Please just go away

With spygate rearing its head again, I need to just share my thoughts.

First of all, if the Patriots are found to have done more than they admitted to back in September, then I will be the first one to say that the punishment should be severe. But I think it should be severe for the coach, the owner, and his staff, not the players. More draft picks. Fines. Suspensions of even a full season would not be out of order. But do not punish the players or the fans by doing something like banning them from the post-season.

Secondly, I return to my original argument that even if the Patriots had video tape of signals and knew exactly what the defensive calls were, I do not see how that would help the Patriots own defense that performed so amazingly in the Super Bowl against the Rams. I also remind everyone that just knowing what someone is going to do does not mean you will be able to beat it. Tom Brady still has to make throws. David Patten still has to catch the ball. Adam Vinatieri still has to kick a 48 yard field goal. In the Super Bowl and 3 weeks earlier in a driving snow storm. No knowledge of signals caused that ball to sail through the uprights.

Finally, I offer this. We know that 5 days before the 2007 season started a memo was sent clearly stating that video taping was illegal. We know that the rule had been present since the 2006 season. What I have never heard is whether or not the rule, in any form, existing during the Super Bowl years.

It is quite easy to say that they video taped the Jets and that was bad, but to retroactively go back and say everything they did before that has been called into question is jumping the gun. While Belichick's claim that he mis-interpreted the rule from 2007 is ludicrous, if the rule was not so clear in 2001, 2003, or 2004, then let's not question those victories.

Illegal contact was not a point of emphasis until the 2004 season. The rule was there when aggressive defenses like the 2000 Ravens and 2002 Buccaneers won Super Bowls. We do not now go back an diminish their accomplishments because the rule is now 'emphasized'.

I am not saying that the Patriots were not breaking the rules in the Super Bowl years. They were video taping and I am assuming that the specific rule has been unchanged since those years. However, the specifics of the rule and the importance of it may not have come to light until the last couple years. So do not cast doubts on preceding years.

It is amazing what desperation will make you do.

Hillary has lost 10 straight primaries and caucuses. She is losing her core demographics to Obama. The polls in Texas show Obama making significant gains. She has to win in a land-slide in both Texas and Ohio to have a chance. And to top it all off, the Teamsters union just endorsed Barrack Obama.

And what does Hillary do when things start going bad? She brings out the negative ads and rhetoric.

Since there is nothing she can do or say to make herself seem like the better candidate, her only recourse is to make Obama look bad. In essence, instead of letting the people know that the Democrats are the party of ideas and change, she instead says that when it comes to Democrats she is the lesser of two evils.

She has established herself, with questionable logic, as the candidate with the most experience. In doing so she cannot possibly be the candidate of change that everyone is looking for.

She has been touting her experience working on healthcare as a plus in her column. Nevermind that she was a failure at changing the healthcare system when she first tried in 1994.

She has said she is the best person to end the war in Iraq. Yet she voted for the war when Obama was standing up against it.

In short, her campaign is faltering and so she is resorting to desperate meassures and it is just making her look even worse.

These words are my own, but they used to be someone else's

Okay. So Obama supposedly 'stole' some phrases from a speech given by Deval Patrick several years ago. Deval Patrick is one of Obama's campaign co-chairs and had given permission for Barrack to use the words. Barrack did not give credit during the speech to Deval, or his speech-writer, and the Clinton administration made quite a fuss over this.

In Hillary's eyes she has only ever used words and phrases that came from her own pen--as though she does not have speech writers. And she certainly never borrows phrases from others right?

Well just check this out and you tell me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0sjnKeEH7c&feature=related

I guess the door does not swing both ways.

Is that fiscal responsibility?

So Hillary had to loan herself $5 million in order to be competitive on Super Tuesday. And the rumors are that many of her staffers had to work for free leading up to Super Tuesday. And the end result is a tie with Barack Obama.

So here we have a candidate that is accepting money from lobbyists and PACs and Special Interest groups and she still doesn't have enough to run her campaign. A candidate who is so broke her paid supporters had to become volunteer supporters. A candidate that is expecting the public to believe she can manage the economy of the country. When the government runs out of money, you cannot just ask the people to work for free.

Barack Obama raised more than twice as much money as she did in January. And he did not get any of it from PACs or Lobbyists or Special Interest groups. His paid staffers continue to be paid staffers. He is ready for the stretch run because he has spent wisely. That says a lot about his ability to manage this country's economy.

Do not doubt that Obama can get it done

The latest polls released today show that Obama has closed the gap on Hillary in Super Tuesday states. While Clinton is still ahead in most, the gap in many cases is within the polls margin of error.

This is encouraging and hopefully bodes well for a strong finish tomorrow.

I think this is the most important poll I have seen.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/national.html

It is a comparison of who would win in the general election against each of the republican candidates.

