Remember to Thank Eric Mangini and the New York Jets For All of This

While it's easy to get caught up in the Assistant Golf Pro and his tapes, Arlen Specter and his Comcast connections, and all the other madness that has surrounded SpyGate we can't lose sight of one simple fact: It's all Eric Mangini's fault. Has there ever been a case of a former assistant being a more ungrateful bastard to his mentor than Mangini has been to Bill Belichick? When looking to pay back a former boss who got you where you are today, having him dragged thru the mud and his place in history tarnished is not the best way to do it.

Many people have forgotten that the New York Jets were caught taping the Pats in their 2006 playoff game. From Newsday:

 "The Jets were caught using a videotaping device during a game in Foxborough last season that resulted in the removal of a Jets employee. After Gillette Stadium officials saw him using the recorder early in the game, he was told to stop and leave the area. He had been filming from the mezzanine level between the scoreboard and a decorative lighthouse in an end zone. The camera was not confiscated by the Patriots or stadium security."

What he was taping we'll never know. The Patriots and their staff didn't see the need to make a big public stink over it. They just stopped him from taping. There were other teams doing this. Everyone knew they were doing it and took preventative measures against it. All it took was one rat.

How calculating the Jets were in busting the Pats video guy taping their signals in September is unclear. Did Mangini point out the guilty Pats video assistant and tell his guys to confiscate the tape and turn it over to the NFL? Did an NFL Official just happen to be there when the confrontation went down? We'll never know. But it seems to be a logical conclusion that it would be helpful to Mangini and the Jets to catch the Pats red-handed and turn them in.  Especially after a league memo sent out just days earlier had warned teams against doing it. What's more of an advantage if you're the crappy Jets: simply stopping the Pats from taping defensive signals or thrusting the highest profile NFL franchise into the middle of a controversy that has some asking if Bill Belichick could resign?

I wonder if Mangini had any idea what a shitstorm this whole Spygate would cause -potential Senate Hearings, Super Bowls being allegedly tainted, former employees coming out of the woodwork. Regardless, the blame still comes down on him. The Jets are his operation and ultimately it is Eric Mangini who single handedly placed a black mark on Bill Belichick's legacy whether it was intentional or not.

Now I know many out there might say that it's Belichick's own fault for breaking the league rules and of course that is true, to a reasonable degree. Don't try to tell me that the level of vitriol thrown at the Pats and Belichick is commensurate with the crimes that they are guilty of. If you believe Belichick's account from yesterday (or the Pittsburgh Steelers or Jimmy Johnson) it's clear that the taping of defensive signals didn't have any effect on the outcome of any game.  No matter how much you want the Patriots 3 Super Bowls to be tainted.

Once we hear from the AGP (assistant golf pro), and moreso, see what is on these tapes of his we will know just how deep this whole controversy will go. But no matter what it will always be Eric Mangini and the New York Jets that started the whole thing. And Patriots fans should never forget that.