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Statement from Bill Belichick regarding penalties

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has released this statement through the team:

“I accept full responsibility for the actions that led to tonight’s ruling. Once again, I apologize to the Kraft family and every person directly or indirectly associated with the New England Patriots for the embarrassment, distraction and penalty my mistake caused. I also apologize to Patriots fans and would like to thank them for their support during the past few days and throughout my career.

“As the Commissioner acknowledged, our use of sideline video had no impact on the outcome of last week’s game. We have never used sideline video to obtain a competitive advantage while the game was in progress.

“Part of my job as head coach is to ensure that our football operations are conducted in compliance of the league rules and all accepted interpretations of them. My interpretation of a rule in the Constitution and Bylaws was incorrect.

“With tonight’s resolution, I will not be offering any further comments on this matter. We are moving on with our preparations for Sunday’s game.”

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments 6

Punishment rendered: loss of draft pick tied to playoff appearance

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has levied his punishment on Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots in light of the finding that the team used an illegal video camera to tape New York Jets' coaches in an effort to steal defensive signals.

Goodell has ruled that Belichick personally must pay a $500,000 fine, and the club must pay $250,000; also, if New England reaches the playoffs, it must forfeit its 2008 first-round draft pick. If the team does not make the postseason, it must forfeit its second- and third-round picks.

The half-million dollar fine is the maximum amount allowed under league by-laws for violating league policy.

The first-round pick the team could lose is its own; the Patriots also hold the 49ers first-round pick in 2008 after a draft-day trade this year that sent one of New England's two number ones to San Francisco.

In a letter to the Patriots, Goodell wrote, “This episode represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid longstanding rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field."

NFL policy states that “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” and that all video shooting locations for club coaching purposes “must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead.”

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments 6

Patriots, Belichick fined $750,000 and lose draft choices

The Associated Press reported Thursday night that the National Football League has fined coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots a total of $750,000 and will force the team to forfeit ''multiple draft choices'' as a result of their illegal videotaping of the New York Jets' defensive signals during last Sunday's game.

Posted by Art Martone  at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments 2

Martone: It was illegal, and the Pats did it anyway

Chuck Knox, a head coach in the NFL for 22 years, called it “a whole lot about nothing.”

Paul Spicer, a defensive end for the Jaguars, called for a $2 million fine, the loss of second- and third-round draft choices, and for the offenders to be banned from participating in the playoffs.

We’ll call those the extremes in the case of The People — in this case, the National Football League and the American sporting public — vs. Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. When deciding on punishment, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell came down far closer to Spicer’s position than Knox’.

On the surface, it resolves the question that no one seemed to be able to get their arms around this week: What, exactly, did the Patriots do last Sunday? The answer: Something pretty serious.

But in what way?

Was it in whatever competitive edge they gleaned from having video assistant Matt Estrella tape the Jets’ defensive coaches flashing signals on the sidelines? There’s obviously something to be gained; the Patriots wouldn’t have done it otherwise. But what?

“You have to wonder how much all this really would help,’’ Lions general manager Matt Millen told SI.com’s Paul Zimmerman. “If you’ve done your film study, you should have a pretty good idea, from the personnel on the field and the tendencies they’ve shown, what [defense the other team is] going to be in.’’

“New England realistically may have been able to catch one or two plays from doing that and they could’ve had somebody in the press box getting the same information,’’ former Atlanta Falcons general manager Ken Herock told ESPN.com’s Jeffri Chadiha. “And what you’re actually talking about is one or two plays out of about 60 snaps a game. That really isn’t a great advantage.’’

It sounds like a lot of risk for very little reward. Especially since, as Chadiha quoted one AFC general manager, “the bottom line is that it’s illegal.’’

To quote a popular Internet phrase, we have bingo.

It’s illegal. It’s illegal and the Patriots did it anyway. And they did it even though they allegedly got caught with their hands in this very same cookie jar – with this very same video assistant -- last November in Green Bay.

“We all get the same memos from the league each season telling us what we can’t do,’’ said that AFC general manager. The Pats chose to ignore it, again . . . and that, we can assume, is why their wrists are being bludgeoned with an anvil instead of slapped with a feather, which would seem to be a more appropriate response from Goodell for this particular crime.

After all, from all the comments around the country in the last few days, it’s clear that – in strict football terms – Knox is right. Yes, it’s nice to know what the other team is doing. Yes, it can be helpful. No, from everything we’ve heard, it’s not really going to tip the balance of a game in any significant way. One insider said it was nothing more than a nuisance, easily thwarted by having multiple coaches flashing phony signals but just one more (meaningless) element that had to be accounted for in game planning.

But “the bottom line is that it’s illegal.’’

And the disconcerting theme that kept recurring in accounts from across the country is that most NFL teams consider this – cheating, bending (and sometimes breaking) the rules, acting as though the NFL policies don’t apply to them – to be the Patriots’ M.O. Coaches like the Jaguars’ Jack DelRio, the Lions’ Rod Marinelli and the Bengals’ Marvin Lewis swapped stories of mysterious equipment breakdowns in Foxboro. Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward talked of how the Pats seemingly knew all his team’s plays in the AFC championship game several years ago. When the Bucs beat the Pats in the 2000 season opener, one Tampa Bay assistant said he was told by a Pats’ assistant that his team’s victory was all the more impressive because “we knew what you were going to do on every play.”

Some of it is jealousy, to be sure; it’s a natural response to any team that’s won as often as the Patriots have over the last six years. But Goodell’s penalty – as stern as anything that’s ever been handed down by a NFL commissioner – suddenly lend credence to stories that, just last week, would have been dismissed as sour grapes.

