D22's Book due out December 14th

[TommyD420]

Ok, so...I looked up some reviews for this book on Amazon.

(One Star) Poorly written and filled with Loose Change like conspiracy nonsense; a complete waste of money
By Mark on January 2, 2014
Format: Hardcover

As a die-hard fan of the game, I was intrigued by this book after finding it through google, and wanted some ammo to pester my good friend who is an annoyingly obnoxious Patriots fan. There is nothing else like this on the market, and the amazon reviews were fairly good.

Boy, was I wrong. This is one of the worst books about the NFL, (and sports in general for that matter) that I have ever read.

Do not trust these reviews. After doing some digging, a majority of these reviewers have no history. Meaning, an account was solely created to write a review on a book that didn't even manage to get a publisher.

I hate the Pats as much as any fan, but this book is just embarrassingly terrible. Worse than last 10 years of my Detroit Lions. Here are the biggest problems I had:

1) In most of this book, the author strings together some seriously insane theories without any shred of evidence. He basically tries to claim that since the Patriots have a great home record, they have secret frequencies that gives Brady direction on where to throw passes from the eye in the sky. It makes some of Skip Bayless's claims look normal. At no point does he back up a single theory with any evidence. At all. It is all conjecture. For example, he posts stat 1 and stat 2, then tries to tie them together by explaining the are tied to "crazy theory". It reminded me of Dylan Avery's Loose Change documentary. Put down the pipe.

2) At no point does the book offer an interview to comment on his investigation. As a matter of fact, there is not 1 credible person that adds any sort of commentary to the book at all. He rehashes information that is public knowledge, and pasted interviews that have already taken place. You would think a credible author would have the clout to talk to someone that matters about such a topic. Instead he just pasted interviews over and over and then tries to sew them together use Michael Moore tactics. You will not learn anything new about SpyGate that isn't already current on the internet.

3) The author makes claims that no one has even commented on.They are CRAZY. The theories are so bizarre and strange, not one person will validate anything he says. He does not report on facts or resources, its just pasted statistics, and then a crazed point. For example, since New England didn't have an offensive coordinator for a year, they are cheating. It doesn't make any sense at all.

4) No reputable reviewers from any new source have reviewed this book. I was not aware of this until after I read it. Since I bought it on my kindle, I figured that there had to be plenty of reviews to compare my thoughts to. There wasn't any. The national media ignored this book. Like I should have.

5) The theme of the book is essentially that since New England as had such a great deal of consistent success, they must be cheating. The author goes back to this idea constantly without any real point or evidence to back up his claims (another theme of the this book).

6) The credentials of the author are unintentionally hilarious. " Bryan O'Leary is a first time author and die hard NFL fan. ". Yep. The books reads like a fan writing a 200 page rant on the ESPN message boards.

The author is a crazed sports fan, drunk with hate, and this book is an incoherent mess with no credible sources and some insane conspiracy theories. He gathered up all the old stories that anyone could find on the web, did a couple of statistical calculations and pulled a theory out of his ass.

This book makes Skip Bayless sound normal.

(One Star) This book is hilariously terrible; Alex Jones, is that you?
By Dogloopy on January 26, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
I've read quite a few insane books in my day, but this one takes the cake.

The author has zero credibility, and after doing some digging, I couldn't find anyone of merit that even mentioned this book. It feels like a super long Facebook pst you know, the kind that
clogs your Facebook feed where you just want to block the person.

Also, look at the fake positive reviews. They are hilarious. A ton of them mention the Pittsburgh Steelers as being "the best franchise in spots". hahah. Because that is relevant when discussing a book about New England. People don't like New England that same reason they don't like Alabama. You get tired of the same team winning.

The book only lacks evidence and credibility. Its reads like my crazy uncle talking about how he refuses to use any kind of cell phone because the CIA is tapping into his conversations.

The book summed up in 1 sentence:

A team can't be this good for such along period of time, and although I don't have any evidence/sources/witnesses/testimonies or anything at all for any of my claims, here are a bunch of crazy theories about how they win.

Don't waste your time.

1.0 out of 5 stars Here is 10 minutes of my time, October 3, 2014
By
Matthew D. Felix (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Kindle Edition)
--why hasn't anyone talked? What was the turnover of the teams from 2001 -2007? maybe 30+ players per year? So 200 players. Yet not one player, out of the league, sitting at home drunk and high on vicodine, decided to call a reporter and give an exclusive?

--why don't you ever hear intelligent, skeptical people like trent dilfer, troy aikman or tony dungy talk about spygate? Why is it always some non-skill player who went to a JuCo who had no actual connection to the team? Spygate is nothing but a folktale that has been passed down among a certain set of players who realize that in the age of reality TV all you have to do is say something outrageous to get your name in the paper.

