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As the title implies, the book is about Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots and the videotaping scandal (or curious non-scandal) that was uncovered in September, 2007. Among the many fascinating touchpoints of this informative and thought-provoking manuscript:
- If Bill Belichick innocently "misinterpreted" the video policy (after all teams received a written warning less than a year earlier), why did the "innocent" videographers (including Matt Walsh) lie to sideline security about what they were doing?
- Wasn’t it strange that the NFL decided to minimize the escapade before talking to Walsh, the star witness? Why is Walsh under a gag order now? Why was the evidence destroyed quickly, an act that defies all logic of investigative process?
- Who is Ernie Adams and why is he the most powerful football mind that no one has ever heard of? Belichick brought Adams to Cleveland in 1991 and after a few years, Browns owner Art Modell offered $10,000 to anyone who could tell him what Adams did! Players still to this day chuckle at the shroud of secrecy that surrounds that man.
- Belichick claimed that he didn’t use the taped signals during the games in question, his "misunderstanding" loophole. Why then did he tape games of teams he wouldn’t see again that year, including our 2004 AFC Championship Game, which Senator Arlen Spector stated on the Senate floor that Steelers players thought the Patriots knew everything that Pittsburgh was going to do?
- Why does Belichick continue to hire cardboard cutouts for coordinators – young people with no experience or older failures – or hire no coordinators at all? Is it interesting that one such young failure, Josh McDaniels, was caught video cheating soon after he moved to Denver?
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