How owner Robert Kraft will respond to this is an interesting question. Kraft and his family have carefully molded the team’s squeaky-clean image and that image – coming on the heels of the Rodney Harrison suspension – is now shattered. Additionally, Kraft has become one of the NFL’s top powerbrokers and he can’t be happy about how his team is being perceived in the league’s boardrooms. Former colleague Tom Curran, now the national football writer at NBCSports.com, noted that Belichick included “ownership’’ in his statement of apology Wednesday, which “acknowledges there’s probably a pretty [angry] owner somewhere in Foxboro.’’

He’s not any happier today, you can be sure. Of course, whether he’s mad because the Pats broke the rules or because they got caught . . . that’s another question we can’t really answer.

The only person who can really shed light on this is Belichick, and we know he won’t. As our own Jim Donaldson wrote yesterday morning, Belichick can be “insightful, informative and even enjoyable” on topics he enjoys discussing, but is “boring and, on occasion, boorish” in most of his dealings with the media. He’ll have to address the issue again today – indeed, he promised he would when the league ruling came down – but if you’re expecting more than his usual monotone clichés, designed to say and reveal nothing, you’re probably expecting too much. This, after all, is a topic we can be sure Bill Belichick does not enjoy discussing,

In the past, however, Belichick and the Patriots have always been able to dictate the terms of the public discourse. Their incredible on-field success has given them that luxury.

It’s a luxury that, thanks to their own behavior, they no longer have.

Posted by Art Martone  at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments 1

Chargers Thursday participation report

It would appear that tight end Antonio Gates has gotten better -- yesterday, he did not participate in practice at all due to his back, but today he had full participation. And Shawne Merriman (Achilles), who had limited participation yesterday, also was a full participant today...

The complete list:

OUT
WR Eric Parker (toe)

Full Participation
LB Shawne Merriman (Achilles)
TE Antonio Gates (back)
FB Andrew Pinnock (hamstring)

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Channel 5: Belichick to receive $500,000 fine, Patriots to lose two draft choices

Mike Lynch of Channel 5 in Boston -- who also hosts Patriots All Access -- is reporting that Bill Belichick will be fined $500,000, which he must pay personally, and the Patriots will be forced to forfeit two high draft choices, perhaps as high as first- and third-rounders, as their penalty in Videotapegate. The penalty is different than the one reported earlier on SI.com by Peter King and Don Banks, but it is consistent with the severe discipline King and Banks said would be meted out in the case by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. As SI.com also said, Lynch said the penalty would be announced Friday.

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

SI.com: Belichick may be facing two- or three-game suspension

SI.com's Peter King and Don Banks are reporting that the NFL is mulling suspending Bill Belichick for two or three games, and taking away a "first-day" draft choice -- possibly a first-rounder -- as penalty for the illegal videotaping last week in New York. They also say a decision is expected Friday.

Posted by Art Martone  at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments 2

Thursday's injury report

Three players -- tight end Kyle Brady (team decision), wide receiver Randy Moss (team decision) and guard Stephen Neal (shoulder) -- were added to the "Limited Participation in Practice" portion of the Patriots' injury report today.

The four players who were listed yesterday as limited participants -- quarterback Tom Brady (right shoulder), defensive lineman Jarvis Green (shoulder), tight end David Thomas (foot) and nose tackle Mike Wright (knee) -- were listed again today.

Posted by Art Martone  at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

The Pats' new logo...

This came to our inbox this morning via a friend who shall remain nameless, but it has made the rounds and is now on profootballtalk.com...

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments 2

Another tense press conference with Belichick

Hey all --

It was another tense press conference with Bill Belichick today, as the fallout from the videotaping scandal continues (we'd use "camera-gate," but a reader has complained that it's cliched...).

Belichick was peppered with more questions about the charges, including whether he'd heard anything from the league on punishment (not yet), whether it's a common practice to try and steal signals, and several trying to get him to clarify portions of the statement he made yesterday.

He was asked again to elaborate on his "interpretation of the rule" and if his apology covered the Patriots' customers -- the fans -- and on all counts he referred to the statement and said he'll have more when a decision is rendered by the league.

In between, he talked more about LaDainian Tomlinson, who will hold for Stephen Gostkowski's kicks and the inconsistency in the kicking game, and the issue of putting radio receivers in the helmets of defensive players.

Belichick feels there are "pros and cons" to the helmet issue, but logistical problems -- who wears the radio helmet? what happens if that player is not on the field? -- have to be sorted out to make it possible.

As for the holders -- Matt Cassel seemingly lost his job after fumbling a snap against the Jets, and punter Chris Hanson held in the fourth quarter -- Belichick said you always need to have two holders, just as you need a backup at every position. He didn't say which player might be holding on Sunday.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments 1

Thursday: perfect attendance

It is a gorgeous day on the practice field today, with the players in full pads.

Once again, everyone is present and accounted for; we're watching the receivers make one-handed catches and Tom Brady saying that anyone who misses owes him 100 pushups.

Donte Stallworth missed one, but we don't see any push-ups just yet....

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

"Stop spreading those rumors around..."

"...stop spreading the lies..."

Coincidentally or not, this 80s hit from Timex Social Club (thanks, Danny!) was playing in the weight room as we media types were exiting the locker room today.

The first line of that song??

How do rumors get started? They're started by the jealous people...

Which is exactly what some of the players believe is fueling this whole deal: New England's success. As Chad Brown noted, there were some unflattering things said about the 49ers in their heyday in the 80s.

Donte Stallworth, Heath Evans, Junior Seau and Rosevelt Colvin were players drawing big crowds today, and the players continued to stress that their focus is on the Chargers and little else.

Colvin said there are much bigger problems in the world to worry about than whether or not the Pats used a video camera to gain an advantage.

Rookie Kareem Brown was wearing a bright white number 5 Celtics jersey, showing some love for Kevin Garnett.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments 0