Peter King Says Belichick Hasn't Spoken to Him Since Spygate in 2007

New York Daily News Archive. Getty Images.

I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, that of all the Patriots-related issues I've talked about in my 19 1/2 years at Barstool, the one I was most wrong about was not realizing Aaron Hernandez was a murderer until he got caught. That's on me. And the rest of the human population. 

A close second though, came in September of 2007. As I recall, after I wrote a Knee Jerk Reaction to the Week 1 game, Dave Portnoy texted to ask if I'd heard this thing about the Jets accusing the Patriots of videotaping their signals. I hadn't. So I took time away from doing my duties at the courthouse where I worked (otherwise known as "Stealing from the Taxpayers") to look into it. And from what I could tell, it seemed just a Nothingburger Royale with Cheese. For all I know, I used that very phrase when I blogged about it, because I'd perfected my style then and haven't felt the need to evolve/improve since. 

Advertisement

To me it was more about Eric Mangini going Full Fredo and betraying the man to whom he owed everything in his life than an actual scandal. After all, teams were allowed to point cameras at their opponents' sideline. But by NFL rules, only from the designated Legal Pointing Cameras at Opponents' Sidelines Area. Besides that, even in 2007, there were 70,000 people in MetLife carrying video recording devices in their pockets. To me this was nothing more than parking in the red zone of legalized NFL spying.

How wrong I was. Like someone reading the Washington Post in 1972 that someone broke into a room at the Watergate Hotel and thinking it was just another petty burglary. I never could've imagined at the time it would be the biggest story in the country, not just in sports. Covered with pure hysteria from coast-to-coast. With even the late, awful Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Hell), author of the Warren Commission's preposterous "Magic Bullet" theory, calling for Senate hearings and demanding the 2004 Eagles be retroactively named Super Bowl champions. 

I never thought I'd be talking about Spygate 16 days later, never mind 16 years. And yet here we are. Thanks to this piece in The Atlantic (paywall) looonnnggg profile NBC's Peter King. After mentioning that King covered the Giants for Newsday back when Bill Belichick was Bill Parcells' defensive coordinator, King makes a major admission:

Peter used to be tight with Belichick. Then he criticized him during Spygate. They have not spoken in 17 years.

“That’s the cost of doing business sometimes,” Peter says. “He’s one of the greatest coaches of all time. I’m not sure I put him above Paul Brown, but he’s right up there with the greatest to ever coach in any sport. But I think what he did in 2007 was wrong.”

First of all, like I said, 2007 was 16 years ago. But I'm not the Math Police. 

Second, here is just a sample of the demagoguery Peter King was pushing on Monday Morning Quarterback and everywhere else he spewed his nonsense: "When the Patriots exterminated the rest of the league, they did so under the shadow of Spygate, when they were sanctioned by commissioner Roger Goodell after the first game of the season for secretly videotaping teams' defensive signals to try to gain an advantage."

"Secretly." Trust me, if Belichick's minions were trying to do it "secretly," they wouldn't have gotten caught. He's supposed to be a criminal mastermind, after all. If so, he's the most incompetent crime boss who ever lived. The reason his camera operator was in plain sight is because that's how most of the league did it. Jimmy Johnson - who knows a thing or two about winning in the NFL - admitted as much. Belichick was just the target of the witchhunt because the Jets decided to complain about the common practice first. 

Still, King was just one of many who discredited everything he'd accomplished to that point in his incomparable career over this one stupid misdemeanor. And paid the professional price. Because he needs Bill Belichick, not the other way around. Kings don't talk to their subjects who try to commit regicide.

More to the point, of all the facets of Bill Belichick's way of doing business, I love this one the most. If he was sold in different action figures like a Ken or a GI Joe, the first one I'd buy is Grudge Holder Belichick, with Mega-Resentment and Vengeance-Action Power Pack included. And I'd take it out of the box to recreate the time Tom Jackson tried to congratulate him for winning Super Bowl 38 at the end of the season that began with Jackson on ESPN saying Patriots players "hate their coach." To which Belichick replied, "Go fuck yourself, Jackson," and shook hands with Chris Berman instead. 

I have no respect for those who attempt to tear down great men over nothing. But I have the utmost respect for a great man who's willing to take a grudge all the way to the grave with him.