Originally posted by 3slaters:
That's my point, you guys didn't cheat but thats whay the Panthers fan base screamed afterwards. I think a couple of calls probably should of gone their way or been called like the Boldin example but when you watched the game the better team won. it's stupid when that fan base uses that as an excuse just like its stupid when fans here say Seattle is only good because they hold or cheat. Cossell did a film break down and said Seattle doesn't do anything that most other teams do, they are just better on that side of the ball.
After rambling my initial point is that you guys DID NOT cheat.
Interesting. I wonder how Cosell would reconcile the "everybody does it" line of logic with Seattle being the most penalized team in the league last year for pass interference? And for the record, Richard Sherman was tied for second most individual calls (5). I'd like to think that there's a reason for this and I'm pretty sure that it's not because Seattle is being picked on.
Personally, I'll watch maybe four games every Sunday and I've never (like, in my life) seen a defense play the way the Seahawks do. That's not to say that other defenses don't try to get away with stuff, but Seattle has taken it to a point where grabbing jerseys and hand-checking has become a staple of their defense. I read an article on this awhile back and the writer basically said that The Seahawks know they're skirting the rules and they're basically daring the refs to throw a flag. They're coached to do this because we all know that the refs won't catch it every time and even if they do, they certainly aren't going flag every single instance of it.
Whether or not this constitutes "cheating" is a matter of debate. A person cheating will usually try to hide their dishonesty. Can't fault Seattle for flaunting it and basically daring the refs to do something about it. And honestly, I don't see this being addressed until the NFL is forced to take action; likely because every other team will soon follow suit.
Copycat league, and all that.
[ Edited by baltien on Jun 24, 2014 at 6:39 PM ]