Point Well Taken
If the Patriots were trying to make a statement on Sunday night about how they don’t need any more competitive advantage than just what they’ve got on the field, they did so in resounding fashion. The type of media circus I’m sure all the players, not to mention their coaches, dealt with this week could have caused this game to go two ways. They were either going to show everyone that in the height of scrutiny they can still handle their business, or they were going to crumble and play horribly thus providing fodder for every analyst who wants to say that their legacy has been tarnished in light of the cheating scandal. Thank goodness for their fans they chose option 1!
It’s not just that they beat the Chargers, whom most analysts said was still the same team from last year with the 14-2 record despite the loss of nearly their entire coaching staff. It’s that they gave such a dominant performance that was better than I’d seen them play in years (not counting last week’s game of course). Their defense, which has always been known to create huge plays, delivered with interception after interception. Not to mention the fact that they practically made LaDainian Tomlinson look like a non-factor. Then there’s Tom Brady, with 25 of his 31 passes completed for 279 yards and three touchdowns. So much for Randy Moss being a complete head case too. So far he’s proving that Corey Dillon isn’t the only disgruntled athlete who joins the Patriots and does an about-face with the attitude. Let’s hope I don’t have to eat those words later in the season…
The point being, the Patriots were dominant on both sides of the line of scrimmage last night and I believe it should hopefully silence some of the critics. It doesn’t lessen the absurdness of what happened in the Jets game, but I hope it ends some of the debate on whether or not they actually deserve those Super Bowl rings that they wear.
Of course there are whispers that this investigation has only just begun and that there’s more evidence that the Patriots have been using some type of alternate radio frequency to disrupt the opposing team’s signals. If it’s true, then let’s see some hard evidence. Even if it’s not true, it will certainly be a topic of discussion because it’s worth discussing. As Bill Simmons says in his Boston Blog, the Patriots are a hated franchise. Anyone who wins repeatedly becomes a hated franchise. So discuss all you want, but the statement was made loud and clear on Sunday night in Foxboro that the Patriots as a team have one distinct competitive advantage–their overwhelming talent on the field.
So I checked out that Bill Simmons blog entry—it was excellent, but so chock full of inside football (and inside football jokes) that I had to have Wikipedia and ESPN.com open for cross-referencing.
Regarding his assertion that NBC and others are pouring gasoline on this fire: Well, Pats/Chargers is on (TiVo) in the background, and I just heard this inspired bit of genius in Al Michaels’ grave baritone: “We may not have heard the end of this; I suspect we haven’t.” Gosh, thanks, Karnak. It’s not like you have any control over what’s inside that envelope.
As for the hated-franchise thing, I assume you’re referring to this bit:
That is, either (a) everyone has been doing this for years and that’s why nobody’s come forward about sideline filming before, or (b) this was a one-time thing, and that’s why this is the first we’re hearing of it. Either way, it definitely sounds like this is the stumble that sour-grapes Patriots-haters have been waiting for:
Speaking of sour grapes, I’m still waiting for my Yankees asterisk.
By the way, in computer security, you typically assume that there are always spies (we call them “eavesdroppers”) that can see everything you say and do, so you need to find ways of communicating in public what appears to be garbage but is actually full of secrets for your friends.
To wit: Why Don’t NFL Teams Encrypt Their Signals Better? Be sure to read through the comments: great discussion of various approaches that could be taken by the defensive unit to defeat spies (contrasted with the baseball signal “encryption” problem).