Robert Carroll:Saints Audio Engineer Calls ESPN Story Crazy (1 Viewer)

[saint-58]

It does seem kinda of odd how the stories broke tbh, almost like an attempt to sway public opinion. Whats next? We sign Brees to a contract and a story brakes about how all the upper management is addicted to blow and hookers?

No, no now wait!!! You're confusing the Saints upper management with the Secret Service. Two different animals there!!!

 

[Nightshade]

Telex BTR-1 1-to-1 UHF Full-Duplex, Digitally Encrypted Wireless Intercom Base Station Transceiver

These are the radios the NFL uses. Not only are the frequencies (each team is assigned several of them) assigned by the NFL on gameday, the whole system is encrypted so even if you stumbled across the opponents frequency, you wouldnt pick it up anyway.

Right which means the only way someone would be able to listen to another teams chatter would be to basically have the NFL freq coordinator giving you the info

 

[JustaSharkie]

So who or where did this story orginate from?

Let's ID the source of this nonsense so that we can go back to the starting point when nothing is revealed.

It sure does *feel* like a deflection-type story to me. Besides... whats a little slander and libel at this point when talking about the Saints these days, right?

 

[Professor]

Telex BTR-1 1-to-1 UHF Full-Duplex, Digitally Encrypted Wireless Intercom Base Station Transceiver

These are the radios the NFL uses. Not only are the frequencies (each team is assigned several of them) assigned by the NFL on gameday, the whole system is encrypted so even if you stumbled across the opponents frequency, you wouldnt pick it up anyway.

What gets me is that ESPN went with this story, apparently without thinking it through. I could see if they broke the story with a lot of doubt about its veracity, but they broke it as if it is absolute fact, if what I read in this forum is correct. (I don't watch ESPN, so I can't say I heard it myself.) Someone has pointed out in another thread, for instance, that they are using the Katrina year on ESPN as anecdotal "proof" that the Saints were worse off because they could no longer listen in on the opposing teams' coaches. That's lunacy!

My big question is, why didn't ESPN look into the near impossibility of this, not to mention any shred of help it would have given them, before airing this report on Outside the Lines? Could it be that they didn't WANT to know about or consider this?

 

[Jim Bowie]

What gets me is that ESPN went with this story, apparently without thinking it through. I could see if they broke the story with a lot of doubt about its veracity, but they broke it as if it is absolute fact, if what I read in this forum is correct. (I don't watch ESPN, so I can't say I heard it myself.) Someone has pointed out in another thread, for instance, that they are using the Katrina year on ESPN as anecdotal "proof" that the Saints were worse off because they could no longer listen in on the opposing teams' coaches. That's lunacy!

My big question is, why didn't ESPN look into the near impossibility of this, not to mention any shred of help it would have given them, before airing this report on Outside the Lines? Could it be that they didn't WANT to know about or consider this?

Whether this is a dog pile, witch hunt, or a planned conspiracy it is having the same effect on this organization. The effect is that everyone is having to defend themsleves from slanderous stories which aren't true. Who is responsible? Roger Goodell & the NFL. This is what happens when the bar of accusation is set so low & pushed by the league against it's own members. The back lash caused by these accusations will be felt for years.

For those who will say the Saints brought this upon themsleves, remember this. The league has proven two things. 1) Gregge Williams is a nut & ego maniac. 2) The Saints may have had one game where there were bountied involved.

For Roger Goodell to insinuate that the Saints had an ongoing pay to injure program which was in place & used for an entire 3 years even during PRESEASON games is just as ludicrous as these other accusations. the problem is once the bar is set this low, it can't be set any higher any more. Thanks Roger for ruining your own league.

 

[darkhornet]

Something that ESPN has left out is how hard this would be the NFL has whats called a "Frequency Coordinator" that assigns the frequency each team uses each week so unless Loomis had a spy in the NFL offices or in each of the Saints opponents this would be impossible. Teams guard these frequency assignments like they do their playbooks. The media is acting like he tried to phone tap them over a hard wired communication line.

Also the equipment they use isn't something you can pick up at Radio Shack or Best Buy this is the best money can buy and at the best if you had the ability to "hack the frequency" during the game, the time it would take to determine the frequency still wouldn't allow it to be feasible.

My impression has been that this was not a case of "hijacked" the feed. My understanding, the accusation is more like a direct wire from the coaching booth to Loomis's seat. If this were true, it wouldn't need any wireless frequency. To me, this is the only form of accusation that would make any sense, given what everyone's already covered about the impossibility of the "tapping" approach.

Having said that, I don't buy this form of the accusation. Just that it would be the more probable of the two.

 

[Vacherie Saint]

How many credible sources will it take for ESPN to drop this witch hunt? There has been a wave of people offiliated with those teams at many levels who have disputed the claim, and all ESPN has is an anonymous source who alleges that a device existed. Yet, instead of issuing an apology, they double down.

 

[DomeDude]

Right which means the only way someone would be able to listen to another teams chatter would be to basically have the NFL freq coordinator giving you the info

This would not even work. Remember back in the day you could open other people's garage doors with your remote if you happened along one with the same frequency ? Well nowadays they use encryption chips, so even if the remote is the same frequency, it wont open the door, because the encryption chips dont match. That is the same principle with these radios, so even if you know the correct frequency, without the compatible encryption chip, you will only hear static or more likely, silence.

 

[TheDeuce53]

As much as I disagreed with a lot of what Florio said during the bounty ordeal, I have to give it to him for calling out ESPN on their BS on this one.