Patriots and radio frequency

[Russ Smith]

Rather than put it elsewhere I will give it it's own thread.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...have-suspected-patriots-of-headset-tampering/

http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/they-are-cheaters-spygate-the-nfl-scandal-that-started-it-all/

"As the scandal broke, the NFL was investigating a possible violation into the number of radio frequencies the Patriots were using during the Jets game, sources told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, who reported at the time that the Pats did not “have a satisfactory explanation when asked about possible irregularities in its communication setup during the game.”

http://www.tvtechnology.com/miscellaneous/0008/nfl-finds-the-right-frequency/204122

That's the now late Steve Mendelsohn who worked at Giants Stadium after a long career in the military and working for both CBS football and Monday Night Football. He is the guy that figured out what the Patriots were doing and tipped the Jets who tipped the NFL who then hired consultants and caught the Pats doing it redhanded.

This stuff has gone on for years. in 2008 at Glendale Stadium of all places the Pats played the Giants, there were major concerns about radio frequency with all the cellphones etc inside the stadium. The NFL spent tons of time and money and surprise, during the game repeatedly they found instances of unexplained issues that their experts indicated were being caused by an employee of... the Patriots. They also found another Pats employee who had equipment that appeared to be listening in to conversations by Giants coaches and they suspected was listening in to them calling in plays to Eli Manning during the game.

The jamming of communications during drives stuff has been talked to death, but this other stuff is on a whole other level. The pats for years were systematically sabotaging other teams communications, coach to coach, coach to QB. They weren't just jamming them, they were stealing communications. They were literally listening to the other team calling plays. That's why they went to such effort to videotape signals, they had to have the signals and the plays so they could then break down plays and say ok red right 94 beta is this play. Then during the game you hear the other team signal that play in, and you signal your defense what's coming.

Steve Mendelsohn died of cancer in 2012, if he hadn't it's quite likely his name would be all over the media right now because he was the leading expert on the use of RF in the NFL and he was the guy everyone would have gone to when this story finally broke.

The guy who monitors radio frequencies for the University of OKlahoma said he had multiple conversations with Mendelsohn and the net result was he could not believe the level to which the Patriots were suspected of cheating. They even found hidden listening devices in the visitors locker room at Gillette stadium, yes the Pats were bugging the other teams locker room. They believed they did it because teams as mentioned in the SI story had figured out the Pats were stealing playsheets so they were leaving dummy playsheets, so the Pats decided to just listen in and see if they could find out the playsheet that way(the first 15-20 scripted plays).

 

[Russ Smith]

http://jacksonville.com/sports/foot...al-book-suggests-league-helped-patriots-cover

but author Bryan O’Leary contends it was a key to their three Super Bowl victories and suggests the Patriots might be still doing it in their home stadium, where it’s easy to hide a camera in an obscure place.

O’Leary says it wasn’t just the filming the signals that made the plan work. The Patriots, he wrote, also had a radio frequency to quarterback Tom Brady’s helmet that didn’t click off with 15 seconds left before the play clock runs down — the way the league frequency does.

Ernie Adams, a close confidant of Belichick’s, who is noted for his ability to read defenses, but whose duties have been never publicly defined, is the person in Brady’s ear via their secret frequency, O’Leary writes. He added that Adams can talk to Brady until the ball is snapped and even afterward to alert Brady to the open receiver.

The author notes that in a book about Belichick, David Halberstam wrote that Brady reads defenses so well, “It was as if there were a camera secreted away in his brain.”

O’Leary suggests it’s Adams being in his ear from the coaching booth that made the difference.

 

[Russ Smith]

http://community.advancednflstats.com/2012/02/spygate-effectiveness-of-cheating.html

"The known cheating consisted of two components, as revealed by Eric Mangini. First, the Patriots would tape opponents defensive hand signals. This permitted coaches to correlate the signals with the defensive alignments and figure out what each signal meant. Second, the Patriots used unregistered radio frequencies, so that the second time they played that team the offensive coordinator could watch the defensive signals and choose the perfect play to tell the quarterback. Normally, the referee cuts the registered radio frequency 15 seconds before the snap, so the offensive coordinator cannot communicate with the quarterback after the defense makes its substitutions, but the Patriots were the only team in the league that had radio equipment that could broadcast on multiple frequencies simultaneously. After the referee would cut the registered frequency, the quarterback could still hear the coordinator on the other frequency, so he could be told the defensive alignment he was facing and what play to call.

