Belichick admits exploiting a loophole in the NFL rulebook that should 'probably be closed'

[Young Ram]

Despite spygate and deflategate and all the other shit he has done he’s still winning championships to this day. You can’t deny Bill’s greatness.

 

[12intheBox]

Without honor? No thanks.

Where is the line? Coaches have been trying to steal signals as long as sports have been around. Any advantage that can be sought will be sought. Pumping in crowd noise, stealing signals, sending in undercover scouts to watch the other teams practices, blowing the AC towards the outfield when your team bats and towards the infield when their team bats.

In sports, it is not uncommon at all for players to break the rules as often as they can get away with it - from holding, to yelling during the cadence, to cheap shots in the pile, to stickum on the hands.

This grievance - that he milked the clock within the rules - isnt even one of those.

Like I said, I hate the patriots, and I'm still salty about spygate - but its not like if I found out that McVay had taped the Patriots walk thru and we beat them that I would say the win is invalidated or I don't want the win. Its not like he is paying the officials - he is engaging in gamesmanship. There is a difference for me.

 

[coconut]

Where is the line? Coaches have been trying to steal signals as long as sports have been around. Any advantage that can be sought will be sought. Pumping in crowd noise, stealing signals, sending in undercover scouts to watch the other teams practices, blowing the AC towards the outfield when your team bats and towards the infield when their team bats.

In sports, it is not uncommon at all for players to break the rules as often as they can get away with it - from holding, to yelling during the cadence, to cheap shots in the pile, to stickum on the hands.

This grievance - that he milked the clock within the rules - isnt even one of those.

Like I said, I hate the patriots, and I'm still salty about spygate - but its not like if I found out that McVay had taped the Patriots walk thru and we beat them that I would say the win is invalidated or I don't want the win. Its not like he is paying the officials - he is engaging in gamesmanship. There is a difference for me.

Not for me. In SB36 sideline signals were stolen. Unique plays were stolen. Personnel groupings were stolen. All by closed practice videotape which was illegal at that time. It isn't "gamesmanship". It's cheating. If you would support that for your teams gain then I pity the dearth of sportsmanship.

As for the running down the clock it is legal. No problem.

 

[Angry Ram]

Every coach does this. Just because the jets coach isn't smart enough to realize it isn't his problem.

I actually think this is hilarious. Adam Gase is probably the derpiest guy in the NFL because of this.

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Despite spygate and deflategate and all the other shit he has done he’s still winning championships to this day. You can’t deny Bill’s greatness.

Maybe I can deny his greatness....if i try hard enough

I will give it a try,
Sure he's "great" for his eminence, but let me ask you this -- Who would you have your kid take a cross-country bus tour with Bill Belicheck?

I mean when I think of great coaches I think of:
John Wooden
Lombardi
Dick Vermeil
Coach K
Scotty Bowman

All those dudes roll(ed) with a special level of integrity that I would want my kids to glean,
A dude like Bill..... he is a cheater

 

[Loyal]

I can't wait until he and Brady retire so that we can forget about them Like Red Auerbach and the Celtics, or the Yankees in the 30's, 40's. and 50's....my don't-care-meter for the Cheatriots, Bill Bellicheat, and Tommy Terrific is pegged.....

 

[Young Ram]

Maybe I can deny his greatness....if i try hard enough

I will give it a try,
Sure he's "great" for his eminence, but let me ask you this -- Who would you have your kid take a cross-country bus tour with Bill Belicheck?

I mean when I think of great coaches I think of:
John Wooden
Lombardi
Dick Vermeil
Coach K
Scotty Bowman

All those dudes roll(ed) with a special level of integrity that I would want my kids to glean,
A dude like Bill..... he is a cheater

Ok if we’re talking about character and integrity then yea I agree with you.

But if we’re talking about as a football coach and nothing else then he’s second to none.

Edit: and don’t think for one second that I like the pats. I freaking hate the pats but bill continues to win championships even past his cheating antics and looks like he’ll go to another one this year as well.

