Belichick For Pro Football HOF?

[Boom_70]

I don't think this story had hit critical mass yet. When it does it will get worse for Belichick.

 

[Chi City 81]

Where else can it go? I'm honestly asking. Unless he does it again, I'm not sure what else can be done.

 

[Boom_70]

Where else can it go? I'm honestly asking. Unless he does it again, I'm not sure what else can be done.

I mean in terms of country knowing about it. This weekend it will be topic of discussion on every NFL pre game show.

If the Patriots make it to post season what do you think main story line will be ?

 

[Chi City 81]

OK, I see what you're saying now. I don't think there's any question the Pats will make the playoffs, but this is going to be a Sword of Damocles over the team's head all season, IMO.

 

[old_tony]

It depends on what the public perception becomes.

If the public ends up believing the Patriots have been doing this all along, it taints the three Super Bowls and all the record of success, much like the belief that Bonds' late-career success was because of steroids.

Only the most naive of Patriots looser fanboys will think they just started doing this now or recently.

 

[Beaker]

OK, I see what you're saying now. I don't think there's any question the Pats will make the playoffs, but this is going to be a Sword of Damocles over the team's head all season, IMO.

It is certainly going to be a distraction. I suppose the one way things could really get bad is if more allegations come out of the woodwork and are somehow proven to be true. If so, and the integrity of the Pats' previous successes are compromised, then both the Pats and the NFL has a serious problem.

 

[bostonbred]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

 

[RAMBO]

I mean what he did was stupid and dumb but still doesn't take way his coaching abilities, HOF for sure he got to be.

 

[amraeder]

As things stand now, he's a sure-fire HOF. No one expects coaches or players in the HOF to be saints, so I don't see how this hurts him. Now, if something comes out like, "Thanks to the tape they new EXACTLY what plays the other teams were calling on the SB game-winning drives" then, OK, it might. Until then, though, nope.

 

[friend of a friend]

Do you think bostonbred will ever realize Super Bowl is two words?

 

[broadway joe]

I don't think we've heard the last of this story. The New England media is going to dig into this, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find that this isn't the only dirty trick in Belichick's bag. Right now, his HOF candidacy is fine, but that could change.

 

[Bubbler]

I voted yes, but that has more to do with my overriding dislike of Bill Bellicose than anything else.

 

[RokSki]

I don't think this story had hit critical mass yet. When it does it will get worse for Belichick.

I totally agree.

I feel Belichick deserves a "Pete Rose" here as regards the HOF.

Even the most cynical Bonds haters won't argue that Bonds did PED's his whole career. Conversely, one of Belichick's former Browns assistants has said this type of (videotaped?) against-the-rules sign-stealing was going on back in Belichick's forgettable tenure as Cleveland's head coach. In other words, we now have apparently credible cheating 'bookends' to Quasimodo's head coaching legacy. That's not a slippery slope -- it's a sheer, vertical free-fall.

If Goodell really wants to kick tail and take names (a point which seems in doubt given his inability to suspend Belichick), instituting -- or leaning on those in a position to institute -- a kind of "Pro Bowl 'Merriman Rule'" for the Hall of Fame would be an excellent step. The rule would only punish those who were determined to have cheated, and were subsequently penalized, by the league itself.

Such a rule would almost certainly drastically reduce the cheating which goes on today. Such a rule would also allow the league to prevent such persons as the felonious Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. from ever gracing its most-revered shrine (DeBartolo was the owner of the 'Niners when they were busted for salary cap violations during Paul Tagliabue's watch).

I like the idea -- such a rule would serve as a kind of ultimate deterrent to 'white-collar,' management-level NFL cheating. No doubt many other considerations would need to be taken into account, but any rule which could keep dirtbags like Belichick and DeBartolo out of the HOF certainly seems one worth consideration.

 

[Boom_70]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

BB - Should Mark McGwire be voted into Baseball Hall of Fame?

 

[The Big Ragu]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

BB - Should Mark McGwire be voted into Baseball Hall of Fame?

What McGwire did had way more impact on his ability to hit home runs than the impact of a guy videotaping defensive signals on an NFL sideline. You might as well compare misdemeanors and felonies and not make distinctions when it comes to crime.

