E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

Since football season only lasts another few hours – the Mitchell Report goes public at 1 p.m. and all other sports take a back seat after that – I thought I’d make one last pass on this whole spying issue with the Jets and Patriots.

Glauber was on WFAN this morning talking about the story and did a great job. Both he and Boomer both used the term “apples and oranges” to refer to the incidents of last January and September. They are correct. Taping defensive signals from a sideline and taping a game from an end zone perch are two different things. But they’re more like apples and pears, a little more closely related.

Like Mr. Miyagi said to the Karate Kid: “Different. But same.”

All you need are three words to tie the stories together: Jets, Patriots, videocamera.

And although the Jets will never admit to it, I’m not so sure the first incident didn’t lead to the second. Think about it. The Jets had their camera kicked out of the playoff game. The VERY NEXT GAME that the Jets played – which also happened to be against the Patriots – the Jets kicked a Pats cameraman out.

Tit for tat. And I'm not talking about Gate D.

Just so happens that NFL Security gets involved in the September incident at Giants Stadium, the film is stuffed into a secure box, winds up in the Commish’s office, and a half million dollars later here we are.

So yes, the acts were apples and oranges in terms of their legalities. But they are cousins in the same family tree of this rivalry, part of the evolution of disdain that has grown between New England and New York.