Cowher on Spygate: "It's only cheating if you get caught."

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-scandal-its-only-cheating-if-you-get-caught/

Bill Cowher basically defended his good friend Bill Belichick. Honestly, I admire Cowher for not making excuses, but I do have to wonder if part of his attitude is due to his close friendship with Belichick.

 

He's a media whore now who's beholden to his corporate bosses. He can't start making enemies of guys his career depends on getting interviews from. He sure didn't seem to disregard the cheating when he was getting drummed out of the playoffs by the Cheatriots.

 

They got caught.

 

Cowher cheated but did not get caught? I think several teams probably had their own versions of spy gate. The league swept everything under the rug for the good of the league.

 

If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'.

Everybody pushes the envelope, whether it be manipulating footballs, tampering (wink, wink), the cap, icing the field, cut blocking, whatever.

 

Concur.

He's smart enough to know that if some things that might be thought of as cheating ever came out that he's better off not coming off as a hypocrite. No one will care as long as he doesn't get on his high horse.

See Rafael Palmetto vs Andy Pettite for a classic example

 

PPPPPUUULLLEEEAAASSSEEEE.

Roger Gooddell swept it under the rug time and time again because he is buddy buddy with Robert Kraft.

If the Steelers organization were to get busted with spygate they would have come down tenfold.

BTW - Jesse CAUGHT IT! (Guarantee, if it were Brady to Gronk it's a TD without a shadow of a doubt).

 

The donkey has been beaten enough.

 

I think he has always maintained that all teams look for that edge on the competition, that why they have pro scouts and exchange film and they push the envelope trying to figure out the checks and audibles, signals and so on. The difference between that and what BB was doing are as big the grand canyon. I mean they were breaking it down to down and distance, time, signal calls, situations and outcome and then building that database for all the other teams. It's why I believe he hasn't stopped because it is almost like OCD and he needs that info

 

He could be speaking from experience, who knows. Belicheat got caught - confirmed cheater.

 

Is Rafael Palmetto any relation to Rafael Palmeiro?

That may be part of it, but I think he also has a hard time condemning his buddy. Cowher and Belichick have been close since very early in their pro coaching careers.

 

Third cousin, twice removed.

 

I bought Bill's book it should be arriving today. Not much of a reader, but I had to get this one. Bill has a good story to share I am sure.

 

I think most of these coaches get along. They might not be a-hole buddies, but they are, by and large, cordial. It's such a small fraternity to begin with. How many men can say they were a head coach of an NFL team? However, I honestly believe that there were at least two head coaches that Charles Henry Noll would have, and could have beat the living sh!t out of, and they were Sam Wyche and Jerry Glanville. I think Noll thought they were both fools and I'd have a hard time disagreeing with him. I don't know how he felt about John Madden. I think in a moment of honesty, Noll probably admired the way the Raiders played. I think his disdain for them was more organizational and he probably viewed Al Davis as a glory hound.

 

Noll didn't like Glanville not one bit. He grabbed him by the shirt collar at the end of game once, and pointed his finger in his face. Didn't like how some of the Oilers were doing unsportsmanlike conduct things to the Steelers during the game.

I think Noll appreciated most coaches, even ones of teams with huge Rivalries. Noll got the better on a lot of coaches, John Madden, Tom Landry, Bum Phillips, a lot of really good coaches, and he out coached a lot of them.

He didn't have a great track record against Don Shula, but Shula was head coach of the Baltimore Colts and Noll worked under him prior to coming to the Steelers

 

Spell check got me again

 

I don't think every coach cheats. When Dungy won the Super Bowl he gave that "you can win the right way" spiel which I took as a shot at the Patriots.

 

Goodell destroyed the tapes before any authority had a chance to demand to see them. A legal loophole he took advantage of. I`m guessing it would have hurt the NFL by causing fans to be disillusioned about the game to some extent, so yeah he did it for the good of the league. It probably gave NE an advantage in stealing signs over and above other teams of what play was to be run. I`m sure every team would like to steal play call from the opposition, but Mr. Smartypants Bellicheat must have went too far.

The fact that Goodell decided he had to destroy the tapes speaks volumes on how damning they probably were.

 

I believe the rumor at the time was that other teams could had been implicated. Goodell couldn't sweep the Pats cheating under the rug. The Pats were the only team that was punished. The only thing I probably would had added to the Pats punishment would be to suspend BB for a season.

Goodell and the owners sweep the rest of the spy gate issues under the rug for the good of the league. The league had a lot to lose if the truth was revealed. Goodell works for the owners. The whole truth would had come out if the owners in the league wanted the truth to come out.

People need to get over the idea that there is some bias against the Steelers.

 

It's not a bias against the Steelers so much as it is a coverup for the Cheatriots actually videotaping practices for the pure benefit of gaining true unnatural advantages in order to screw over 31 other teams for their Superbowl ****** titles.

Gooddell swept it under the rug before any investigation could begin. Not a single owner could even question their winning methods before almost all of the evidence was destroyed. Gee. Sounds like that horrible evil word collusion to me.

The Cheaters knew that they would just get a slap on the wrist due to who they had in their corner the whole time so much so that they continued to do it and got caught years later doing the exact same thing to the Bengals who happened to be 1-11 at the time. If those dirtbags had to do it to win against a 1-11 team then you know they never stopped their bad habits after being hand slapped.

I believe other teams took the higher road by studying game films and not actually spying on practices. One will never know though. What is for certain is the Cheaters were caught numerous times with very little consequences.

 

Yeah I always loved the part where Goodell promised the BB would say he was sorry and apologize to the world and Bill goes I never said I'd do that and then didn't. You also nailed it I think he is still doing it not because he needs the help to beat a 1-11 team but because he cant help himself. Its like watching a Sidney Crosby press conference, no matter the question he always starts with "yeah no" it should be a drinking game

 

Well, I distinctly remember Hines Ward saying after they lost to them in Brady's first AFC Championship game (2001?), and I'm paraphrasing; "It's almost as if they knew what play we were going to run." There is no doubt in my mind they did. But, I lay some of the blame for that loss on Cowher. Defensively, they were fine. Offensively, they made no adjustments. As Bill liked to say, "We are going to impose our will." How'd that work for ya, Bill?

 

Also . That film can come into use later maybe by comparing...not Coaching tendencies, but maybe player tendencies when, and If said Bengals are a much better team

 

I'll never forget Hines saying that. It really sunk in that something was definitely off during those AFCCG's.

 

Same, and I didn't really think much about it till spygate.