So the plays and blocking schemes were always perfect ones to exploit each defensive alignment."

 

[Russ Smith]

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/09/radiofrequency-issues-in-patriotsjets.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/09/goodell-on-nbc-on-sept-16-about.html

"As Patriots fans were giving Belichick a rousing standing ovation before last night's game against the Chargers last night [16 Sept 07], NBC reported the Jets probably will ask the NFL to look into the Patriots' use of unauthorized radio frequencies. There have been reports the Patriots were wiring their defensive players' helmets to pick up the quarterback's audibles, a practice that could be especially beneficial against no-huddle offenses such as the one the Jets were using."

 

[Russ Smith]

http://www.spygatebook.com/reviews/

For those who have Amazon Prime and a Kindle you can read this book for free. I bought it last week when I first saw the information about the radio stuff. I'm not finished, much of it is rumor and innuendo yes but there's a significant amount of detail, it's very similar to some of the Lance Armstrong cheats his butt off books that were blasted for years and then finally turned out to be 100% accurate.

Some of the stuff is kind of silly conjecture IMO, for example the author suggests that maybe the reason Brady took less money consistently to stay in NE is he knew he was only that good because he had the advantage of knowing what defense the other team was playing or having Adams in his ear telling him who was open as he was standing in the pocket. To me that's just impossible to prove, maybe Brady did it because it helped NE sign other players to continue to win?

I haven't finished the statistical analysis part, so far it's pretty interesting but the part I specifically bought the book for was the radio stuff. They were literally treating an NFL opponent like the Pats were the CIA and the opponent was a foreign country they were spying on, the level to which they did this stuff was WAY beyond what most fans believe.

 

[moosehead]

John Clayton told Doug & Wolf yesterday morning that all teams have a "frequency guy" - a radio communications guy that deals with frequencies in a number of contexts. Clayton said the "best frequency guy" in the country is on the Patriots' staff. I couldn't quite tell if he was serious or being tongue in cheek....

They also talked a lot about Ernie Adams. Wolf worked with him somewhere along the way; he refers to him as a mysterious savant that has always been with Coach B but no one knows exactly what he does..

 

[Russ Smith]

John Clayton told Doug & Wolf yesterday morning that all teams have a "frequency guy" - a radio communications guy that deals with frequencies in a number of contexts. Clayton said the "best frequency guy" in the country is on the Patriots' staff. I couldn't quite tell if he was serious or being tongue in cheek....

They also talked a lot about Ernie Adams. Wolf worked with him somewhere along the way; he refers to him as a mysterious savant that has always been with Coach B but no one knows exactly what he does..

yeah the frequency job is legit, they have to deal with all sorts of signals from cell phones, radios etc. Their job is to make sure those signals don't interfere with the signals being used for the teams.

Adams is the guy who essentially his job was almost entirely to do things that were against the rules, that's why nobody knew what his job was.

The level to which they took it was WAY beyond what people seem to think when they say oh everyone cheated you're making too big of a deal of it.

They do a statistical analysis of the Pats before they got caught and after the numbers are pretty staggering.

 

[Russ Smith]

Got a little further in the book now so I thought I'd post again.

First off, the guy admits in the beginning it's his first book, he's a fan not an author. It's not well written, way too repetitive. It's like he thinks people are going to skip multiple chapters so he constantly has to repeat what he said earlier.

That said, some of the stuff in there is pretty alarming and even though he sounds a bit like a bigfoot conspiracy guy at times he does make some very valid points.

The NFL took forever to interview the ex Pats employee Matt Walsh. Walsh used video for them and was intimately aware of what had gone on. After he left he apparently let people know he had several videos he'd taken with him including possibly tape they'd shot of the Rams pre SuperBowl workout before the Pats beat them. Goodell had to be almost shamed into interviewing Walsh, Sen Arlen Specter practically had to insist Goodell interview him. When he finally did, Goodell blamed Walsh for the delay. the only thing Walsh had done is ask to be indemnified because the Pats had apparently made it quite clear to him they were going to sue him for violating his Non Disclosure Agreement and stealing company property if he showed the videos he had. The NFL would not give Walsh the immunity he wanted, he eventually got limited immunity that included the Pats being present when the videos were shown, something Specter called unbelievable. Walsh never showed them the Super Bowl walkthrough but has since told multiple people he did in fact have it. In fact the Pats had at least 4 people who attended the walkthrough, they videotaped it, they took written notes, Walsh strongly intimates they had the Rams signals and that's why their defense was so effective. I read somewhere else that Warner said after the game he simply could not believe how often he audibled only to have the Pats defense be in perfect position, he now strongly believes they had the plays.

