Doesn’t everybody cheat on their taxes? Since it’s common knowledge that they do, I’ll just claim that kid down the street as my dependent because everyone else is making out around here…You know what? I don’t cheat on my taxes, so not everybody’s doing it. Some people cheat in life and try to justify it by personifying this “everybody” character as their partner in crime. Cheating is done on an individual basis and New England can’t justify theirs by pointing fingers at imaginary accomplices. They were caught and should be blasted back to the stoneage (or the AFL days) via punishment from the NFL. You can’t spread the blame around to “everybody” until I see every taxpayer claiming the same child.

if what you say is true I promise we would be hearing a lot of personnel coming out after their tenure with a team saying that this spying occurred. There is not way to keep this hush if it is happening the media would have gotten a wiff by now. I don’t agree.

since it sure hasn’t done much to help us if that’s the case….

The rest of the league is innocent until proven guilty here, IMO.

If you have any doubt that Buffalo cheats at least some of the time stop and consider that two years ago the Bills signed Jason Whittle about 17 seconds after the start of free agency. Since Whittle was property of another team (Vikings?) until free agency began at midnight, the Bills could only have signed Whittle that quickly if they had had prior negotiations with him while he was still property of another team. That is tampering, which cost the 49ers a draft choice this year (Briggs situation). Granted, the Vikings (?) didn’t have any interest in re-signing Whittle (and it’s doubtful anyone else would have either) but that’s not the point. Buffalo cheated. The league doesn’t take the free agency tampering seriously unless a team (49ers) rubs the league’s nose in it. You can make the case that the league should either ‘decriminalize’ tampering or enforce it but right now everyone is cheating.

If other teams taped signals, the media would have figured it out by now.

I honestly think it is ridiculous to assume any other team would attempt to try something this bold.

For starters, NFL signals are pretty complex and it would really take a lot of work to figure out the signals.

It is clearly cheating. This isn’t a grey area. It isn’t even close. It is just wrong on a professional and moral level.

If every team knew what was coming, wouldn’t you notice it while watching a game. Players bite on play action, counter runs and pump and go routes far too often for me to think the players have any idea what the other team is calling. Tight ends consistently fool linebackers by blocking for a second and then releasing, especially around the goal line. Quarterbacks would know CB blitzes are coming and offenses would be able audible out of run plays or use hot routes more effectively than I have seen.

But most importantly, the media made a huge deal out of spygate and I’m sure a lot of people looked into the possibiliy of other teams doing the same thing. If it were happening wouldn’t some stupid player slip up and say that the Pats weren’t the only team doing it? Wouldn’t a coach’s assistant with some super high moral code blow the whistle at some point? I find it really hard to believe that anyone else was doing this.

There are many things in this world that are not just black and white. I make career decisions daily that fall into the gray area. Problems are not black and white, therefore solutions also cannot be black and white.

Remember the Elastic clause to the Constitution, this was created because our forefathers knew nothing can be defined as black and white. Goodell is not only punishing the obvious media circus violations, he is doing it across the board. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the NFL keeps many situations “mum”, that the public never knows about. Media will blow dumb stories out of proportion and the NFL doesnt want anything negative said about them.

Although, I’m sure the bills don’t video tape opponents signals…...I dont have any proof. Also video taping the opponent only helps when reading signals. Good coaches will break down game film to study opponent tendancies. For example, Bills Off on 3rd and 2. The Eagles coaches watch game film and Know that the bills Offense has called a power slam run left between the guard and tackle. Therefore Eagles D calls a run blitz up that same hole. This example was a perfect example of film study. Knowing the signal will obviously work better than breaking down film, but teams use mutliple signals to call the same play. (like the 3rd base coach in baseball does to the batter).

To conclude, not all teams cheat by taping signals. I’m sure they all have called FA players agent’s (like 2weeks after the superbowl and 2 weeks before FA period begins.) But that cannot be seen as Cheating on the same plane as Stealing signals. Therefore Gray area and NOT black and White.

I agree that rules are rules. But, there is difference between the severity between rules. All I’m really trying to say is there is no way rules can cover every possiblity, hence the gray area. Unfortunately, I dont know all the NFL rules, but I’m sure there are instances that aren’t exactly covered by the rules. I do understand the examples I provided do not exemplify a gray area. I just wish I could come up with a football example….......