And Roger Clemens is still making excuses for him being him.

“Random”?

Hardly.

Meanwhile, telecom? Can you get us all free iPhones? The new ones?

Hey, congrats on the new job! I still have a chunk of resources from my recent sentence stint in the telecom industry: drop me an email if you want some help.

1.5. Belicheet

3. And the Yankees are done; they won’t make the playoffs this year.

/sucker

Hey Brad, I hope you write about what you’re working on. I’m a very disillusioned AT&T employee who doesn’t want to quit because I’m too close to retirement. But I’m really pissed off over the NSA long-distance records thing, and (for what it’s worth) have sent a letter to our CEO about it. I also vehemently oppose amnesty for the telecoms over that issue. I also favor net neutrality, and wish I could join a union (I’m a “manager”), although in my opinion CWA’s performance has been less than stellar, and they suffer from much of the same short-sightedness that top management does.

Between media ownership concentration, net neutrality and the spectrum auction, the next few years are going to be critical in defining how our society works for the next half century.

A better punishment would be for the Patriots to forfeit the game.

A better punishment would be for the Patriots to forfeit the game.

Correct.

Losing a draft choice is a little too harsh. They need to record Sunday’s game as a W and suspend Bellichick for 1 game.

I’m glad I am not alone among Pats fans who admit that our team cheated. I wish New York fans showed such class when their team is wrong.

It all boils down to us Bostonians and our elitist, superiority complex. And yes, we are superior.

And the Yankees are done; they won’t make the playoffs this year.

Um, no dude. They are making the Wild Card…..where they will lose to the Angels, god willing.

“Um, no dude. They are making the Wild Card…..where they will lose to the Angels, god willing.”

Obviously my gloating Yankee-fan-ness didn’t come thru on that one.

I wish New York fans showed such class when their team is wrong.

Do you have something specific in mind here?

“David Ortiz has hit ten walk-off homers in his career, and I’ve now been at Fenway Park to witness three of ‘em…”

There have been 11 no-hitters thrown at Fenway Park by a Red Sox pitcher in the last 95 years, and I was there for one of them.

(Ortiz is the shit)

My random thoughts:

1. “Master Agents Screwed By Baby Bells” … is a good headline for any and all telco stories you happen to write.

2. The cheating cheater Patriots have destroyed the innocence of a wonderful game and damaged the souls of children across the land. Their Super Bowl championships should be stricken from the record books and Bill Belichick should be banned for life from the game of football at all levels.

The cheating cheater Patriots have destroyed the innocence of a wonderful game and damaged the souls of children across the land. Their Super Bowl championships should be stricken from the record books and Bill Belichick should be banned for life from the game of football at all levels.

‘Cause, you know, that’s totally what happened to Barry Bonds.

That’s totally what lots of people are demanding happen to Barry Bonds.

The Patriots were only doing what the president would do and that is by definition never wrong.

More and more baseball names are popping up like … zits on a steroid user’s back. There’s gonna come a time when no one can complain about Bonds using, because he actually was playing on a “level playing field.” (To a certain extent, and yes it’s unfair to the non-users, etc., etc.)

OT – teh malkin is squaking about lefties desecrating the Vietnam War memorial on the Mall.

Her “evidence” is, er, nonexistent, and this was originally reported by teh freepers, so, you know, it may turn out to be due to something other than what she’s speculating….

I would not pitch to Ortiz with the game on the line.

“The Patriots were only doing what the president would do and that is by definition never wrong.”

Clearly the Pats, who love America, and who by definition, are heros and patriots, were only doing what needed to be done in order to protect America – er – run up the score on the Jets in the most masculine and totally heterosexual manner possible.

Cheaters in sports will never be dealt with in any serious way unless and until fans actually stop forking over the cash money to watch it. Bonds et al have many defenders, and many others who condone such behavior because they’re on the right side. (“All is acceptable to further the cause of the Revolu… er, my team!!!”)

Nobody who will rip your nuts off over your tragic mis-allegiance will give a hoot about videotaping, or drugs, or maybe even a Tanya Harding Special (if pulled off with more flair and discretion).

These days, I doubt even another Shoeless Joe in cahoots with another Pete Rose would dent the revenues. People still watch pro wrestling, after all, even though it’s entirely fake.

Hmm, let’s see. Sixteen game season. Gotta win 10-12 to make the playoffs. A single extra loss can cost your season. A single additional win can save it. The other team is signalling their players the defense they want them to play.

Shit. This is easy. If they can’t figure out how to encode their signs, screw ’em.

Maybe it’s just that I’m more a baseball guy, but stealing signs is completely fair, reasonable and to be expected.