 

[Mackeyser]

Mike Vrabel uses Bill Belichick's own NFL rulebook loophole against him in Titans win over Patriots

The Patriots coach is always one step ahead of the rest of us except for Saturday night

www.cbssports.com

Bill Belichick admits he exploited a loophole in the NFL rulebook that should 'probably be closed'

Whenever Bill Belichick decides to retire, he's almost certainly going to go down as the greatest coach in NFL history, and if you need any more proof of what makes Belichick so great, all you have to do is re-watch the fourth quarter of New England's 33-0 win over the Jets on Monday.

Even when the Patriots are blowing out the other team, like they were in New York, Belichick never stops coaching, and that became evident after the Patriots went three-and-out on a drive in the fourth quarter. If that happened to most coaches in the NFL, they would just punt the ball away, but Belichick isn't most coaches. Instead of quickly punting the ball, Belichick took advantage of a loophole in the NFL rulebook to run a full minute and 21 seconds off the clock before his team actually punted.

In the NFL, the play clock is only 40 seconds long, which means it's not easy to burn nearly 90 seconds like the Patriots did, but it happened, and Belichick was definitely proud of himself for it, because the camera caught him smiling, which is something he almost never does during a game.


View: https://twitter.com/WillBrinson/status/1186477232585433088


So how did the Patriots burn so much time off the clock?

After the Patriots were tackled in-bounds on a third-and-9 play, the play clock started to run at the 11:04 mark. From there, Belichick decided to let the play clock run out, which took the game clock down from 11:04 to 10:23. At that point, Jets coach Adam Gase declined the delay of game penalty, which means the Patriots were given a new play clock -- this time, just 25 seconds -- and once again, the game clock started to run.

Just as the new play clock got to one second, Brandon Bolden jumped before the ball was snapped, which led to a false start penalty. On the play, it was pretty clear that Bolden jumped on purpose, and if you need proof, just look at the huge smile on his face after the flag was thrown. No one on a Belichick-coached team would smile like that after being penalized unless Belichick asked them to do it.

After the false start was called, Gase once again declined the penalty, which means the Patriots were once again given a new 25-second play clock. Patriots punter Jake Bailey didn't actually end up kicking the ball until the 9:43 mark, and after the Jets fair catch, New York's offense didn't take the field until the clock was down to 9:37, which means Belichick's plan resulted in a full 1:27 being run off the clock.

If the clock stopped after an offensive penalty -- whether it gets declined or not -- the Patriots wouldn't have been able to do this, but the clock kept running after each penalty got declined, which is why Belichick had his team get penalized twice.

Although the lost time didn't really matter to the Jets in this game, because they were being blown out, it could have mattered in a closer game, which is why Belichick thinks the NFL might end up closing this loophole in the NFL rulebook. As a matter of fact, it almost sounds like Belichick exploited the rule so the NFL would close it.

"That's probably a rule, a loophole that will be closed, and probably should be closed, but right now it's open," Belichick said this week.

Of course, as things currently stand, what the Patriots did was legal and Belichick is someone who's always looking to exploit the rule book.

"It was just the way the rules are set up," Belichick said Monday. "We were able to run quite a bit of time off the clock without really having to do anything."

Basically, this is just more proof that Belichick is always five moves ahead of anyone he's coaching against.

Credit where credit is due.

He could have saved this for a close playoff game or the Super Bowl.

Now... wouldn't it be ironic if the Rams met them in the Super Bowl and McVay used this to ice the game...

Well, ironic...and glorious.

But yeah, Coach B is right... it's a BS loophole that should be closed. It's only a shame that they can't close it before the end of the season...

 

[Mackeyser]

I think that's the difference between him and other coaches. He'll look anywhere to gain an example, including looking for loopholes in rules, where most coaches would rather a fair fight. He doesn't care if he has to cheat to win (for the record I don't see this as cheating), he'll do it.

Pretty sure filming opposing team's private run throughs pre game AFTER the league banned the practice is breaking the rules and it is cheating.

I still think they'd have won multiple Super Bowls, just not Super Bowl 36.

Also, I think that D will cover for their middling O and they have a legit chance to go undefeated. And they'll do that without cheating.

Which chaps my britches, but it is what it is. When we had an easier schedule last year, our answer was "we can only beat who the NFL puts in front of us". Same goes for every team.

That said... how long is the AFC East going to be so damned hapless??? This is going on 20 years!!!

