Spicer adds more flavor
Words could haunt Jacksonville
By John Tomase
Monday, January 7, 2008
The Patriots usually need to contrive bulletin board material.
Not this week.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are making it easy on them, thanks to Camera-gate.
On the Jaguars’ official Web site, the Patriots rate No. 1 in the power rankings, but their 16-0 season includes an asterisk which reads, “cheated in one game.”
And turning back the clock to that September scandal, few players in the league were more outspoken than Jaguars defensive lineman Paul Spicer.
“This ain’t news,” he told the Associated Press at the time. “I’ve heard it in the past. They finally got caught. The Patriots got caught. They’re busted.”
Those words and many of the ones that follow below will surely come up behind closed doors in Gillette Stadium this week, where the Pats are masters of turning disrespect into motivation.
At the height of Camera-gate, Spicer wanted commissioner Roger Goodell to fine the Patriots $2 million and take away their second- and third-round picks, while hoping for something even harsher.
“Do like the NCAA and kick them out of the playoffs or something,” Spicer said. “Put them on probation; they can’t go to no playoff games. Roger Goodell has definitely enforced some new rules. He’s been hard on players. Now let’s see how hard he’s going to be with a team.”
Goodell didn’t disappoint, fining coach Bill Belichick $500,000, the team $250,000, and docking the Pats a first-round pick in this year’s draft.
Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio believed the Patriots had committed a breach of the game’s ethics, drawing a baseball analogy after the news broke.
“It’s quite obvious that when you’re signaling defensively, the other bench is like a guy on second base,” Del Rio said. “If the pitcher or catcher is giving away signals, then he can relay things. But that’s part of the game. You’re not talking about having a camera set up on the center field fence that you’re looking and shooting the catcher’s signals and then studying that before you go play that opponent.
“That’s a different issue. Do we look at each other’s sidelines and look for hints at what might be coming? Sure. I think all teams do that. That’s been going on forever. That will continue to be part of our game.”
That wasn’t Del Rio’s only issue with the Pats. Last Christmas Eve in Jacksonville, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was able to gain a few extra yards on a scramble by starting to slide, only to keep running as the Jags’ defenders pulled up.
“They should’ve speared him then,” Del Rio told Jaguars.com, though he later said his words were taken out of context.
The last time the Jaguars played the Patriots in the postseason, the Pats won 28-3 and the Jaguars had to deal with broken headsets.
“Our coach-to-quarterback system mysteriously malfunctioned the entire first half,” Del Rio said, stopping short of blaming the Pats for the problem.
Though they didn’t intend it at the time, the Jaguars unwittingly provided the Patriots with no shortage of bulletin board material that can be used this week. And even if the players and coaches have nothing to do with the Web site, it still labels the Pats cheaters.
The last word goes to Spicer.
“They’re the ones that have to pay the consequences for it,” he said in September. “If that’s the way they feel like they have to get the upper hand, then so be it. Everybody’s been running around calling them geniuses for years. What are they going to say now?”