Telescopes, video, spotters in the stands, whatever. Slap a rotating indicator on your signs and every time they THINK

Wow. Space bar = submit? The force is strong in this one, Luke.

Anyway, every time they THINK they know what’s coming, ooppss, they set up for the wrong thing. Baseball figured out how to exploit the other team stealing signs long ago.

I don’t feel any outrage at all…

mikey

I thought Brad had gone under deep cover to infiltrate Assapalooza. Temporarily hunkered down in his mom’s basement, getting into character by watching Fox news through a cloud of cheeto dust, reading right wing blogs all day and all of the night. Desperately trying to cultivate a fetish for weapons of war and a disgust for vagina. Practicing eliminationist and fake tough guy rhetoric in the mirror.

But this new job sounds like a healthier move so congrats and good luck.

I was there when Mike Greenwell hit an inside-the-park home run to win against the Yankees in, I think, 1989. God, it was beautiful.

I started a new job last week that’s required me to do a lot of background research (I’ve, you know, never written extensively about the telecom industry before).

You’ll never make it as a citizen journalist with this attitude. Wing it, man. It’s the new media way.

I’ll be interested to see what the league does Re: The Patriots, but until there is a clearer explanation of exactly what rule they broke, and how, I’m with King Kaufman on this one. It seems like a dumb rule.

But yes, I do agree that rules are rules, even if they are dumb, so some penalty is warranted.

a clearer explanation of exactly what rule they broke

From nfl.com:

Patriots under investigation for following rules, guidelines violations …
1. Page 105 of the Game Operations manual says: “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.” It later says: “All video shooting locations must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead.”

2. And, a memo from Ray Anderson, NFL head of football operations, to head coaches and GMs on Sept. 6, 2006 said: “Video taping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent’s offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches’ booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game.”

at a magazine that covers IT

Hey, me too! Well, a website that covers all sorts of IT news, but the principle is the same.

Video taping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent’s offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches’ booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game.”

Does this also mean that they can’t watch tapes of the games (which are broadcast throughout the world, can be TiVO’ed and otherwise recorded) in which a sign is flashed by an opponent’s coach? And why are they able to take so many pictures of the opponent team’s formations (as in, on every play)? And why are so many people outraged by sign-stealing by a fucking football team and so few correspondingly upset by EVERYTHING stealing by our own fucking government?

Why does the NFL have more stringent (if nonsensical) rules regarding privacy (of an act that happens in front of a global audience and 70,000 witnesses) than our federal government?

And I was at Game 4 in Fenway when Ortiz hit one in the bullpen and changed history. I win the fucking thread.

I was at the good game seven, where Pedro stayed in.
N, well, I wouldn’t get too excited after giving up all those runs to Tampa. Yes, the Yanks gotta sweep to make a race of it, but, well……

The NFL has a lot of rules that don’t make much sense but create competitive balance. Why can you send radio messages to a quarterback but not a middle linebacker? Why can the defense move all 11 guys at one time but the offense only one? Why can’t linemen go five yards upfield?

The NFL has a lot of rules that don’t make much sense but create competitive balance

Maybe. But I fail to see how if you can literally photograph and dissect every play with your team in near real-time, have your coaches watch the opponents’ coaches from the sidelines on every play, read scouting reports, watch tapes, have their ex-players in to debrief you AND have the games played in public venues, videotaping them from the sidelines is somehow beyond the pale.

For the record, I think there are a lot of rules in the NFL which are ridiculous.

Why can’t linemen go five yards upfield?

I’ve never understood that one, either.

congrats on the new job!!! hope you like it!

The Los Angeles Angels of Disneyland will smite Rudy Giulianl’s Yankees like a rented mule.

Why cheat against the Jets? The Colts yes, the Chargers maybe, but the Jets … Jesus what could they be thinking?

Big Papi is getting scortching hot. I wish Manny would get back too, because as always I fear the Yankees. They haunt my dreams.

Ha ha. Lying, cheating “Patriots” just lost some draft picks, & Belicheat was slapped w/ the maximum fine the No Fun League hands out, $500,000.00.
There’s your “no-tuck rule!” Hee hee hee.

hee hee yourself, raidersfan. you just lost to matt millen! eww, wipe it off before it corrodes.

yanks 1, jays 2. not over yet, yanker

Man, watching New Englanders make excuses for their cheating cheater Patriots with the three asterisk Super Bowls is some comical-ass shit.

Like the Sports Guy and the other guy from Football Outsiders in their online conversation over at ESPN. They back and forth on the nature of cheating for like 30 seconds, then go right into denial and circling the wagons to defend their beloved Pats.