“If there is a decision I could take back it’s easily that decision,” Mangini said on NFL Live Tuesday according to Pro Football Talk. “Never in a million years would I have wanted it to go this way. It’s disappointing whenever it comes up.”

Mangini was an assistant on the Patriots’ three Super Bowl-winning teams, so when people discredit what the Patriots accomplished because of Spygate they’re also downplaying some of his achievements.

“Never in a million years did I expect it to play out like this,” he continued. “This is one of those situations where I didn’t want them to do the things they were doing. I didn’t think it was any kind of significant advantage, but I wasn’t going to give them the convenience of doing it in our stadium, and I wanted to shut it down. But there was no intent to get the league involved. There was no intent to have the landslide that it has become.

“To have guys like Tedy (Bruschi) have to defend the championships that we earned in New England, and to have anything taken away from the Kraft family, from coach Belichick, and the players and coaches that have meant so much to me, never in a million years did I think it was going to translate into what it was going to translate into. And it doesn’t tarnish what we achieved there. It doesn’t tarnish what they achieved after the fact. I think when you look at the history of success that they had after that incident, it’s pretty obvious that it didn’t play any type of significant role in the victories we had or the success that we had.”

It should be noted that Bruschi — also an ESPN analyst — was seated directly across from Mangini as he expressed what seemed like genuine regret over the way the situation has played out. On Tuesday, John Harbaugh called the Patriots’ accomplishments “stained” because of cheating, which led to Bruschi slamming him on television and Harbaugh apologizing almost immediately. Based on what he said, it’s quite obvious Mangini sides with Bruschi on this one.

“That’s what’s so disappointing to me,” Mangini said. “The fact that Tedy has to sit here and talk about that because of a decision that I made, it’s disappointing.”

Obviously the fact that they are now coworkers at ESPN comes into play, but this is by far the most candid Mangini has been about Spygate since the story first broke more than four years ago. We have seen extensive coverage of “the handshakes” and witnessed Mangini struggle to find a job because of it, but never has he spoken so highly of the organization that many feel he stepped all over. That just goes to show you how much can change in a few years time.

Toomer saying the Patriots cheated is one thing. If you believe they only won three Super Bowls because they broke the rules, that’s fine.  It’s at the 1:10 mark that his reasoning becomes absurd.  If the Patriots cheated to win three Super Bowls, they cheated to win three Super Bowls.  How does it make sense that winning one in the “post Spygate” era with a completely different team would validate the first three?

I’m not saying the first three are invalid, but Toomer’s assertion that winning on Sunday would mean the Patriots could argue they “probably would have won (the others) anyway” is just idiotic.  You either believe the Patriots won as a result of cheating, or you don’t.  Whether they win or lose Super Bowl 46 should not influence your opinion.

According to the Denver Post, via Pro Football Talk, the Denver Broncos are being investigated for allegedly videotaping the 49ers walk-through at Wembley Stadium in London back on Oct. 30.  As we know, Denver coach Josh McDaniels was a member of the Patriots’ staff in 2007 when the Spygate scandal erupted.  Here were some of his thoughts on the matter after being hired by the Broncos:

I don’t think it is good. To have that kind of attention was a distraction, and I think that is how we all treated it. We tried to do the best we could to limit those distractions every week, and it will be no different here. Certainly we are never looking to do anything that is not within the rules established by the National Football League. They determined the punishment on that, and it was what it was and we moved on.”

Broncos’ director of video operations Steve Scarnecchia, a Patriots’ employee from 2001-2005, has taken a “personal leave of absence” while the matter is under investigation.  It will probably take the NFL a while to sort things out, but usually we find out that where there’s smoke, there’s fire with these types of matters.

The sad part?  The Broncos lost to the 49ers in London and currently have a record of 3-7.  At least the Patriots turned the tapes into victories.

“I remember thinking to myself during some of the runs, ‘Charlie Weis is a genius,’” Young said. “I mean, I remember saying that to people: ‘This guy is uncanny, how he’s able to make these adjustments and just come out and dominate in the second half.’ What it’s left me to do is, well, I don’t know. Did it matter? I could see how it could matter if you put it all together. So it’s a tough one. I think that people earn it on the field, and I think you’ve got to move on and move forward and just recognize that it’s not a good thing at the time.”

Much unlike Mangenius, Weis is staying tight-lipped about Spygate. Man, would I love to chat with that guy off the record about some of their antics. But how about it? Without the aid of video assistance, Tom Brady, and to a lesser extent, Brady Quinn, Charlie Weis doesn’t look so hot. Maybe he’s just one of the many products of the cheating Patriots. Imagine the sham, not to mention shame, on Notre Dame.

(via SbB)

Brady suggested that the reason Patriotgate has stayed in the news is that the media in general and ESPN specifically are looking to fabricate a controversy.

