The Patriots Couldn't Cheat to Win This Superbowl

Umm, nobody else will say it, so I will. The New England Patriots lost the Superbowl to the New York Giants because they couldn't cheat to win that game.

Okay, so I'm only kidding. But I only say that I am kidding because I have no evidence that the Patriots cheated when they won Superbowl XXXVI. However, I must admit that I think the reports that claim that the Patriots filmed the St. Louis Rams' pre-Superbowl walkthrough are true. I believe them if for no other reason than the fact that there is so much cover up surrounding the whole "Spygate" issue, that I am forced to believe that there is something worth covering up.

This brings us to this past Superbowl, Superbowl XLII, where the Giants defeated the Patriots 17-14. Let me start this all off by saying that the New York Giants deserve all the credit in the world for beating the Patriots, and in writing this piece, I have no intention to take anything away from their accomplishment. No, my only mission is to take a whole lot of credit away from the Patriots, whom for all intensive purposes, may just turn out to be the Black Sox of the 21^st century.

With reports out there that a former Patriots' employer in charge of video processing left the Patriots organization and had to sign a confidentiality form in his departure, I feel as if I have no choice but to be suspicious. Why would the Patriots ask what would seem to be an expendable employee to sign a confidentiality agreement? My understanding is that that is not a common practice in the NFL. And even if it were, such agreements would probably be left for coaches and executives, not the guy in charge of video taping practice and the games, right?

Well, in the Patriots case, they seem to have a reason to make the video guy sign a confidentiality agreement that won't allow him to talk to the media about any of the things he did for the Patriots. Thus, through my own deductive reasoning, I conclude that allegations that they taped the Rams practice before the 2002 Superbowl are true, and that Spygate was more than just a single incident performed against the New York Jets. Because if such things were not true, why on Earth are trying to keep this guy quiet?

So entering this past Superbowl, with all of the talk of the surrounding Spygate and their alleged filming of the Rams, there was no way the Patriots would try to cheat against the Giants with over 97 million people watching. And because they couldn't cheat, the Giants made the league's best offense look mediocre at best. They confounded the offensive line, confused Tom Brady, mixed up the coverages and blitzes. And while the Giants' defensive line played great, it would be a big stretch to say that they played so much better than anything the Patriots had seen all season. Thus, I think the best way to explain the Patriots' sudden drop in execution in the Superbowl is by saying that this time around, they didn't have the answers to the test. And much like the young lad who copied his friend's homework all semester, the Patriots ended up failing the exam when they could no longer cheat.