Also when Belichick admitted what they had done and claimed it was a misinterpretation of the rules, he said they were only taping defensive signals, not offensive. Yet the NFL actually had a copy of a tape of another teams offensive signals, proving Belichick didn't tell them the truth. And in fact one of the tapes Walsh DID give the NFL, was of offensive signals not defensive. Afterwards Goodell said the tapes just confirmed what they already knew, he never commented on it proving the Pats had lied about only doing it for defensive signals. They also caught Belichick in a lie about when they used them. he said they would record them in one game and then use them the next time they played that team that season, never in the same game. But he later admitted to having used them twice in a season where they only played that team once all year. So they had to have been used in the same game they were recorded.

The other thing was people have said having Adams in Brady's ear telling him who was open on a given play wouldn't be much of an advantage afterall. He couldn't possibly process the information that quickly it would actually be distracting, and there's no proof they were doing that anyways. the book says that at least 2 former Pats employees have admitted that they personally heard Brady make reference to comments Adams made during the game, that were made after the ball was snapped when the mic is supposed to be dead. He was making a comment about something that he could only have heard if the mic was live when it wasn't supposed to be. One of the employees asked someone else about it and was told to never speak of it again. So it not only was live, but Brady was able to listen while playing in a game and comment afterwards about comments he heard Adams make.

Where I think the guy goes too far is implying that the reason Brady took less money and looks like a HOFer and not a 6th rounder is almost entirely because of the cheating. Even this year when they'd have to be crazy to still cheat, he's a pretty damn good QB.

But it sure does make it hard to not wonder how much of those 3 SB wins were won by guys who never played a down for the team but just stole signals and relayed them to Brady. I suspect if a much better and well known sports author wrote the same book with the same info but in a better writing style, it would have gotten much more attention.

 

[conraddobler]

I had a college professor that used to give exams that's not unusual but what is unusual is that one minute after cutoff to get into the exams he used to post all the answers to the test right outside the lecture hall by the doors to get in.

He told us point blank he loved to catch cheaters then he told us a story how he used to drive around outside with a frequency scanner and how he noticed someone signaling in code then went into the exam and found a kid using a pen that was really a radio transmitter and who had an earphone and a receiver and what was going on was his buddy and him were signaling to each other and he was getting the answers to the test in code.

My professor literally told us that was one of his most rewarding moments catching that one kid.

HE SPENT YEARS baiting people into cheating for a couple such moments.

IF someone wanted to catch someone in the NFL cheating I would think it would not be that hard especially since the NSA has to have some Jets, Dolphin or Bills fans.

 

[conraddobler]

Furthermore I submit that during the age of HD broadcasts as shown in the most recent Olympics in all it's glory where you could literally see fine hairs on peoples legs and feet. That during this age during one of the most highly filmed and documented events in history during our SB that all you could get is a fuzzy shot of Santonio Holmes toes.

You must be registered for see images attach

This is from the conclusive proof he was in.

Blow the photo up to 500% and you will see the toe is not down on the back foot.

It's not touching.

 

[Shane]

Are you obsessed Russ?? Haha

What do you think the Pats did to cheat yesterday when they shredded what many people said would be the best D in the nfl yesterday???

 

[conraddobler]

It would be pretty simple to test the theory out on film if Brady is getting information like that you should be able to watch film of him suddenly locking onto open WR's at a rate greater than is explainable by chance.

In other words instead of looking around as would be normal he'd look exactly at the right spot at the exact right time way too often instead of scanning the field.

He would know based on the route called where the guy should be approximately so if he's getting open WR information for it to be useful it would have to be immediate and he'd have almost no time to zone in on the guy it'd have to be bang bang for that to work.

 

[Russ Smith]

Are you obsessed Russ?? Haha

What do you think the Pats did to cheat yesterday when they shredded what many people said would be the best D in the nfl yesterday???

