brady won 3 soups by knowing what the defense would be ahead of time because his team cheated
brady won 0 without knowing what the defense would be ahead of time because his team was caught cheating and forced to stop
I always found one thing funny about this whole scandal (well a couple of things but...)...when this was being reported I remember them interviewing Hines Ward about it and he said that it made sense to him (that NE was "cheating") because it seemed as if NE knew everything they were going to run before they ran it. He was saying they lost to NE in the playoffs because NE knew what they were going to run....ummm....if they were accused of stealing DEFENSIVE signals, why in the world would it have given them insight on to what someone's OFFENSE was running? And everyone just ran with it like Hines Ward was speaking the gospel, and they had their proof with his comments.
One of the other issues I had is that it wasn't illegal to videotape. It was simply illegal to videotape from the location that NE was taping. Talk about a technicality. Maybe it was because NE was already warned (as was every other team) in a previous memo from the league, but I always found it funny that everyone labeled them cheaters for videotaping, when that wasn't the issue. They could have taped the signals from the press box, as that's allowed, but not from the sideline location they were taping from. As Jimmy Johnson said at the time
"Bill Belichick was wrong because he videotaped signals after a memo was sent out to all of the teams saying not to do it. But what irritates me is hearing some reactions from players and coaches. These players don't know what their coaches are doing. And some of the coaches have selective amnesia because I know for a fact there were various teams doing this. That's why the memo was sent to everybody. That doesn't make [Belichick] right, but a lot of teams are doing this."
Am I the only one who found the entire thing absurd? Is there that big of a difference between taping from the press box (or another location that isn't the sidelines) vs. taping from the sidelines? I find it hard to believe there is, given today's video recording technology. If you can tape from the press box, you can certainly get close enough to see the defensive signals being called as well as you could from the sidelines. The entire rule makes no sense to me....either you can or you cannot videotape...the location of the taping should be a moot point.
Not to mention, they weren't using the tapes for the games they were taping, so I'm really confused as to what the huge deal is/was. NFL coaches are a pretty paranoid bunch (covering their mouths while calling plays, etc), so I would imagine the defensive signals would be changed up quite frequently. What good would having tapes of defensive signals from last year (or last meeting) do a team when those signals have most likely been changed? It's like stealing signs in baseball....they aren't going to do you any good the next game, week, or month, teams change their signals every single game for the most part (and even during the game if they suspect the other team has picked up on their signals).