View from the Moon: Spygates and Super Bowls

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Monday, Dec. 13, 2010
1:20 p.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
Interesting look-back by Sports Illustrateds Peter King in his Monday Morning Quarterback on the Spygate scandal involving the New England Patriots and their secret videotaping of practices.

Since the suspicion will linger that Bill Belichick and the Pats used this kind of cheating in upsetting Mike Martz and the St. Louis Rams to win a Super Bowl, Peter makes an excellent point to weigh whether the whole business really made any difference, other than to besmirch the integrity of Belichick, the Patriots and the game to some degree.

Peter takes a look at Belichicks record before the cheating and after, when it was presumably not going on. Short answer: It didnt matter. Belichick is winning a higher percentage of his games since the sanctions.

Peters rankings (Bears No. 10, below two teams theyve beaten, Green Bay and Philadelphia) arent particularly binding but his brief observation is spot on: I dont know how a team could look worse in four quarters in its own weather. But there are a few teamsmaybe about 29 othersthat would have been pathetic against the Patriots on Sunday, too.

And if you want a head-shaker of a factoid regarding Brett Favre, check out the one Peter passes along, courtesy of Lions beat guy Mike OHara. Its amazing.

Hard to argue

FOXSports.com senior NFL writer Alex Marvez was in town to write on the Bears defense, but he also had to sit through Sundays abomination. A.M. does note that this year is the 25th anniversary of the Bears-Patriots Super Bowl get-together, and while the Patriots very clearly appear to be a favorite to go there again, Judging by Sunday, theres no reason to believe history will repeat itself.

John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.

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