I'm not talking about today I'm talking about the time when they were cheating before they were caught in Spygate. If you read the book it's obvious, there are actually several articles about this from well known authors, for whatever reason they got very little airplay at the time. Chris Mortenson was the one big name guy who didn't seem to be "afraid" to pursue the story.

The point is the Pats were punished before Goodell had even watched the video evidence they cheated. he ordered the evidence destroyed before anybody had seen it save one tape that was leaked to Jay Glazer. Everyone who had any "inside knowledge" has said the same thing, there was WAY more evidence than Goodell let on.

The Pats lied from the beginning, they said they'd only done it in 06 and 07 but then gave the NFL tapes from much earlier, and then Walsh gave them tapes from even earlier. They were doing it for the entire time Belichick was hired. People who saw the tapes Walsh had have all said the same thing, you could see "the tapes got better as the guys filming them learned what the Pats really wanted."

There were multiple instances of them being caught and lying to someone, we're just filming the snap on FG's and extra points, we're filming the scoreboard etc. Walsh admitted that the light on his camera was intentionally "broken" so if he got cornered he could just insist it was off.

it's literally impossible to know whether they won those 3 SB's on talent and coaching, or by cheating. That's why Goodell acted like he did, he knew if the truth got out there'd be an impossible situation, you can't forfeit 3 Super Bowls there's way too much money involved. So he took draft picks, he fined Belichick a bunch of HIS money which he used to pay for equipment to stop them using the radio frequency stuff anymore, and he destroyed all the evidence so nobody else would ever know for sure what happened. That's why they wouldn't give Walsh full immunity, they knew he had the tape of the 2002 Super Bowl walkthrough and if they gave him full immunity, he'd show it to them, he'd show it to Arlen Specter, and then Specter would follow through on his earlier threat to challenge the anti trust exemption if Goodell didn't come clean.

I think Brady is a first ballot HOF player, I also think he probably won't get in on the first ballot because voters will make a statement about the cheating by making him wait before putting him in.

 

[Russ Smith]

It would be pretty simple to test the theory out on film if Brady is getting information like that you should be able to watch film of him suddenly locking onto open WR's at a rate greater than is explainable by chance.

In other words instead of looking around as would be normal he'd look exactly at the right spot at the exact right time way too often instead of scanning the field.

He would know based on the route called where the guy should be approximately so if he's getting open WR information for it to be useful it would have to be immediate and he'd have almost no time to zone in on the guy it'd have to be bang bang for that to work.

I don't think that's possible, the tape doesn't exist that would show all that. In the book the best example he uses is the backup Matt Cassel, the year Brady got hurt, Cassel goes 10-5 nearly 64% completions from a guy who hadn't started a game since HS and had thrown 39 passes in his first 3 NFL seasons. After Cassel left New England, he had exactly one year over 60%, 60.2. He had one year where his TD to INT rate(27 to 7) was good, he was essentially 1 to 1 every other year with 2 years where he had more INT's than TD's. His argument is that Cassel looked so good in NE because he had someone telling him what the defense was and where the open man was.

It's a good theory but impossible to prove, maybe the talent on the roster that year was just better than he had in KC and Minnesota after. They did have Moss and Welker on that team.

That's where I think the argument goes too far, it's just hard for me to think that Brady looks that good only because of the cheating, sure it helped immensely but he still had to hit the WR with the throw, I don't buy the argument that he's completely a product of cheating.

 

[Darkside]

So, in response to your question Shane, yes. Absolutely.

 

[Russ Smith]

So, in response to your question Shane, yes. Absolutely.

No I'm reading a book about it and reporting what's in the book. The people that say the whole league is doing this are flat wrong, there was ONE team doing it to this extent.

I think people like to believe that they're all doing it because it's easier for them. We all love to watch football, if people knew what had really gone on for that period they might rethink it.

Like I said yesterday, I'd never do online poker because of the cheating aspect. I will never follow competitive cycling because of all the doping. I love NFL football but it really bothers me that a team won 3 Super Bowls in part by cheating.

You want to believe that the whole thing is overblown more power to you, ignorance is bliss.

 

[MrYeahBut]

I hate the Patriots because they are cheating dogs and I can only give them props because they beat the 'hags whom I hate even more. Beyond that Robert Kraft is a smug, smarmy ass-wipe. Honey Badger and I don't care if they win another game... EVER.

So Russ, don't stop on your one man crusade....

.

