An ESPN Outside The Lines report this morning dropped a bombshell for the NFL and the New England Patriots, outlining how closely the franchise and league worked together to minimize the damage from Spygate. Feeling disappointed by the NFL’s actions, owners wanted Commissioner Roger Goodell to go hard on the Patriots the moment the Deflategate scandal broke in January.
The report, written by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, goes over the origins of Spygate and how the Patriots had started taping other teams as early as 2000. It wasn’t until 2007 that Goodell decided to punish the Patriots for the alleged taping, imposing a $500,000 fine on head coach Bill Belichick and a $250,000 fine on the team. The team also lost a first-round draft pick.
Van Natta and Wickersham write that league executives didn’t investigate the Patriots over Spygate until after the punishments were announced. Even then, they found a room at Gillette Stadium that only Belichick and a few others had access. There were notes and videos of opposing teams’ signals. But Goodell ordered that these tapes and papers be destroyed. Goodell would also insist that no games were decided with the help of spying and also told team owners that the tapes were destroyed so they couldn’t be used again. Not many believed that.
In another shocking revelation from the story, former St. Louis Rams head coach, who oversaw the “Greatest Show on Turf” that the Patriots beat in the Super Bowl after the 2001 season, claims that he was asked by Goodell to stand by the league’s handling of Spygate.
“He told me, 'The league doesn't need this. We're asking you to come out with a couple lines exonerating us and saying we did our due diligence,’” Mike Martz told ESPN.
Despite Spygate, Patriots owner Bob Kraft continued to be an important player within the league and one of Goodell’s biggest supporters. But that support began to break down last year during the Ray Rice scandal, at least privately. Then the Deflategate scandal broke in January and the league went hard after the Patriots, trying to do everything they didn’t do in 2007. One executive told ESPN that some owners wanted Goodell to “go hard on this one.”
After the Ted Wells report was released, owners continued to support Goodell despite its flaws. And then Goodell suspended Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games. Of course, on Thursday, this decision was overturned by Judge Richard Berman.
The Patriots have issued a response to the ESPN report, which can be seen in full below:
“The New England Patriots have never filmed or recorded another team's practice or walkthrough. The first time we ever heard of such an accusation came in 2008, the day before Super Bowl XLII, when the Boston Herald reported an allegation from a disgruntled former employee. That report created a media firestorm that extended globally and was discussed incessantly for months. It took four months before that newspaper retracted its story and offered the team a front and back page apology for the damage done. Clearly, the damage has been irreparable. As recently as last month, over seven years after the retraction and apology was issued, ESPN issued the following apology to the Patriots for continuing to perpetuate the myth: 'On two occasions in recent weeks, SportsCenter incorrectly cited a 2002 report regarding the New England Patriots and Super Bowl XXXVI. That story was found to be false, and should not have been part of our reporting. We apologize to the Patriots organization.'
"This type of reporting over the past seven years has led to additional unfounded, unwarranted and, quite frankly, unbelievable allegations by former players, coaches and executives. None of which have ever been substantiated, but many of which continue to be propagated. The New England Patriots are led by an owner whose well-documented efforts on league wide initiatives - from TV contracts to preventing a work stoppage - have earned him the reputation as one of the best in the NFL. For the past 16 years, the Patriots have been led by one of the league's all-time greatest coaches and one of its alltime greatest quarterbacks. It is disappointing that some choose to believe in myths, conjecture and rumors rather than giving credit for the team's successes to Coach Belichick, his staff and the players for their hard work, attention to detail, methodical weekly preparation, diligence and overall performance."
image courtesy of Elder Ordonez/INFphoto.com
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