Monteverde

As a Pats fan, I've found this forum to be very interesting given what the Patriots went through a number of years ago.

Before some of you continue to say, "Why are the Saints getting picked on? Some/most other teams do it, too!" I'd view this mess with a bit of perspective.

Yes, probably some or many other teams encourage players to hit opponents hard enough to injure them. But unless you weren't listening when Spygate surfaced, this is EXACTLY what happened back then. A number of former coaches -- current coaches wouldn't talk, of course -- admitted that most or all teams were videotaping other teams in one "illegal" form or another. The Pats just happened to get caught. Sound familiar?

In fact, back then, the NFL issued a warning the previous year to all teams to knock off the videotaping. What the Pats did worse than everyone else was to continue taping into the early fall of the next season -- and got caught. They got penalized, and deserved it. Shame on them. But ever since then, self-righteous fans (more fans from the Pats' rivals than from other cities) have moaned and groaned about how the Pats cheated (and, these fans often say, must be continuing to cheat). Well, look in the mirror, folks. Yeah, the Pats may have been worse than other teams (although no one even knows that because maybe other teams continued to videotape even after the league memo warning against it) because they didn't stop taping after being told to. But they were only one team in a den of thieves, quite possibly even including the Saints.

My point is that the Pats got what they deserved even though they were the one car to get a ticket out of many that were going 80 in a 65 MPH zone. The Saints are in the same position now. It's a bummer, to be sure. But unless you were one of the very, very few NFL fans who had some perspective when Spygate hit, don't complain now about being singled out. And, even though the Saints may not deserve it, don't complain when the rest of the league's fans consider your team scumbags. As a Pats fan, I know how that injustice feels.