The Patriots and the strange story of Ernie Adams

[Yakuza Rich]

See, here's your problem: you are obviously woefully unaware that these decisions are not made in a vacuum. If they chose to give Samuel the ridiculous amount of money he wanted, they would have had to cut 2 star players. Sure they could've paid Samuel but then which of the following 2 players do they get rid of? Matt Light, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Tom Brady, Vince Wilfork.

They probably could have cut just 1 player if that 1 player was Brady, otherwise which 2 of those guys do you cut so you can keep Samuel?

The Iggles are the ones who signed him. You must think they're geniuses! How many championships did Samuel help bring to the City of Brothery Love?

The Pats could have simply restructured their deals and kept Samuel. And again, offense wasn't a problem for the Patriots...the 'can't stop a nose bleed' defense was. Maybe they should have better prioritized their positions.

And how many Lombardi trophies did not having Samuel bring the Patriots?

How many Lombardi Trophies did Welker and Moss bring them?






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[Rogah]

The Pats could have simply restructured their deals and kept Samuel.

I'll ask again, and challenge you to have the courage to answer it:

Which two of those players I listed should the Patriots have let go in order to keep Asante Samuel? (NOTE: If you choose Tom Brady as one of the players, he alone will free up the necessary cap space so in that case you won't need to choose a second.)

Which 2 players, brah?

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I'll ask again, and challenge you to have the courage to answer it:

Which two of those players I listed should the Patriots have let go in order to keep Asante Samuel? (NOTE: If you choose Tom Brady as one of the players, he alone will free up the necessary cap space so in that case you won't need to choose a second.)

Which 2 players, brah?

They didn't have to cut those 2 players.

That's was my answer in the first place.

You're making stuff up.




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[Rogah]

They didn't have to cut those 2 players.

That's was my answer in the first place.

You're making stuff up.

Sure thing, bro. The whole concept of a salary cap? I've completely made that up. There is no salary cap in the NFL. I've totally made up the fact that if you give one guy almost $60 million, you're going to have to take it away from someone else.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

They believe he was the guy that deciphered all of the signals during SpyGate

This is what I've always suspected, too. Pretty sure others have suggested it as well. He was up in the booth during games with communication to Belichick... I suspect he memorized what the signals meant and was the one reading them during games.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Sure thing, bro. The whole concept of a salary cap? I've completely made that up. There is no salary cap in the NFL. I've totally made up the fact that if you give one guy almost $60 million, you're going to have to take it away from someone else.

It's called restructuring contracts. Every single team does this to keep players on the team. You're making up that they *had to* cut 2 of those players you mentioned. They didn't have to. They could have restructured deals and kept players. They could have paid Welker (and reneged on their promise and that's why he got fed up and left). They re-did Brady's contract and that freed up room for them to re-sign Welker. But they didn't because they were gunshy about re-signing Welker at his age. Welker was furious that they lied to him (they lied to Logan Mankins as well) and he went to Denver.




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[Yakuza Rich]

This is what I've always suspected, too. Pretty sure others have suggested it as well. He was up in the booth during games with communication to Belichick... I suspect he memorized what the signals meant and was the one reading them during games.

From what I've read and heard (a family friend of ours works in the front office for another organization), I get the idea that they had Adams look at tape of opposing team's signals before the game and try to get a general idea of what their signals were. Then during the game they would film them and send it up to Adams and get a good idea of what the signals are and relay this to Brady and Weiss.

If a team was smart enough to change their signals before the Pats game, they could throw off Adams for a bit, although that rarely happens because you have roughly 20 players on the defensive side of the ball active on game day and there's a fear that all of them may not be on the same page if you continually alter the signals.






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[khiladi]

So only way to really find out is kidnap Adams for the season... Whose down?

 

[Afigueroa22]

So only way to really find out is kidnap Adams for the season... Whose down?

I.

 

[Rogah]

It's called restructuring contracts. Every single team does this to keep players on the team. You're making up that they *had to* cut 2 of those players you mentioned. They didn't have to. They could have restructured deals and kept players.

