MVN - Most Valuable Network

Belichick Gives the Colts’ Legacy a Generous Boost

As if being a complete jerk twenty four hours a day weren’t enough, Bill Belichick has made the decision between the Colts and Patriots as the team of this era even easier this past week, with, at the very least, one confirmed, undeniable instance of foul play. That’s right, Bill Belichek, the defensive mastermind, the incomparable genius, the fearless victor is well on his way to becoming Bill Belichick: the cheater.

What a wonderful week it’s been.

After the Jets caught the Pats red-handed filming their defensive signals during last Sunday’s game, it’s opened a complete field day as other players from other teams have, much to the delight of Colts fans everywhere, come forward with suspicions of their own.

We know Green Bay and Detroit noticed New England’s unauthorized cameramen during recent games as well, according to the Boston Herald, and Pittsburgh wideout Hines Ward claims in the 2002 AFC Championship Game, the Pats were calling out the Steelers’ plays throughout the game. Several players from the Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to the Patriots three years later in Super Bowl XXXIX, now find themselves also looking back on their own meeting with the team and remembering how every time the Eagles planned to blitz, the Patriots amazingly knew to throw a screen pass underneath. Every time.

What this means, of course, is that no one will look back at those tragic playoff losses in which it seemed the Colts just fell apart at the hands of the better prepared Patriots the same way again. Plus, it means that last year’s AFC Championship victory, which occurred before the scandal broke, just seems all the more impressive now looking back, and finally, it means that Peyton Manning’s most criticized moments, virtually the only ones in his entire career that have fueled any doubt over his ability to win big games or that have delayed his inevitable recognition as the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, are all now, and forever hereafter, tainted. Hallelujah.

In all fairness, according to Belichick himself, the Patriots are really only guilty of a slight “misinterpretation” of the rules. No big deal. Just a difference of opinion when you think about it. All the rule says anyway is “no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches’ booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game.” Could it be any more vague? I mean how’s Belichick supposed to know what “no video recording device on the field during the game” means? That could be talking about any number of “fields” and who knows how many “games,” right?

Come to think of it, we’re all a little guilty of misinterpretations of our own, now that I think about it. Take this, for example: I used to be under the impression the Patriots had outsmarted their way to three Super Bowl victories in four years. I must’ve misinterpreted what was going on. Actually, they cheated their way to three now-tainted Super Bowl victories during that span. Here’s another one for you: I used to think Bill Belichick was a football genius, so good at preparing for his opponents it was almost like he knew what plays they were going to run before the ball was even snapped. In reality, it turns out he was really just a dirty, pathetic, no good, rotten, classless, crybaby CHEATER who puts on a filthy, cut-off hooded sweatshirt inside out every day and pretend he’s smarter than he really is. I guess I just misinterpreted the whole situation. My bad.

As for the punishment handed out by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, a man who clearly had no idea what he was in store for when taking over for Paul Tagliabue, it’s certainly fair and I think it fits the crime. The real punishment the Patriots face is history, however, which will, I assure you, look far more kindly on the real dynasty in football today, the Indianapolis Colts, than it will the team which ought to be renamed the New England Patriot Act and their shameless antics.

Barry Bonds has his asterisk, now Bill Belichick does too.

Justice is served.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Colts Chat, Colts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.