So Wait, Is It Cheaters Never Prosper, or do They Always Prosper?

Bill Belichick is a cold stone cheater. But no one can take those 3 Super Bowls away from him, as much as we wish we could. But hey, let the Rain Man of Football have his day in the sun with a hoodie on.

There's a lot of perspectives on this, for the Pats homer view, from Bill Simmons and Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders, go here.

For the ProFootballTalk's uncharacteristically silly view that Mangini should have said something as a Patriots assistant, go here and scroll down.

For the sanest perspective, good old Dr. Z of SI has his ruminations here. Money quote:

"At one point we had a good drive going against the Patriots," said one Lion who doesn't want his name involved in this mess, but was willing to talk about it. "Mike Martz really had 'em going. They were getting fouled up, lining up wrong, we were moving the ball. Then boom, the headset from the sidelines to the coaches' booth goes out.

"Next possession we were moving the ball again and the same thing happened. You know it only takes two or three plays to mess up a drive."

Matt Millen, the Lions' GM, was talking to Bengals' coach Marvin Lewis at the league meetings. He started telling him the story.

"Yeah, I know," Lewis said. "Headset went out. It happened to me in Foxboro, too."