BB May Have Jets Playbook

LRJets wrote:BB might not be the bad one in this triangle.  Pettinne is a little shit, and Saban is worse!
SOME COMBO!!


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LR, that's the first time I saw that article.  It was fascinating, and I was laughing while reading most of it.   But correct me if I'm wrong on the following point.  The article contained the following sentence which I cut and pasted:

This is not the first time Belichick and the Patriots have been accused of being underhanded to gain an edge.


Now, after reading that sentence, I ask you, is there anywhere in the article where it says that anyone "accused" Belichick and the Patriots of being underhanded to gain an edge?  I only read it once.  Did I miss it?  Rex Ryan totally defended BB.  The article says "accused".  Somebody "accused" somebody of something.  But what?  Accused by "who" of what "underhanded" act?   

A thin playbook that was "given out like candy"  may have ended up in NE due to Nick Saban?  May have?  May have?  LOL.  Still looking for the specifics of "accusation", as well as the identity of the "accuser".  I'm baffled.  This is why I was laughing.  Good for Rex for what he said.   I've got no grip with anyone in this, except the so-called journalist for gratuitously throwing in a meaningless sentence as a way to gratuitously make a reference to spygate.  Someone should tell him 2006 called; they want "spygate" back. 

LMAO.  Journalism at its finest.  

As far as "playbooks" and plays, if someone wants to see Belichick's, all they have to do is watch him on TV.  He does a spot during the week between games where he outlines and explains plays on a TV monitor that he hits pause and explains what the players at all positions are doing or supposed to be doing.   Just watch and learn.  lol.

LRJets wrote:
Much ado about nothing.


Yes it is.  And that's exactly my point.  A lot of assumptions.  But no hard core facts. 

But that's apparently enough to constitute the basis of saying "here we go again, here is another example similar to what happened in the past." 

Its the low standards of journalism that my comments are directed to.



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  (You'd enjoy this I suppose since it covers all NY teams)

LRJets wrote:From the Jets blog I read daily, (a real blog with serious fans, no trolls )  , the Jets fans have it in for two Jets beat writers.
Manasha Mehti of the N.Y. Daily News and Rich Cimini.  They (as the fans claim) take delight in bringing the Jets down.


There are journalists everywhere that purposely take the contrary position from the home team because they want to show their "independence", stand out from the crowd, and make a name for themselves.   That's all fine if that's what they want to do.  They want to get people pissed off at them.  Nobody remembers your average, run of the mill, boring writer, so they do what they do and become lightening rods so that they will stand out and be remembered.

What I was ranting against was different.  It was very simply, the blatant falsehood of reporting that there was an actual "accusation" by someone of BB or someone in NE doing something underhanded, and, oh boy, here we go again, because "its not the first time".  The writer just throws that term "accused" out there willy nilly in his article with nothing to support it.  You can't even call it literary license, it was just an unsupported slander based on the fact that somebody knows Nick Saban, who knows BB, and hey, lets just connect the dots.  But that's not remotely close to an actual "accusation"....of....something. 

Again, as you say its much ado about nothing, and I agree, because the writer is irrelevant and his sloppiness caused no harm (just "drama" according to the blog).  But where is the journalistic care in being somewhat accurate, and thereby having at least a tiny amount of credibility?  It is as absent as Aaron Hernandez' name is from the ballot of nominees for the Distinguished Service to the Community Award.  If it was an essay submitted by an 8th grader, I, as his English teacher, and if I was in a very generous mood, I might...might... grade him as high as a D minus. 

If you're Bill Belichick and you read that your "accused" of something underhanded because there is speculation out there that you "may"  have a copy of someone else's playbook (which even if you do, it may be just been gratuitously given to you, as opposed to something nasty you did affirmatively in order to obtain it) your reaction is you just don't give a fuck, and you could not possibly, not anyway on God's green earth, care less. 

I'm out.  Time for a rum and coke.

“I’m upset about it because I think this is an example of problems that plague our industry [...] I wrote over three thousand words on Mike Pettine [and] this was just a funny anecdote in the story. It was Mike Pettine busting some chops. A story about Tom Brady busting the Jets’ chops. That’s all it was. It’s ridiculous, all of this [...] Any insinuation that Bill Belichick, that he gained some sort of edge, that they stole playbooks or anything like that. For anybody to take that out of my piece is flat out wrong [...] If I thought this was a story, would I have waited until the 22nd [paragraph]? It wasn’t in the headline, it wasn’t in the subdeck, it was barely highlighted in the story.”

If you cover the NFL and think that having another team’s playbook (outside of an individual weekly game plan, which no one said anything about) has any relevance, either you’re new on the beat, don’t know the sport you cover very well, or just grab any appearance of controversy for clicks without regard of the actual facts.

LRJets wrote:
The media tried to turn “Playbookgate” into a big story yesterday, but – according to the author of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (the excellent Greg A. Bedard) – it seems [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

In an appearance on Comcast SportsNet New England’s Sports Tonight Bedard said:

“I’m upset about it because I think this is an example of problems that plague our industry [...] I wrote over three thousand words on Mike Pettine [and] this was just a funny anecdote in the story. It was Mike Pettine busting some chops. A story about Tom Brady busting the Jets’ chops. That’s all it was. It’s ridiculous, all of this [...] Any insinuation that Bill Belichick, that he gained some sort of edge, that they stole playbooks or anything like that. For anybody to take that out of my piece is flat out wrong [...] If I thought this was a story, would I have waited until the 22nd [paragraph]? It wasn’t in the headline, it wasn’t in the subdeck, it was barely highlighted in the story.”

In [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], he took the time to expand on these thoughts, with some harsh words for those responsible for pushing the story:

If you cover the NFL and think that having another team’s playbook (outside of an individual weekly game plan, which no one said anything about) has any relevance, either you’re new on the beat, don’t know the sport you cover very well, or just grab any appearance of controversy for clicks without regard of the actual facts.

After practice yesterday, Rex Ryan [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], which arose out of an article by the New York Post’s Brian Costello.

Time to move on to the next “scandal”…


Excellent comments.  These words sum it up best:  "just grab any appearance of controversy for clicks without regard of the actual facts".  If, as a reporter, that's what you feel you have to stoop to, you need to hang your head in shame because you are an embarrassment to all the half decent reporters out there.