 

[Mackeyser]

Where is the line? Coaches have been trying to steal signals as long as sports have been around. Any advantage that can be sought will be sought. Pumping in crowd noise, stealing signals, sending in undercover scouts to watch the other teams practices, blowing the AC towards the outfield when your team bats and towards the infield when their team bats.

In sports, it is not uncommon at all for players to break the rules as often as they can get away with it - from holding, to yelling during the cadence, to cheap shots in the pile, to stickum on the hands.

This grievance - that he milked the clock within the rules - isnt even one of those.

Like I said, I hate the patriots, and I'm still salty about spygate - but its not like if I found out that McVay had taped the Patriots walk thru and we beat them that I would say the win is invalidated or I don't want the win. Its not like he is paying the officials - he is engaging in gamesmanship. There is a difference for me.

I agree that gamesmanship is okay. Cheating is not and the Super Bowl 36 filming was cheating as they KNEW it was illegal at the time. Otherwise, why not only disguise their guy, but have such a thorough subterfuge created. It means that they KNEW it was wrong and did it anyway in a premeditated fashion. It's not like some fan got into the stadium early, posted a selfie or tie tok video (back then it woulda been Vine? Was that a thing in 2001?) with the field in the background and they happened to spot a formation or play they'd never seen and acted on it.

I disagree with pumped in fan noise, building the stadium to amply sound (Seattle), affecting the environment (AC blowing), etc. That's not gamesmanship. That's altering the rules or environment to create an unequal and unfair advantage.

Basically, there is a MASSIVE difference between "creative use of game mechanics" and cheating.

Otherwise, the difference in the game isn't the contest, but how the stadium was built or who can spy the best.

When does that stop? Poisoning opposing players (Kobe)? Pulling fire alarms in hotels? Sabotaging transportation?

Here's my thing. When Belichick noticed that the refs basically phoned in the Super Bowl like the Pro Bowl, he exploited that to caricaturish degrees. What he was doing even in committing penalties on purpose was exploit how the refs called the game. He exploited a pattern of behavior to such a degree that they changed the rules EXPLICITLY because of this.

That wasn't okay, but it was permissible. It wasn't honorable, but it didn't break any rules.

Contrast that with the filming of the Rams. That was illegal even at the time. It was cheating and it was wrong.

The line's not hard to see if you look for it and it's this:

If the advantage you seek in within the scope of the game and generated by your play, then fine.

If the advantage you seek is not within the scope of play and is caused by factors external to game play, then it's not fine.

Seems pretty simple to me.

I find the "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying" to not only be morally bankrupt, but purely in relation to sport, it obviates the point of a contest in the first place. Not saying you believe this, but just putting that out there.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Pretty sure filming opposing team's private run throughs pre game AFTER the league banned the practice is breaking the rules and it is cheating.

I still think they'd have won multiple Super Bowls, just not Super Bowl 36.

Also, I think that D will cover for their middling O and they have a legit chance to go undefeated. And they'll do that without cheating.

Which chaps my britches, but it is what it is. When we had an easier schedule last year, our answer was "we can only beat who the NFL puts in front of us". Same goes for every team.

That said... how long is the AFC East going to be so damned hapless??? This is going on 20 years!!!

Of course that is cheating, but I don't think that stuff like studying ref tendencies and telling his players if they can get away with more grabs and holds than normal, or taking intentional penalties to run down the clock more as cheating. More like exploiting.

The NFL should close the loopholes though.

 

[Raptorman]

Greatest cheater to ever coach in the NFL.

I would say the same, unless he was coaching my team.

 

[Raptorman]

Despite spygate and deflategate and all the other shit he has done he’s still winning championships to this day. You can’t deny Bill’s greatness.

8 Super Bowl rings says a lot.

 

[SuperMan28]

Dirty bird gets the worm... again.

 

[Faceplant]

Lol at bellyfat still trolling the Jets.....

 

[Faceplant]

I actually think this is hilarious. Adam Gase is probably the derpiest guy in the NFL because of this.

 

[Akrasian]

I hate the Patriots - hate them. But this guy is far and away the best coach in sports and maybe the best coach in the history of sports.

<cough>John Wooden</cough>

And he did it without cheating and would actually suspend his best players like Bill Walton if they did something against the rules off the field.

Belicheat is not even in the same zip code.

 

[snackdaddy]