

Yet these historical....HISTORICAL FACTS...seem to be overlooked by Patriot fans, sympathizers and regular wack jobs who just support Tom because they jack off nightly to his poster.

This is NOT ABOUT HATERs. There is a history. There is a conviction in the past, for past transgressions. Tom lied, he knows it, everyone else knows it. But once again, Patriot fans will bring out graphs and charts...

[Agnostifarian]

Meanwhile, another season has started... Looks like Tom and the boys came ready to play.

Which moron wants to start a new thread about headsets?

[Agnostifarian]

here is a shout out to Steelers fans… You guys are going to have a great season when you get all your players back!

Six Super Bowl's makes you the leagues most successful franchise. No caveats.

[Yoshun]

The New England offense looked great as usual. Their D did not look so good though, especially up front. They're going to have to fix that or teams are going to run all over them this season. They are definitely the favorites in my eyes, clearly the best team in the AFC.