Comments on: Point Well Taken http://sportsgirlblog.com/2007/09/point-well-taken/ Sports Talk from Dallas Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:16:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: dsandler http://sportsgirlblog.com/2007/09/point-well-taken/comment-page-1/#comment-7 dsandler Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:01:56 +0000 http://sportsgirlblog.com/2007/09/point-well-taken/#comment-7 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: <a href="http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1199" rel="nofollow">Why Don’t NFL Teams Encrypt Their Signals Better?</a> 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). 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).

]]> By: dsandler http://sportsgirlblog.com/2007/09/point-well-taken/comment-page-1/#comment-6 dsandler Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:43:25 +0000 http://sportsgirlblog.com/2007/09/point-well-taken/#comment-6 So I checked out that Bill Simmons blog entry—it was excellent, but so chock full of inside football (and inside football <em>jokes</em>) 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 <i>that</i> envelope. As for the hated-franchise thing, I assume you're referring to this bit: <blockquote> If this pattern of inappropriate behavior had been happening for six years, wouldn't they have been caught before Sept. 9, 2007? Wouldn't a league filled with coaches and executives who obviously hate and resent the Pats have been dying to blow the whistle on them? </blockquote> That is, either (a) everyone has been doing this for years and <i>that's</i> why nobody's come forward about sideline filming before, or (b) this was a one-time thing, and <i>that's</i> 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: <blockquote> …everyone has been so eager to stick an asterisk next to everything that's happened from 2001-2007… </blockquote> Speaking of sour grapes, I'm still waiting for my Yankees asterisk. 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:

If this pattern of inappropriate behavior had been happening for six years, wouldn’t they have been caught before Sept. 9, 2007? Wouldn’t a league filled with coaches and executives who obviously hate and resent the Pats have been dying to blow the whistle on them?

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:

…everyone has been so eager to stick an asterisk next to everything that’s happened from 2001-2007…

Speaking of sour grapes, I’m still waiting for my Yankees asterisk.

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