Re: Re: Pat Fans are a Bunch of Candy Asses !!!!
PatsFan09 said:
Know what everyone's problem is with you?
You stated on several occasions that there are many newspaper articles/magazine articles that mention all the breaks/help that the Patriots have received over the past 5 years.
All we want to know is, WHERE ARE THEY? Instead, you act like a friggin' schmuck and just post that lame arse St. Louis Ram fans' conspiracy page, which is the biggest load of crap I've ever seen. You deserved your current status, pal.
Sports
Previous Articles
Steelers/NFL
Penguins/NHL
Pirates/MLB
All-Star Game
High School
Pitt/Big East
PSU/Big Ten
Duquesne/A-10
West Virginia U.
Robert Morris/NEC
Other Colleges
College FB Q&A
NBA/WNBA
Golf/PGA
Auto Racing
Columnists
Outdoors
Other Sports
Events Calendar
Collier: Cheating pays dividends for Patriots and Coach What's-his-name
Friday, January 23, 2004
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Two questions override all eight bajillion hyperbolic aspects of the ramp-up to Super Bowl 38. That's right, 38. Unlike most, this column recognizes as official the fall of the Roman Empire.
Question 1: How many Super Bowls will Bill Belichick have to win before the majority of Pittsburgh talk-show callers can reliably reproduce his actual name?
Question 2: Will NFL officials enforce the rules as written or will they instead allow Belichick's Patriots to do everything short of pistol-whipping tight ends and receivers in the guise of "inspired pass defense?"
We'll deal with the more important question first.
Probably no one since Buddy Brewster (Bubby Brister) has had his good name mangled by our town's sports-besotted radio yakkers as has Bill Belichick, partly because his long NFL tenure includes a somehow deliciously unsuccessful stint with the rival Browns, and partly because the now equally detested Ravens are coached by Brian Billick, a linguistic and competitive juxtaposition that appears too demanding for native tongues.
No kiddin'.
Thus Belichick has been referred to alternately in broadcast sports talk hereabouts as Bill Bullock, Brian Bullock, Brian Belichick, Bill Billacheck, Brad Billick, Brian Billick, Brad Belleck, Bill Bilochuk and Bud Bellick.
It's speculative, but I'm saying the answer to Question 1 therefore is, "at least two, though probably more."
On the lesser issue, it's begun to emerge from a couple of notable radio interviews that the reason the Patriots are so successful stopping even the most sophisticated and accomplished passing offenses -- Peyton Manning had been dead solid perfect in these playoffs until he got to Massachusetts -- is really quite simple: They cheat.
"It's not [Belichick's] genius," former Super Bowl quarterback Steve Young was telling ESPN's Dan Patrick the other day, "you know what's going to happen. The strong safety is going to line up over the tight end, and he's going to maul that guy the second the ball is snapped. Mug him, tackle him, whatever. And the other [defenders] are going to grab their guys just enough to disrupt your timing. We struggled against it when [Belichick] was in Cleveland. It's the same stuff."
The formula seems to be similar to the one deployed by the ingenious basketball coach John Thompson in the golden era of Georgetown Hoya domination: Commit so many fouls the officials couldn't possibly call them all without making the time of game 7:18.
The NFL is in a similar pickle, and the astute coaches know it. Nobody wants to tune into these playoffs and see 20 penalties, so it's not surprising that former Steelers and current Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel confessed to repeated muggings in another morning sports show at midweek.
"Muggings is probably a good word," Vrabel said. "You're allowed [to do it] for 5 yards, and that's what we were trying to do."
While that's technically correct, the Patriots deploy plenty of illegal contact beyond the 5-yard cushion, and plenty of pass interference on most every passing down in almost every area of the field. It is not a revelation.
When the Patriots beat the Rams in Super Bowl 36, Rams superstar Marshall Faulk was quoted afterward as saying: "I mean [linebacker Willie McGinest] tackled me. I was trying to run to the flat and he tackled me. But that was going on all day, for the most part. Every time I released, I got held. I got pushed and I got grabbed. It just so happened that we were on a part of the field where it's condensed and the line judge had an opportunity to see it."
Faulk was talking about the one call that went against McGinest, who said: "I'm not the referee, so I don't know if it was holding or not. I played him the same way all game."
This do-it-until-you-get-caught system isn't exclusive to the modern Patriots. The Jimmy Johnson-era Cowboys earned a similar reputation for flouting the rules.
So what will happen a week from Sunday? Nothing. The next thing you hear of this will be from July's training camps, where a touring crew of officials will warn coaches and players of an imminent crackdown on illegal defensive tactics, all of which will be winked at by the time the playoffs roll around next season.
But it might not be a bad idea to throw a flag early on that ingenious Patriots defense, nor would two in a row be counterproductive. To refresh, the following actions constitute defensive pass interference:
Contact by a defender who is not playing the ball and such contact restricts the receiver's opportunity to make the catch.
Using a crossbow to bring down a receiver running a "skinny post."
Grabbing a receiver's arm(s) in such a manner that restricts his opportunity to catch a pass.
Using a receiver in any attempt to re-create the Nancy Kerrigan incident.
Hooking a receiver in an attempt to get to the ball in such a manner that it causes the receiver's body to turn prior to the ball arriving.
Hooking a receiver in any manner previously featured on a fishing show.