 

[Russ Smith]

I hate the Patriots because they are cheating dogs and I can only give them props because they beat the 'hags whom I hate even more. Beyond that Robert Kraft is a smug, smarmy ass-wipe. Honey Badger and I don't care if they win another game... EVER.

So Russ, don't stop on your one man crusade....

.

I think it's fascinating that 2 of the teams they beat in SuperBowls essentially know for a fact they were cheating, the Rams and the Giants. They taped the Rams walkthrough, they were caught redhanded cheating with both taping and radio against the Giants. Yet the one guy who's been most outspoken about it is the eagles owner who made no secret of his belief the Pats had cheated in that Super Bowl. I wonder if the Rams and Giants had been more outspoken about it might Goodell have had to be more forthcoming with evidence years ago instead of just destroying it and getting away with it.

I think most owners are looking at it as if we expose them the integrity of the whole league comes into question. We're all getting too much money out of this to risk burning it down just because of what they did.

 

[chickenhead]

I'd guess in the Giants' case, it's because they beat the Pats twice, and the idea that they beat cheaters and didn't say nuthin' about it just makes them look better. The Rams, I don't know, but maybe they were pacified by having won the Super Bowl themselves, too.

I'm glad that the Pats and Cards' fortunes haven't much intersected over the past decade plus, but it's still a huge bummer. If I were a fan of a team that Pats had defeated in the postseason, or even a division or conference rival, it would be tough. Fortunately for the Colts and Ravens, they've won championships, but the Broncos haven't during the Pats run, nor has any other team in the AFC East.

The Deflategate coverage irritated me because the burden seemed to be placed on whether the Colts or Ravens would have defeated them in the playoffs--as if that's the only time the Pats would have cheated. Last year the Patriots won a few close games on go-ahead TD passes (IIRC the Raiders once and the Jets twice). Those games didn't cost Oakland or New York a playoff spot, but they might have gained New England a bye and home-field advantage in the playoffs. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Baltimore were a game behind them in the standings. What if the Pats-Ravens game had been in Baltimore? What if the Pats had to face Pittsburgh on the road in the first round instead of Baltimore?

The issue for me is not just whether the Pats cheat in "big games," but whether they cheat all the way along, influencing conditions that help them in the big games.

 

[Blotto]

Don't you think if Cassel were in on it that year he would have opened his mouth to someone by now?

Hell, don't you think anyone who was previously a Patriot would have come forward?

 

[Russ Smith]

I'd guess in the Giants' case, it's because they beat the Pats twice, and the idea that they beat cheaters and didn't say nuthin' about it just makes them look better. The Rams, I don't know, but maybe they were pacified by having won the Super Bowl themselves, too.

I'm glad that the Pats and Cards' fortunes haven't much intersected over the past decade plus, but it's still a huge bummer. If I were a fan of a team that Pats had defeated in the postseason, or even a division or conference rival, it would be tough. Fortunately for the Colts and Ravens, they've won championships, but the Broncos haven't during the Pats run, nor has any other team in the AFC East.

The Deflategate coverage irritated me because the burden seemed to be placed on whether the Colts or Ravens would have defeated them in the playoffs--as if that's the only time the Pats would have cheated. Last year the Patriots won a few close games on go-ahead TD passes (IIRC the Raiders once and the Jets twice). Those games didn't cost Oakland or New York a playoff spot, but they might have gained New England a bye and home-field advantage in the playoffs. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Baltimore were a game behind them in the standings. What if the Pats-Ravens game had been in Baltimore? What if the Pats had to face Pittsburgh on the road in the first round instead of Baltimore?

The issue for me is not just whether the Pats cheat in "big games," but whether they cheat all the way along, influencing conditions that help them in the big games.

The Giants were actually the team that uncovered the radio signal stuff. A guy working for that stadium(Giants stadium) who's now dead, is the one who figured out what they were doing, caught them, and notified the NFL.

That's why it's puzzling to me the Giants didn't make a bigger stink. The one in Arizona(the SuperBowl), they caught the pats cheating red handed both with cameras and with radio. I know if I were the owner in that situation and I knew that I wouldn't care if I won or not, i'd have said something right after the game.

