Imgaine how awesome Marques would be if he knew what plays were coming at him 80% of the time!

Dan, I love you comment…it’s great to get a chuckle in the afternoon. I hope he gets on with a team and the Pats might make a place for him…..if so I’ll cheer for Marques but I don’t think I can ever get past my hatred for the Pats.

ESPN has a little more detailed article on Murrell visiting the Pats.

I’d copy and paste, but can’t right now due to a program running. Just search MM’s name on ESPN, was posted yesterday by Mike Reiss.

Ugh, I hope he doesn’t end up a Patriot. I was at App the same time as Marques and hope he continues to be successful, but I wish it were with anyone other than the Pats.

It’s bad enough that the only Mountaineer in history to win a Super Bowl ring (Matt Stevens) won it with the Pats the year they illegally taped signals from the Rams.

To me that Patriots video deal was nothing more than a glorified witch hunt.

I’m not even a Patriots fan but folks should realize that ’stealing’ signals is a huge component of high-level competitive athletics (both college and professional).

Not only do coaches spend half their lives watching video, studying and analyzing everything to gain any advantage possible but they also change jobs – a lot – and by doing so they exchange strategy and any other knowledge about what a former allie, now an opponent, is going to do.

More than that, something that doesn’t get any media attention is the fact that players and coaches communicate with each other weekly to give opponents of rival (or otherwise hated) teams information about schemes and other “what to expect” type info.

I guess my point is that these days most defenses, especially in the NFL, know what is coming at them a majority of the time but at the end of the day it still boils down to one thing – talent.

Your points are valid appfantoo, but you can’t gloss over the fact that videotaping on the sidelines (which the Pats did) is expressly forbidden in the NFL.

It’s official…MM is a Patriot

http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/11401/pats-sign-their-own-but-must-look-outside

Not very flattering, but hey, at least he’s got a job.

At least he’s not with a perennial loser, like Detroit.

Besides, maybe Coach B is practicing to become the next ex-NFL NASCAR owner. Isn’t cheating expected in NASCAR?

Your right Dan – they did violate a stated rule and were punished (and rightfully so).

Just seems really naive to me for fans to think only 1 NFL team has ever violated that rule – just because the Patriots are the only ones caught.

I think it was more of a situation where the Patriots got caught doing something the NFL knew everyone also was doing so they took the opportunity to fire a warning shot serving notice to the rest of the league to stop.

Yes, appfantoo, and the opportunity to fire that warning shot toward a flagship franchise made it all the more meaningful in NFL circles. I agree with you–it would be very naive to think only the Patriots were stealing/taping/whatever signals and schemes.