“I think it’s a way to really sell newspapers, and all the ESPN stations, they’ve got to fill the air, too,” Brady said.

When it was pointed out to Brady that many of the ex-NFL players who work at ESPN were harshly critical of the Patriots and suggested that they gained a huge advantage from stealing signals, Brady said, “It’s just kind of the environment right now, though. I think that’s the way that guys make it. They just say the craziest things. That’s what ESPN has become. ESPN, to me, is like MTV without the videos, ESPN is without the highlights.”

It’s hard for me to recall what each individual analyst on ESPN had to say about Spygate at its various stages, but there’s no doubt that they covered the story to death. And you know what? I don’t think there was anything wrong with that — initially. When the legacy of a “dynasty” team in the country’s most popular sport is accused of achieving its success because of illegitimate means, it warrants plenty of coverage. There’s no way around that. But after the season ended, maybe they did go overboard with the coverage because they really did need filler. Lots of stories on Arlen Specter and Matt Walsh, and I really think that went overboard. But while they were in season, the coverage was probably fair. Aside from that, Brady is right on. And I like the fact that he doesn’t hide his thoughts, either.

Other media outlets including ESPN, had this allegation and pursued this allegation for months, and it just didn’t meet the standard in terms of what you needed to report it, and the Boston Herald evidently felt they had met the standard to report it,” Mortensen said. “They need to come out and say, ‘We stand by our story’ or they need to have a retraction and apology and deal with the consequences of it, but certainly it’s damaging to the Boston Herald at this point, especially if they stay silent on the subject.”

Again, we don’t know for certain that the Pats didn’t tape the walkthrough and that the Herald got the story wrong, but they’re certainly left out in the cold right now. Mortensen’s comments make it seem overwhelming like the Herald was intentionally planning to drop the bomb on the Pats the day before the Super Bowl. Seems pretty scummy to me.

The tapes go back and forth between… Well, the first part of the tape, the guy recording it , all he’s focusing in on are the butts of the Jet City Dancers. He’s going from chick, to chick, to chick, and then you see, like, Tom Brady step in and then he’ll [the dude taping it] hit the coaches a little bit, but when there’s a break? He goes into the stands and then focuses on T and A. It is classsssic. It is like Spygate meets “Girls Gone Wild.”

Yeah, so in that respect it’s just like any other camera guy shooting the “scenic” shots for a game. Glazer does go on to say however, that the tapes show the Pats were blatantly trying to steal signs in their taping. He also says he and his friends watch em when they come over for parties. I guess in that respect they’re also similar to GGW tapes. It will be interesting to see what comes about with Goodell’s meeting with Walsh next month. I’m guessing things will get ugly for the Patriots.

“One of the coaches was actually waving at the camera, so it’s clear that teams, to me, recognize that taking signals from another team is something that they do, so they have very complex systems to make sure that they don’t allow their plays to be intercepted.”

And pretty much anyone who’s watched an NFL game recently can tell you that almost all coaches hold their play charts up in front of their mouths when they talk into the headset to prevent lip reading. I’m not out here to defend the Pats and Belichick — I’ve been skeptical of the advantage they’ve received — but I think an important factor in this whole Spygate equation is that opponents were well-aware of the Pats’ tendencies. This signifies to me that the Patriots won games because they were better than their opponents rather than because they cheated, which at least provides me some peace of mind.

GameTap: Are there going to be any cheat codes in the game where I can spy on my opponents?

Tony Dungy: [laughs] I don’t know about any cheat codes. They say that’s really a big secret around here, it’s like Spygate. I don’t know if they put that in there or not or what the penalty would be if you entered any cheat codes, but we’ll probably only let New England have cheat codes.

Surely he’ll say he meant it in jest, but man, has any coach ripped on the Pats harder than Dungy? Even the Rams who have players suing the Pats haven’t unloaded comments like that, and they lost in the Super Bowl. Love to see how Billy boy reacted when that comment got around to him. Next time these teams play, I’m sure the Pats will do their best to run up the score.

In the wake of the Spygate scandal involving New England coach Bill Belichick, there were accusations the Patriots may have manipulated radio frequencies during games in their stadium, ostensibly to disrupt the coach-to-quarterback radio communication for visiting teams.

Well, it happened to the Browns during their game on Oct. 7 in Foxboro, Mass.

A team source said Browns coaches lost communication with Anderson eight to 10 times.

None of the breakdowns occurred prior to any of Anderson’s three interceptions in the game.

Headset malfunctions or not, the Browns still weren’t likely to compete with the Patriots. Still, this is the latest charge against New England and it doesn’t make them look any better. Here’s a thought: Why not just win controversy free? Do they really need to keep messing with headsets? Can’t they just win straight up, considering they are one of the best teams ever? Complaint by complaint, their legacy is being tarnished, and that’s a damn shame.
(photo courtesy Elsa, Getty Images)