The number of teams who have complained their headsets seem to go out in New England in the middle of key drives is pretty high but people just sort of see that as "gamesmanship", it's the outright stealing of signals that bugs me. When they are bugging locker rooms, videotaping signals, and using radio against the rules to stay in contact with Brady that just crossed a line. The irony, the author pointed out if Arlen Specter had known about the radio signal stuff when he was complaining about the taping, it might have all been exposed. It turns out what the Pats were doing violated Federal law, there are regulations connected to use of radio signals and "channels" that are federally regulated due to safety issues. Coordination of emergency personnel(fire, police etc), that is why NFL teams have people whose job it is to monitor this stuff. They didn't hire those people to stop cheating they hired them to make sure emergency signals would work if needed. Had Specter known the truth then he could have literally gotten the Feds involved.

But the guy who caught them is dead and near as anybody knows, Goodell destroyed all the evidence.

 

[Russ Smith]

Don't you think if Cassel were in on it that year he would have opened his mouth to someone by now?

Hell, don't you think anyone who was previously a Patriot would have come forward?

Most of them didn't know what Adams was doing. That's an inside joke on the Pats and has been for years. Most of the players have no idea what he was doing.

As for Cassel again I don't think he's a good argument. He had 2 good NFL seasons, on for the Pats, and one for the Chiefs, and the Chiefs year was better. 2 outlier years in an otherwise mediocre career isn't good enough to be used as proof.

If he'd had the one good year there and then never did even remotely close again, you could make the argument.

As for people stepping up, again that's precisely what Matt Walsh tried to do and I still think some day he's going to give that tape of the Rams pre superbowl walkthrough to someone and prove the whole story. It's clear that he knew he had violated his NDA and had "stolen" Pats property when he took those tapes. the NFL wouldn't grant him total immunity, so he only released some of what he had. Someday I would hope that tape comes out.

Walsh has told numerous people what the Pats were doing and how it went from him wondering are we allowed to do this to him knowing clear as day they were cheating and that his employment with the team was completely dependent on him being willing to do that, and not tell anybody.

 

[chickenhead]

Don't you think if Cassel were in on it that year he would have opened his mouth to someone by now?

Hell, don't you think anyone who was previously a Patriot would have come forward?

Sure, I do. But it's also interesting how little bad-mouthing there's been from form players and employees (aside from Mangini) in general, despite their cold-bloodedness with personnel changes. Maybe there are NDAs. Maybe the ones who've won Super Bowls want to make sure they are invited back to all alumni events. Maybe they just do a great job indoctrinating. I'm sure it's not an environment where asking questions (or even wondering about things) is encouraged.

Some of the accusations seem unrealistic to me, like Brady being prompted about open men and having time to take advantage of it when NFL pass rushers are in pursuit. But being prompted about a blitz package, or reminded about a formation from the first half that he may miss identifying on the field? Any given play can swing a game.

 

[Russ Smith]

Sure, I do. But it's also interesting how little bad-mouthing there's been from form players and employees (aside from Mangini) in general, despite their cold-bloodedness with personnel changes. Maybe there are NDAs. Maybe the ones who've won Super Bowls want to make sure they are invited back to all alumni events. Maybe they just do a great job indoctrinating. I'm sure it's not an environment where asking questions (or even wondering about things) is encouraged.

Some of the accusations seem unrealistic to me, like Brady being prompted about open men and having time to take advantage of it when NFL pass rushers are in pursuit. But being prompted about a blitz package, or reminded about a formation from the first half that he may miss identifying on the field? Any given play can swing a game.

I'm skeptical on the open man thing too. I guess the idea is he knows the play so he knows where the WR's are supposed to be. So if Adams tells him deep right is open he knows where that is supposed to be and looks. I'm just not convinced that anybody can react that quickly to something they can't see and just turn and instantly pick up the open guy and throw it.

About the only way to have tested that would have been if someone figured out how to jam the Pats doing that to see if he suddenly wasn't finding guys.

The key way they know that stuff was happening is they literally have Pats people on tape saying Brady was talking about something on the sideline or after the game that Adams said. But Adams said it during a "dead period" for the mic. The only way Brady could have heard it(and he said he heard it not heard it second hand) is if the mic were still live when it wasn't allowed to be.

What they should have done is hacked in and during the play suddenly Goodell is in Brady's ear "hi Tom, we got you red handed. Take a knee."

 

[conraddobler]

I would be for banning any headsets for players.

Just ban them and tell everyone to suck it. Figure out something different.

Then cheating will have to go back to the old fashioned stealing of hand signals.