I love the people trying to morally equate the actions of the Pats and the Hawks--and the people living/interacting with Seahawks Country coming out of the woodwork to show us their sour grapes at the Seahawks' recent success.
The Pats have been involved in heaps of cheating scandals dating back to the 80s. The Belichick-Brady tandem alone has been involved with 3+, which very much did--or at a minimum may have--impacted the outcomes of games and seasons.
5 Seahawks were successfully "convicted" of PED use in the last 3 years. Let that sink in--not a team. Not a 1-deep. Not even one side of the ball. 5 guys over 3 years.
Among them: Winston Guy, John Moffitt and Allan Barbre. Never heard of 'em? It's because those three combined didn't play a full season during the Seahawks' recent run of success. Another--Brandon Browner--got replaced by Maxwell during the SB run, and the final one (Bruce Irvin) was forced to sit at a time when he was just a situational player anyway.
The last of these was Bruce Irvin, who tested positive nearly 2 years ago now (May 2013).
Most (all?) of these guys were using Adderall to boost mental focus in a game which is predominantly a physical contest. It would be more unfair if they had been using Angel Dust, steroids, or otherwise getting legitimately beaked up for these games. Instead, they're taking the same stuff 12-year-old boys take. And to my knowledge, 12-year-old boys are not taking their middle school team to the state championships because they're all jacked up on Adderall.
The other criticisms you hear are equally silly. The Seahawks were being too physical in practice, and that's going to carry them to Ring #2, while all the other poor, law-abiding schmucks watch from their couches? Please.
So tell me again how having backups and role players more focused during the offseason than usual, 2 years ago, and who spent some of the season serving suspensions anyway, resulted in a Lombardi last year? Or how some extra preseason handfighting got us back to the Big Dance 6 months later?
Anybody who tells you that is also telling you they don't care what the truth is--they will believe anyone who's got some dirt on the Seattle Seahawks. It says much more about them than about the NFL team in SoDo.
Meanwhile, snowplowing the FG spot, knowing what play your opponent is about to run, finding 'eligible receiver' loopholes which will imminently be banned, and deflating your footballs while your opponent plays with regulation footballs clearly makes for a far greater impact on outcomes.
The people saying "not a big deal" I suspect are diplomatically telling us they aren't rooting for the Hawks in the SB.
I don't know that NE loses the Indy game if they play fair, but let's think about that Oregon-tOSU game a minute: Oregon has tOSU on the ropes, and are marching down the field. Over the next several minutes, Oregon receivers have two momentum-crushing drops which give the ball back to the Bucks. If Oregon connects as a result of deflating footballs or otherwise cheating, they might get up 14-21+ points, forcing tOSU to drastically alter their game plan and completely changing the outcome. You could say the same thing about GB recovering the onside kick, or Denver in OT early this year, or a million other plays.
We don't have a crystal ball, but we CAN say that having a special teams teams guy more focused than usual in the offseason 2 years ago did not carry us back to the SB in 2015--and we CAN say that is different from playing with easier-to-grip equipment than your opponents *this* year.
P.S. "Everybody does it" is a lame excuse until you prove it.
The Pats have been involved in heaps of cheating scandals dating back to the 80s. The Belichick-Brady tandem alone has been involved with 3+, which very much did--or at a minimum may have--impacted the outcomes of games and seasons.
5 Seahawks were successfully "convicted" of PED use in the last 3 years. Let that sink in--not a team. Not a 1-deep. Not even one side of the ball. 5 guys over 3 years.
Among them: Winston Guy, John Moffitt and Allan Barbre. Never heard of 'em? It's because those three combined didn't play a full season during the Seahawks' recent run of success. Another--Brandon Browner--got replaced by Maxwell during the SB run, and the final one (Bruce Irvin) was forced to sit at a time when he was just a situational player anyway.
The last of these was Bruce Irvin, who tested positive nearly 2 years ago now (May 2013).
Most (all?) of these guys were using Adderall to boost mental focus in a game which is predominantly a physical contest. It would be more unfair if they had been using Angel Dust, steroids, or otherwise getting legitimately beaked up for these games. Instead, they're taking the same stuff 12-year-old boys take. And to my knowledge, 12-year-old boys are not taking their middle school team to the state championships because they're all jacked up on Adderall.
The other criticisms you hear are equally silly. The Seahawks were being too physical in practice, and that's going to carry them to Ring #2, while all the other poor, law-abiding schmucks watch from their couches? Please.
So tell me again how having backups and role players more focused during the offseason than usual, 2 years ago, and who spent some of the season serving suspensions anyway, resulted in a Lombardi last year? Or how some extra preseason handfighting got us back to the Big Dance 6 months later?
Anybody who tells you that is also telling you they don't care what the truth is--they will believe anyone who's got some dirt on the Seattle Seahawks. It says much more about them than about the NFL team in SoDo.
Meanwhile, snowplowing the FG spot, knowing what play your opponent is about to run, finding 'eligible receiver' loopholes which will imminently be banned, and deflating your footballs while your opponent plays with regulation footballs clearly makes for a far greater impact on outcomes.
The people saying "not a big deal" I suspect are diplomatically telling us they aren't rooting for the Hawks in the SB.
I don't know that NE loses the Indy game if they play fair, but let's think about that Oregon-tOSU game a minute: Oregon has tOSU on the ropes, and are marching down the field. Over the next several minutes, Oregon receivers have two momentum-crushing drops which give the ball back to the Bucks. If Oregon connects as a result of deflating footballs or otherwise cheating, they might get up 14-21+ points, forcing tOSU to drastically alter their game plan and completely changing the outcome. You could say the same thing about GB recovering the onside kick, or Denver in OT early this year, or a million other plays.
We don't have a crystal ball, but we CAN say that having a special teams teams guy more focused than usual in the offseason 2 years ago did not carry us back to the SB in 2015--and we CAN say that is different from playing with easier-to-grip equipment than your opponents *this* year.
P.S. "Everybody does it" is a lame excuse until you prove it.
