Jimmy Johnson defends pats. Bill Cowher says beat beat them fair and square. Haha look at all these big time head coaches of teams and players saying this is no big deal. I saw the tape. It is a video of four defensive coaches doing signals. Anyone on the field could see these guys. The pats got in trouble for the cam. Because anyone with two eyes could see these guys. There is no way in hell you could decipher these defensive signals unless you spent a lot of time looking at them later on. The is a lot of hype. Watch the video.
This whole thing was media driven by a lot of people who hated the pats to begin with. Not to say what the pats did was ok. It was arrogent and wrong. But its Pretty obvious this frenzy was whipped up by mostly sports writers with an agenda
Shula, Jimmy Johnson, Dan Reeves, Bill Parcels, John Madden, Mike Martz, Salisbury, Key Johnson, Herm Edwards, Cowher and many many other actual NFL legends have said this whole thing is WAY overblown.
http://www.boston.com/sports/footbal...w_deal/?page=2-----------------
Rallying cries
Yesterday, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, now working as a studio host for CBS, said he didn't feel the Patriots' videotaping procedures had any impact on New England's playoff victories over his old club.
Steelers receiver Hines Ward said otherwise Wednesday, noting that during the 2001 AFC Championship game - a 24-17 Patriots win - "they knew a lot of our calls." The Patriots also beat the Steelers in the 2004 AFC Championship game, 41-27.
"The two AFC Championship games that we lost to the New England Patriots, I don't believe this had any factor in it," Cowher said during the pregame show. "I have too much respect for Tom Brady, for [Corey ] Dillon, for [Deion] Branch and also for Coach Belichick. I think he's still a good coach."
Yet Cowher does believe the Patriots crossed the line with their actions in New York.
"From a coach's perspective, trying to steal signals is part of the game. We understand that as a coach. You see walkie-talkies, tape recorders, but when you take the camera on the field, that's just arrogance," he said. "I think the penalty was stiff by the commissioner. I think it will be a good deterrent."
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports obtained portions of the videotape seized by the NFL. Fox aired portions of the tape, which focused on multiple Jets assistant coaches and their signals, before panning up to the scoreboard to indicate down and distance.
After seeing the footage, former Cowboys and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson - who works as a host on Fox's pregame show - said on the show: "This is exactly how I was told to do it 18 years ago by a Kansas City Chiefs scout. I tried it, but I didn't think it helped us."
Johnson added that "every team has got a file on the other team. I used to send an intern up to the opposing coach's box after the game and go through the trash. Because after the game, what do they do? They take their game plan and their scouting reports and throw them away. My intern would get all of that stuff and put it right in the file."
Johnson, who has fished with Belichick on the Florida Keys in recent years, defended the coach to a degree.
"Bill Belichick was wrong because he videotaped signals after a memo was sent out to all of the teams saying not to do it," he said. "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 him [Belichick] right, but a lot of teams are doing this."
There were also audio irregularities cited during the game, but Goodell told Glazer the league investigated interference of the Jets' coach-to-quarterback communication system, but found no proof of any tampering by the Patriots.
