Opinion: For Antonio Smith, sour grapes make a bitter whine
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| Houston's Smith (foreground) asserts that the Patriots changed their scheme at halftime. (USATSI) |
A frustrated child will throw a fit. A frustrated man might settle things with his fists and a frustrated wife might seek the company of a more responsive man - a frustrated player for the Houston Texans might accuse their adversaries of cheating.
Defensive end Antonio Smith told a gaggle of beat reporters after the Patriots' thrilling last-minute victory over his Texans that he thought the Patriots were spying.
“You can tell they changed their scheme in the second half." Smith said, smiling. "It just seems miraculous to me how they changed some things on offense that keyed on what we put in this week to stop what they were doing."
Smith continued, verbatim, "They did things they never did all year before. It was a specific thing that was important to what we were going to do today, as to how we were going to call the defense. We’d not ever did it before, and they never changed like that before. It just let me know that something wasn’t right."
Pretty heavy stuff from an obvious Education major at Oklahoma State before coming into the league as a 5th round selection of the Arizona Cardinals, but easy to collect sympathizers on given the Patriots' less than shining past when it comes to the cloak-and-dagger stuff. But sensing that his words may have been borne out of frustration, he qualified them.
“Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are among the best at their craft because they put so much into their craft. But you have to be a descendant of ‘Tones-tradamus' (a play on the name of the infamous seer Nostradamus, a self-edifying moniker that he wears on occasion) to know what we put in this week and to be able to then go change that fast. I got the only crystal ball in existence."
"I don’t know what it is. Either teams are spying on us or something’s going on.”
They're called halftime adjustments, Antonio.
"I think by halftime you have really a good enough sample size to figure out how the game is being played, the things, the matchups that go in our favor, the matchups that don't go in our favor." a clearly annoyed Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady said in response to Smith's accusations on WEEI this morning. "Maybe there's some new things that they've done that we've got to adjust to, but ultimately, after halftime you get a chance to evaluate and say, 'Well, how did that half play out?'"
"you don't really come over to the sideline and go, 'All right guys, we've gotta change everything." Brady continued, "Let's scrap all the crap we've been practicing all week and just start making stuff up on the fly,'"
For his part, Bill Belichick waved the entire issue off as a red herring, saying it was "a league matter", which is another way for Belichick to tastefully tell Smith, "Look at the f*****g scoreboard!"
Accusing teams of cheating is easy to do right? Particularly if the team is the New England Patriots, who have been the target of conspiracy theorists ever since New York Jets' head coach - and former New England offensive coordinator - Eric Mangini blew the whistle on the Patriots for video taping New York Jets defensive signals.
The league investigated the matter, fined the team and coach Bill Belichick and voided a first round draft pick as punishment, attaching a stigma to anything and everything that the Patriots have accomplished, including their first Super Bowl victory, former Rams running back Marshall Faulk firmly believing that the Patriots upset the Rams in Super Bowl 36 because - he felt - they knew what was coming.
The Houston Texans really aren't as bad as their record would indicate. That said, there's got to be a reason behind a ten-game skid that has them in contention for the top pick in next spring's NFL Draft.
Injuries have played a part, perhaps the Texans' stubborn insistence on relying on a second-tier quarterback have played a part as well - but it would appear that the greatest factor is that there is no accountability, either on the field nor in the locker room.
Why else would a veteran lineman on one of the best defenses in football that calls himself the "Ninja assassin" - in addition to the aforementioned Nostradamus word-play - on a team with, sadly, one of the worst records in the NFL be allowed to spout off about the New England Patriots spying on them?
Sour grapes from a sour man. It doesn't take a big man to accuse his opponents of cheating - all it takes is frustration coupled with a child-like temper and an acute need for attention - the jilted lover theory.
Don't look now, Antonio, but your Texans aren't the only team that the Patriots do this to. Let's go ask the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins if they feel like their was any espionage stuff going on when the Patriots came roaring back on them.
In the wake of all of the talk is the fact that coach Gary Kubiak has no control of his locker room and, with his team being the doormat of the NFL along with the likes of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Smith's accusations may well be the death knell to his head coaching gig.
Both the Jags and the Bucs have figured things out along the way and have put together decent second halves to their seasons. The Texans are floundering, losers of ten in a row.
It's easy to see that the only people being cheated are the Texans' fans.