Obama wins against all republican candidates by a wider margin than Hillary. In fact, Hillary would actually lose if she were running against John McCain, the current Republican front-runner.

Just because you aren't paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you

Back in September the Patriots were caught cheating by video taping the Jets defensive signals. The party line from the Patriots camp was that they misunderstood the rule. I think the rule read something like, under no circumstances can you film the other teams signals, but whatever.

They were caught, they were fined, they turned over the tapes, supposedly, and the league moved on. There was some discontent that the NFL did not disclose what was on the tapes. Specifically, did the Patriots video tape the Super Bowls?

A couple days before Super Bowl XLII, a former Patriots staffer comes forward and announces that he had been instructed to video tape the St. Louis Rams walk through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. Naturally the Rams former QB starts touting how he was suspicious that something was up and all Patriots haters start shouting, 'I knew it!'

Here are my feelings on 'Spygate'.

What the Patriots did was wrong and rightfully throws into question all of their success. They broke the rules and I think they got off easy. I was expecting Belichick to get suspended for at least a game or two. They brought it on themselves and it is a shame that everything they worked for will now be under a cloud of suspicion.

That being said, I think the value of having such tapes is minimal. It is perfectly legal for a team to be in possession of the opponents signals. The rule is only that you cannot use video cameras to do it. So, it is not against the rules for them to have the information. What is against the rules is how they obtained it.

Think of it like stealing a candy bar. There is nothing wrong with having a candy bar in your possession. The problem is the fact that you stole to get it. If you had paid for it, then no one can complain. If the Patriots had a person with a pen and paper making notes of the signals, there would have been no violation. Do not confuse the legal information they had, with the illegal way they obtained it.

Also, no matter what information you have, you still have to execute. Tom Brady still has to throw the ball to just the right spot. David Patten has to run a perfect route and make sure he gets down in bounds. Adam Vinatieri still has to hit that 48 yard field goal. Knowing a defensive signal will not help J.R. Redmond wisely dive for the sideline to stop the clock.

Supposedly the Rams walk-through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI covered their red zone offense. Well, the Rams were only in the red zone twice and they scored a TD on one of those trips. And let's not forget that the Patriots only won by 3 points. Not exactly the blow you would expect if you had such a great unfair advantage.

And one final point. Just knowing what the opponent will do, is no guarantee that you can do anything about it. In Super Bowl XXXIX, the Patriots lined up for a play in Eagles territory late in the game. The Eagles defense could be heard yelling, "Screen. It's a screen.", prior to the snap. The Patriots snapped the ball and in fact ran a screen pass. The Eagles could not stop it and the Patriots picked up about 14 yards.

The Eagles knew the Patriots were going to run a screen and couldn't stop it. How did they know? They learned the Patriots signals--presumably using a legal method. Even armed with the information, they still couldn't stop it. Why? Because the players still have to execute.

So I do not dispute that the Patriots brought great dishonor upon themselves, but I do not believe for a minute that this violation contributed to any of their success.

Its not how you start, it is how you finish.

My New England Patriots started the season on a tear. They ripped through opponents who seemed to be better suited for Division 1-A college ball than the NFL. They were in a class by themselves.

As the season wore on they began to look beatable. A close finish against Philly, a near miss in Baltimore. They were even grounded by the Jets. Then came the Giants and a chance at history.

The December match-up was like watching a street brawl. The Patriots took it on the chin and the mouth and the gut and managed to get just enough of their own punches in to clinch the first ever 16-0 season. But the damage was done. While the Patriots flower began to fade and wilt, the Giants seeds of success were planted right there on the field turf of the Meadowlands.

The Giants took their growing confidence on the road and beat 3 opponents using the same techniques that worked against the Patriots. That is, punch them over and over until they succumb in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots, meanwhile, stayed home. They took a week off to revel in their success. They then scored a couple more records against the Jags, though the holes in the armor were still evident. While their victory against the Chargers was never truly in doubt, they didn't seem to be the awesome powerhouse of a couple months before.

They obviously saved their worst for last. The Giants picked up right where they left off and punched and kicked the Patriots into submission. The Patriots did not help their cause by implementing possibly the worst offensive game plan I've witnessed. In fact, it seemed to be the same game plan they barely made work the last time they faced the Giants.

The game was really decided in the first 10 minutes. The Giants drove down the field and kicked a field goal, eating up about 9 minutes in the process. That kept the Patriots 'explosive' offense off the field for nearly 30 minutes after kick-off. Then, on the Patriots first offensive snap, Brady takes a sack. The tone of the game was set and despite the Patriots going down and scoring a TD on that drive, that was all they had.

Hats off to the Giants. They played exactly how they wanted to and needed to and did what many thought was impossible. They proved the lesson that it doesn't matter if you win the first 18 games, the only one that really matters is the last one.