Seriously. You Ramily here will detect a pattern in many of my posts. I hate the fact that for the past 17 or so years, Belichick and Brady have seamingly defied the maxim that cheaters never prosper. Well, maybe it does show that.
My point being that from 2001 up until 2014 the Patriots won 3 SBs via stolen valor. They should have been forced by Goodell to vacate those “championships” and shipped those 3 Lombardis to the Rams, Panthers and Eagles.
People might protest that Beichick is a genius. He won those games with his superior game planning. But did he? In none of those games was his team dominating the opponent. They all came down to the wire. Jim Johnson, DC of the Eagles, surmised that his signals were being stolen and we know-despite the media covering up for Belichick-that Matt Walsh played the patsy and fall guy, but ultimately filmed the Rams red zone walk through.
Having set up that context, here is how the cheating hurt the Patriots. When you get caught, sure, you have got to be pissed and you become even more motivated to win to show that you didn’t need the cheating to become a champion.
But the won zero SBs for 10 years in spite of going 18-0 leading up to one of those SBs losses.
So, they had to find a way to win honestly and it took them a long time. I think their last 3 Lombardis are legit. Especially the last one. The prior two were major brain farts by their opponents and showed that all those years of winning that was aided by cheating can keep you in the game.
So, there are clearly benefits to cheating. But the Rams-unless McVay is secretly cheating-are learning how to win without crutches. Never count you chickens before they hatch but I think this prepares them for a more competitive future than what we saw in Belichick and Brady’s first 10 years.