You can't restructure into infinity and you can't give $56 million to one player without taking it away from someone else somewhere along the line. There is NO AMOUNT of restructuring that can make the $56 million not have any impact.

The fact that you think they can give a guy over $50 million and not have it affect the rest of the team at all really proves you just have no clue whatsoever what you are talking about.

They could have paid Welker (and reneged on their promise and that's why he got fed up and left).

Well now you're just trying to change the subject, which is wise considering how badly you're getting hammered on the Asante Samuel discussion.

 

[jobberone]

Interesting.

 

[InmanRoshi]

Two things are almost for sure, he's as close to a human computer as the league may have ever seen, and he completely has Belichick's trust and ear. As an ESPN article about him put it, "On game day, he's in the press box with a headset on, running numbers, computing percentages and, some around the league insinuate, overseeing more insidious operations."

The NFL Competition Committee outlaws computers and other computational devices on the sidelines or in the coaches booth during games, because they don't want a team to have a competitive advantage of having better "nerds" than the other team. (It's funny, they seem to have no similar concerns about disparity in coaching, medical or training staff). It's completely understandable why you would want a "human computer" booth to feed you probabilities en lieu of an actual computer. If I'm a newly hired head coach, one of the first thing I'm doing is going to my local university and finding a PhD student in mathematics who loves sports, pay him some paltry salary (compared to even vet minimum for even end of roster players) and have him spend the entire offseason calculating down and distance, time clock management probability and rules of thumb. When to take time outs, when to go for it, when to spike the ball (which is way overused in football), etc. should be broken down into situational probabilities and memorized, not unlike the way poker players memorize probabilities. Time and clock management potentially swings 1-2 games a year in either direction.

 

[jobberone]

The NFL Competition Committee outlaws computers and other computational devices on the sidelines or in the coaches booth during games, because they don't want a team to have a competitive advantage of having better "nerds" than the other team. (It's funny, they seem to have no similar concerns about disparity in coaching, medical or training staff). It's completely understandable why you would want a "human computer" booth to feed you probabilities en lieu of an actual computer. If I'm a newly hired head coach, one of the first thing I'm doing is going to my local university and finding a PhD student in mathematics who loves sports, pay him some paltry salary (compared to even vet minimum for even end of roster players) and have him spend the entire offseason calculating down and distance, time clock management probability and rules of thumb. When to take time outs, when to go for it, when to spike the ball (which is way overused in football), etc. should be broken down into situational probabilities and memorized, not unlike the way poker players memorize probabilities. Time and clock management potentially swings 1-2 games a year in either direction.

I believe that data and even some software is out there. It doesn't hurt to have guys who know that stuff in and out to be handy. I'm not certain but I think we have quality control people who do some of that stuff if not a great deal. Garrett has in his head and on that chart he carries game day some situational stats and plays for that opponent.

 

[honyock]

The NFL Competition Committee outlaws computers and other computational devices on the sidelines or in the coaches booth during games, because they don't want a team to have a competitive advantage of having better "nerds" than the other team. (It's funny, they seem to have no similar concerns about disparity in coaching, medical or training staff). It's completely understandable why you would want a "human computer" booth to feed you probabilities en lieu of an actual computer. If I'm a newly hired head coach, one of the first thing I'm doing is going to my local university and finding a PhD student in mathematics who loves sports, pay him some paltry salary (compared to even vet minimum for even end of roster players) and have him spend the entire offseason calculating down and distance, time clock management probability and rules of thumb. When to take time outs, when to go for it, when to spike the ball (which is way overused in football), etc. should be broken down into situational probabilities and memorized, not unlike the way poker players memorize probabilities. Time and clock management potentially swings 1-2 games a year in either direction.

Yeah, and it would be even more valuable if that "human computer" had been obsessed with football from an early age and was compulsive and effective at watching and breaking down game film and understanding schemes and tendencies (and maybe opposing teams signals too for that matter, although that part is still unproven legend). That'd be a pretty valuable resource to have in your ear on game day.