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Did New England cheat to get this far?
By Daniel Dullum January 27, 2008 |
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Did the Patriots cheat to get this far?: As far as the Bill Belichick fine and all of that earlier this season for spying on other teams what everyone has to understand is that the owner Robert Kraft got more than a half million dollars fine out of the deal for the spying charges and for guys like that that's their ash tray change. It's just money and it's just monopoly money to these guys and as far as whatever Belichick was fined he could make that back with speaking engagements so there again this is a very expensive slap on the wrist that the NFL gave them. More importantly was the drop of the hint that the NFL's way of saying "no we don't approve of this knock it off" and I think the Patriots have. What happens is your professional pride kicks in and that's when the Pats really took off as far as having the undefeated season. As far as on the field cameras and all that, it's the Super Bowl the NFL security people they'll be watching this stuff pretty close to me it's really a non issue. The Patriots can be trusted and once that happens when you get caught the Patriots are smart enough that they're not going to do that again. The fact is the Patriots are a real oiled machine they just does everything well and they're well prepared and all the players seem to understand their role in the whole situation, look at Randy Moss is happy who would have ever thought that would happen? Everybody knows what they need to do in that organization whether they have that added advantage with the cameras I think at this stage of the season it really doesn't matter any more if anything when the fines were hit as I mentioned that provides them the impetus to prove otherwise. So the Patriots have been on a mission and so far the Patriots have not lost a game and the big one is coming up and as for the Giants at a certain point it's not an upset any more. You’re a wild card team but they've had to do it the hard way to get here so it's going to be an interesting game. Cal loses another tough one: Cal's Men's team lost a tough one that they should not have two Saturday's ago to Arizona and dropped another tough loss at Haas Pavilion to Stanford on Saturday. In Pac 10 conference play you need those home wins that are tough to give up so hopefully things can go better for Cal as the Bears suffered a home loss to Stanford 82-77. This is a big game for both schools Coach Ben Braun's job situation is in doubt although the University would like to see how the season plays out for him. The team is a lot better than that in the games that they have been losing. Most notably Ryan Anderson whose emerging as a bona fide star in he conference but one guy doesn't do it alone especially in a tough basketball conference like the Pac 10 and you need everybody contributing and Braun hasn't always had that so far this year so if coach Braun is concerned he should be but there is plenty of time to get that ship back out there on course. Devon Hardin has been inconsistent for Cal and in some games he does give the Bears some offense that the team is looking for but sometimes he doesn't and all that coach Braun asks for is or any coach for that matter is be consistent. Coaches don't like surprises unless their pleasant ones. For Hardin that something that'll come with time as the season progresses so like I said there is plenty of time for Cal to get things on board but the Pac 10 is a tough conference to try and fix things when your a little more than half way into the season. A's aren't afraid to make the moves: As you know A's General Manager Billy Beane has been letting a lot of the guys get away either through trades or just letting people go and Chad Gaudin he's been a nice part of that bull pen for Oakland and you can't let everybody slip away you have to keep some folks. And with Huston Street he's a good closer, he's still a young closer and he's getting better every year. You have to have someone to close out games for you in late innings and Gaudin you've got him and Duchscherer you have to understand those guys. You know Beane is like a mad genius people might be scratching their heads with some of the things that he's doing but with the trades he's made, the free agent signings fans may not recognize a lot of the names their going to see up there on the roster this spring but this season is not that critical for the team. What Beane is doing is putting together a team to move into the new ball park in Fremont whenever that gets cleared. The A's are locking a lot of these young guys up and if you look at the roster for the A's there's going to be a lot of unfamiliar names and if I was an A's fan don't let that concern you because the building blocks are being built for the next winning team. When Nick Swisher was dealt to the White Sox that was a stroke of genius because what Beane got back in that deal was three soon to be prime time players and sometimes you have to make those deals and it was a tough one to do. Daniel Dullum covers the A's, Cal and is covering Super Bowl XLII with Stefani Rebekah Black, David Zizmor and Shawn McCullough. |
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