Phil Simms Doesn't Believe Tom Brady Either

     Add him to a growing list of great current former QBs who are taking a hard line.

     "The quarterbacking Simmses – Giant Super Bowl winner Phil, and his son Chris – say they don’t buy Tom Brady’s professed innocence about “DeflateGate,’’ and that the NFL could come down hard on the Patriots if they’re found to have cheated."

     "The NFL is currently investigating how 11 of the dozen footballs used by New England in Sunday’s 45-7 rout of Indianapolis in the AFC Championship Game were significantly under-inflated, and not up to league specifications. And if the NFL finds New England culpable, the elder Simms said the Patriots will pay."

      “I think the penalty is going to be severe,” Simms said Friday on WFAN’s “Boomer and Carton” show.

      "While the minimum fine for doctoring footballs is $25,000, if the NFL finds the cheating severe enough they can take away draft picks, or worse. The NFL’s statement Friday, though, points to a lengthy investigation that won’t be concluded till long after the Super Bowl."

     http://nypost.com/2015/01/23/add-phil-simms-to-list-of-players-who-dont-buy-tom-bradys-story/

    Simms has lots of company-Troy Aikman, Fran Tarkenton-though Tarkenton also believes that there is rampant steroid use in the NFL; when he made that argument to a news anchor the other day on CNN she literally shut off his mic-all don't believe that Brady noticed no difference. 

    As a Giants fan I'd rather not have to take sides with Brady against Simms but I notice that D'Qwell Jackson, the Colts' linebacker who picked off Brady didn't notice the difference. He had handed it an equipment manager-presumbably that's who figured it out. 

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/01/tom-bradys-right-delfated-footballs-are.html

    I still feel like a lot of people just want to see the Patriots go down. All these QBs who attack Brady might just enjoy this as it makes them look better besides. After all, Aikman is the only other QB other than Brady to win 3 Super Bowls in 4 years but now he gets to put an asterisk on the guy who shares the record with him. Why would he defend Brady as to the extent this brings down Brady it elevates him?

    As for Spygate, as I mentioned the book by Bryan O'Leary who tries to tarnish all the Patriots achievements-and claims he knows they still do the taping of opposing teams' signals, etc based on how successful the Patriots have been! 

     http://www.amazon.com/Spygate-Untold-Story-Bryan-OLeary-ebook/dp/B008PYP83C/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

      http://thebiglead.com/2012/10/21/a-nut-case-has-spent-30000-to-write-a-book-about-how-statistics-prove-the-patriots-are-still-cheating/

    It's a very interesting read and I recommend it. Still he left out anything that might give you a source of comparison. He makes it sound like the Patriots were getting their opponents signals but everyone the Pats played were totally above board. Yet we know from Bountygate-which at least in some ways is 100 times worse-that other teams have fallen way short as well. 

    I think that O'Leary's  bombshell could have benefited from a little context. What is the history in the NFL of teams trying to steal their opponents' signals? The Patriots certainly didn't invent it as the Packers way back in 1980 once accused their great rival Chicago Bears of stealing their signals after a particularly bitter 61-7 loss at Soldier Field. In this game, the great Bart Starr-as a QB he was great but now he was the coach-accused Buddy Ryan of stealing his team's signals. 

    "In the game, the Bears scored eight offensive touchdowns. After the Packers had suffered the second most lopsided defeat in their history, Bart Starr charged across the field to confront Bears coach Neill Armstrong. Starr was upset because Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan had the Bears blitzing from all angles in the fourth quarter, even after the Packers inserted backup quarterback David Whitehurst with the score 48-7.^[15] "Bart Starr was upset," Armstrong said after the game. "He did the talking and I did the listening. He said he'd rather not hear what I had to say, something to that effect, and he left." Two years later, Bill Tobin, the Bears' vice president of player personnel at the time, revealed that he had been instructed by general manager Jim Finks during the off-season to study film and decode the Packers' signal system for relaying plays to the quarterback. Tobin, who had been in the Packers' front office during the Devine years, had been fired by Starr in 1975 as part of a wholesale housecleaning. "I went at it like a tiger does good meat," Tobin said at the time. "We wanted 100 points," defensive end Dan Hampton said. "It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of pricks."

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bears%E2%80%93Packers_rivalry

      A little context would help. Are there other teams that have done this or other things that could give them a competitive advantage? If so then any advantage the Patriots might be said to get has to be weighted against that. I disagree that it doesn't matter what anyone else does. It makes all the difference in the world. 

      In this interview Bellichick is his usual not so charming self. 

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyg9BhqESxU

     Still he makes a good point towards the end of it that what was allegedly on the tapes is views that are visible to everyone on the field. This is what I always have kind of tripped on regarding the crime. Why is it a crime to take a picture of something that is in plain sight to everyone in the public and in no sense placed in a privileged position? There is nothing that a coaching team does on its sidelines taht is not visible to anyone who wanted to watch it. 

     I understand the rules say no video, but I'm just saying, these are not trade secrets. I still stand by my take: this is just about the revenge of Jets fans. They want revenge on the Pats, want to see a great team to be shown to not be great. I think I defend the Pats because greatness itself is kind of under attack, like if anyone achieves great things then they must have cheated. 

     I notice a lot of people keep comparing this to Barry Bonds who say that Brady and Bellichick deserve the same asterisk as people give to Bonds, McGuire, and Sosa. This is not a good analogy for me as I think they belong in the Hall of a Fame with no asterisk.