Also, Teams are pretty keen to the kind of **** Belichick was pulling. If you don't have four guys on the sideline relaying signals in and you are not mixing up the go to guy, you are not doing your job. What Belichick did was wrong, but it takes away very little from what his teams accomplished.

This will be a blip. It will get a couple of weeks of press, and ultimately be forgotten. Far bigger things than this that have tainted sports have gotten forgotten.

 

[outofplace]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

Nobody is questioning his credentials when you go purely on what has happened on the field. It's a matter of how many people consider him a cheat after this. Though I don't think this will keep him out, nor should it.

I do agree that it is naive to think this was a new thing. Given the history and what just happened, I believe every rumor I've ever heard about the Pats breaking and bending rules. If you're willing to cheat after being specifically told not to do that exact thing, you're willing to do anything to win.

 

[Duane Postum]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

BB - Should Mark McGwire be voted into Baseball Hall of Fame?

What McGwire did had way more impact on his ability to hit home runs than the impact of a guy videotaping defensive signals on an NFL sideline. You might as well compare misdemeanors and felonies and not make distinctions when it comes to crime.

Also, Teams are pretty keen to the kind of **** Belichick was pulling. If you don't have four guys on the sideline relaying signals in and you are not mixing up the go to guy, you are not doing your job. What Belichick did was wrong, but it takes away very little from what his teams accomplished.

This will be a blip. It will get a couple of weeks of press, and ultimately be forgotten. Far bigger things than this that have tainted sports have gotten forgotten.

Gotta agree with this. I can't see the big deal.

 

[Boom_70]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

BB - Should Mark McGwire be voted into Baseball Hall of Fame?

What McGwire did had way more impact on his ability to hit home runs than the impact of a guy videotaping defensive signals on an NFL sideline. You might as well compare misdemeanors and felonies and not make distinctions when it comes to crime.

Also, Teams are pretty keen to the kind of **** Belichick was pulling. If you don't have four guys on the sideline relaying signals in and you are not mixing up the go to guy, you are not doing your job. What Belichick did was wrong, but it takes away very little from what his teams accomplished.

This will be a blip. It will get a couple of weeks of press, and ultimately be forgotten. Far bigger things than this that have tainted sports have gotten forgotten.

What did McGwire do that was against MLB rules at the time?

 

[The Big Ragu]

Of course he should get in. He's one of the best defensive minds in the game and a 3-time Superbowl winning coach. To not include him would be to devalue the Hall. No reason why they can't include a blurb somewhere in the Hall about Tapegate, too.

BB - Should Mark McGwire be voted into Baseball Hall of Fame?

What McGwire did had way more impact on his ability to hit home runs than the impact of a guy videotaping defensive signals on an NFL sideline. You might as well compare misdemeanors and felonies and not make distinctions when it comes to crime.

Also, Teams are pretty keen to the kind of **** Belichick was pulling. If you don't have four guys on the sideline relaying signals in and you are not mixing up the go to guy, you are not doing your job. What Belichick did was wrong, but it takes away very little from what his teams accomplished.

This will be a blip. It will get a couple of weeks of press, and ultimately be forgotten. Far bigger things than this that have tainted sports have gotten forgotten.

What did McGwire do that was against MLB rules at the time?

He used performance-enhancing drugs (at least it is a fair assumption that he did). They were banned from baseball in 1991 in a memo to every ball club from Fay Vincent that stated baseball's policy to what was an emerging problem. The policy was reiterated by Bud Selig in 1997.

Aside from all the parsing about "was it technically against rules" (and yes, it was)--when did everyone in the world decide you need a law degree to decide common sense things?--McGwire (and others) knew that steroids were not accepted by baseball and that it was considered verboten by fans, executives, other players (oh, and the law. Steroids are illegal). It's why he used the drugs surreptitiously, has lied about his usage in the past and to this day is hiding from scrutiny rather than coming clean about what he did.

 

[jgmacg]

How much of the overreaction here is simple schadenfreude? People hate Belichik, ergo this is the worst thing ever to happen in pro football. An NFL coach eliding the rules for a competitive advantage? Shocking!