Now that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has decreed that Spygate is yesterday’s news, you figure there’s a chance we can get on with our lives?
I never got Spygate. Oh, I could see the controversy, but having witnessed scouts for years checking out coaches’ signals with binoculars, I never got how it came to be viewed by some as a scandal for the ages.
The truth is, it wasn’t.
In the end, it was all about who cheated, not to what lengths he went to cheat. It was all about putting it to the NFL’s most unpopular coach and the league’s most despised team.
In the end, it was about jealousy. Not all about jealousy maybe, but mostly about it.
No? Then riddle me this: If, say, the Arizona Cardinals had been the ones caught videotaping another team’s signals, do you think it would have become a federal case? No way. It would have been the eighth paragraph in a notes column.
Back in the day, the Broncos were deemed by the league office to be circumventing the salary cap. The Steelers were, too, and each team was docked a draft choice.
Do we remember those incidents? If you live in Denver or Pittsburgh, maybe, but not in other cities. The teams screwed up, they were docked by the league office, and they moved on.
The Patriots? What do you say we let them do the same.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s sports commentaries on The Jimmy Page midday during the week at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
