On another football forum that I frequently visit, Patriots fans are out to dispute exactly what rules their team and coach violated 7 years ago.
They claimed that the rules did not prohibit video-taping your opponent's sideline activities, even the hand signals. Rather, it stipulated that such taping could only happen from off-the-field locations (such as from a roof top), whereas the Patriots did it from their own sidelines.
So the fans cried that had they just retreated another 10-15 yards, and performed the video-taping from the stands, this would have been perfectly legal.
I just checked wikipedia, and it doesn't seem to dispute this claim, but I had always thought teams were not allowed to videotaped, from anywhere, the other side's hand signals.
I seemed to remember it's a more direct violation than just distance and location.
(Let's not get into taping the opponents' pre-game walk through for now, as that allegation had been retracted shortly after it first appeared. Let's stick to what the Patriots already admitted doing).
The Patriots fans even put up this picture below, claiming this was on the Jets sideline when they were playing at the Patriots AFTER spygate had happened. If this picture was indeed true, how could what the Patriots did be illegal?
I know wikipedia can be edited easily, so can anyone refresh my memory, and maybe provide some trustworthy links about the nature of spygate? Thanks.
The issue is, teams were told to stop, and the Pat's didn't. They kept on doing it.
That's why they were penalized.
And why is snide remark at Saturday's press conference is just an example of why I wouldn't believe him now.
I mean, we see video of Giants games everywhere from ground level, and I'm not talking NFL Films footage.
Really? What about the fact that that allegation was retracted after the evidence was destroyed? What about the Rams players who reported that the Pats seemed to know exactly what play they were running the whole game during the Super Bowl?