I'm just wondering out loud why we have athletes like Barry Bonds who get crucified for cheating, even though he's never tested positive while we have less outcry in the NFL over Merriman/Patriots cheating when they got caught? Hell, Merriman is being rewarded for his cheating by appearing in a Nike commerical!

Just seems real silly to me.

Merriman did not break the most important record in pro sports for one thing.

Merriman did not break the most important record in pro sports for one thing.

He's one of the best linebackers in the game and he actually tested positive for steroids! At least with Bonds we can play the "we don't know for sure" card.

Barry Bonds is also know as a bad person for cheating on his wife, being a racist, being disrespectful, being rude to fans and so on and so forth.

Ouch...much harsher penalty for Belichick then I was expecting. He was personally fined $500,000 and the Patriots were fined $250,000. Also, if the Patriots make the playoffs (big if, I know) they lose their first round draft pick.

Small price to pay for 3 rings. I mean, obviously they're a great team but all 3 of their super bowl wins were extremely close games.

No real penalty at all for Belly-chick and the Patsies...they don't even need the first round draft pick. They buy all their players anyway.

Well, does the FACT that the patriots got caught cheating put a dent on their legacy? It's hard to believe they just started the practice.. maybe they just finally got caught.

The Patsies have always tried to bargain to get their way. There was an incident with the Vikings a couple of weeks ago about a player that both teams wanted where Belichick personally asked Brad Childress if he could let one of his guys slip through the cuts so that Belichick could get the man these two teams were going after. Here's how that transaction concluded.

Childress Gives Belichick a Wedgie (http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/09/02/childress-gives-belichick-a-wedgie/)

Ouch...much harsher penalty for Belichick then I was expecting. He was personally fined $500,000 and the Patriots were fined $250,000. Also, if the Patriots make the playoffs (big if, I know) they lose their first round draft pick.

Small price to pay for 3 rings. I mean, obviously they're a great team but all 3 of their super bowl wins were extremely close games.

i agree.... there three superbowls wins were close and against the "flavor" of the year NFC team... Colt always been a strong team,its just they coulnt tie it all together at the end (cept last year)

These days in the AFC it is hard to get a wild card unless you have 10 wins easy and a good division record. i have been a bengals fan since 1988(last time they went to the superbowl) I jumped on the band wagon and never got off... past three years have been great.. (last year could of been better) i think this year they can go far...

Well, does the FACT that the patriots got caught cheating put a dent on their legacy? It's hard to believe they just started the practice.. maybe they just finally got caught.

I think it does. I don't think sign stealing gives them a big edge...but it's definitely an edge. The Patriots usually don't have that big of an edge on their opponents anyways, so I think the edge this gave them is pretty significant.

These days in the AFC it is hard to get a wild card unless you have 10 wins easy and a good division record. i have been a bengals fan since 1988(last time they went to the superbowl) I jumped on the band wagon and never got off... past three years have been great.. (last year could of been better) i think this year they can go far...

Haha...I really love the AFC North. We all hate each other, it's so awesome. My dad and I both commented on Monday that we hoped the Ravens and the Bengals would somehow both lose. We hate the Ravens obviously because of Modell but we aren't Ray Lewis fans either and we hate the Bengals because of Chad Johnson and old Bengals coach Sam Wyche. (Bengals fan were throwing beer onto the field one game because of a percieved bad call and Wyche got on the microphone saying, "You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!") Also there's that whole battle of Ohio thing.

I don't hate the Bengals as much as the Ratbirds or Pittspuke. I can't hate a team that PB founded.

PS There's already talk about tainted Super Bowls on the Patriots part. And some people were comparing Belechick to Vince Lombardi. It is to laugh.

Joey Porter, Hines Ward, some guy from green bay, and some guy from Philly have all come out and questioned the legitimacy of the patriots win over them.

I heard an interview today with Mike Vrabel.. and he was all "they just can't deal with the fact that they lost. I work my ass off blah blah blah"... We get it Mike, every NFL player busts their ass. It's not even ABOUT the players though. The players probably didn't even know this was going on, and they wondered why they were in the perfect spot or had the perfect coverage for any given play.

If yu know what play is coming and how to line up it sure can make you look good out there.

Yea it is interesting how complete nobodys would become heroes on the Pats, and then when they went elsewhere they would become nobodys again.

Hell, even Ryan Leaf could be a superstar if he knew exactly what the defense was going to be doing.

I guess the pats secret to success is out... lets see how well they do this year without cheating.

Wouldn't it be funny if their win total suddenly dropped down to like 7 or 8 games a year?

I guess the pats secret to success is out... lets see how well they do this year without cheating.

Rather than a camera on the sidelines it'll be somebody hired by somebody, who knows somebody that can put them in the seats across from the opposing coaches with a real good camera - same result, just not quite as obvious.

It sucks that the Pats got stacked with a good WR core and Maroney in the backfield... I'm guessing if they had the same team they did the last few years they would be probably what Trav said.. maybe 9-7 without cheating. Of course I have a biased perspective on this, but I have to put an asterisk next to the Pats 3 super bowl rings...