--If the Pats had a system they were able to use against the Rams, why did they miss the playoff the next year (and why no increase between the first game and 2nd in division in 2 of 3 cases)?

--why isnt there any pattern in the division games in general? Why in 2003 no better against the Jets in week 16 than in week 3? If you go thru the seasons there is no pattern in this regard. Ditto historically. Disregarding the 2 Superbowl losses that were extremely close (Just like the wins) there is no trend whatsoever other than the fact that Brady's performance has been tending to drop off gradually as he ages. What you have is a team that went 11-5 or better with incredible consistency for over a decade

(more)

[TommyD420]

1.0 out of 5 stars “The first thing every conspiracy buff knows: where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, January 27, 2014
By
BBTL - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Kindle Edition)
The positive reviews here are a testament to people’s willingness to believe anything that reinforces their own preconceived beliefs. This is an inherently dishonest book and author Bryan O’Leary unwaveringly slants the story through equal parts misrepresentation, speculation, fabrication and omission.

Anybody who checks his “sourcing” would soon realize the deceit. O’Leary’s attributions wouldn’t pass even the most lenient of newspaper or publishing house standards, so it’s no wonder the book is self-published.

Most egregious is his claim of a second helmet frequency. It’s the starting point for much of his baseless speculation, and the first thing he cites in interviews: “Did you know Tom Brady had a second frequency in his helmet that didn’t turn off at the 15-second cutoff?”

O’Leary cites two sources for the claim: a September 13th, 2007 Chris Mortensen report, and a fourth-person hearsay retelling of a Doug Flutie rumor.

Here’s what Mortensen wrote: “The league also was reviewing a possible violation into the number of radio frequencies the Patriots were using during Sunday's game, sources said.” O’Leary rewrote this in the first chapter as “the Patriots were also found to be in violation of exceeding the number of radio frequencies they were allowed to use during a game.” Later, he wrote it this way: “Chris Mortensen of ESPN reported that the NFL had caught the Patriots using an alternate radio frequency in violation of NFL rules.”

Mortensen never wrote that the Patriots were caught doing this, just that the league was “reviewing a possible violation”. And his report says nothing about helmet frequencies or 15-second cutoffs.

Had O’Leary kept researching the radio frequency claim, he’d discover a September 21st, 2007 Mike Reiss article that states the league investigated and “have no evidence to support that claim,” according to league spokesman Greg Aiello. On May 11th, 2008, Aiello repeated the same thing, saying the league found no proof of any manipulation of the coach-to-quarterback radio systems. Given O’Leary’s exhaustive Internet research, it’s doubtful he missed these Aiello quotes, but since they don’t support his narrative, well…

The other source for O’Leary’s “15-second cutoff” tale is a Doug Flutie rumor that ties back to ESPN’s Dan Le Batard. Here’s O’Leary’s telling of the story:

“Doug Flutie reportedly told John Saunders, a Canadian/American ESPN television analyst, that during one of his first games in New England, he accidentally picked up the wrong helmet with the green dot in the back (Tom Brady's backup helmet) and held it to his ear, so he could follow the play calling. This is something backup quarterbacks do often during a game. Flutie told Saunders that he was amazed that the coaches kept right on speaking to Brady past the fifteen-second cutoff, right up until the snap. In addition, the voice in Tom Brady's helmet was explaining the exact defense he was about to face. This story was revealed by Dan Le Batard, an ESPN contributor, on his talk radio show on The Ticket in Miami, Florida. Le Batard added, ‘We've tried to talk to Flutie on our radio show about it, but he hangs up on my producer.’”

Here was O’Leary’s sourcing:
7 Le Batard, Dan. "The Dan Le Batard Show." 790 AM the Ticket, February 1, 2008.

This is a useless attribution as there are no audio archives available of that show. I’m convinced O’Leary never heard it, but instead was quoting a Le Batard mailbag that was reprinted on countless football message boards. Here’s the actual Le Batard quote about Flutie from that mailbag:

"I've heard second hand about doug flutie being amazed when he got there that the plays were being piped into his helmet warning brady what was coming.....we've tried to talk to flutie on our radio show about it but he hangs up on my producer....."

The date of Le Batard’s quote was February 4th, 2008 (three days after the supposed radio show). The quote O’Leary used is obviously from the transcript, as he quotes word for word Le Batard’s “hangs up on my producer” line (Had it actually been from the radio show, Le Batard never would have said “on our radio show”) and paraphrases the “amazed” part. And once again, there’s no mention whatsoever of the “15-second cutoff”; O’Leary embellishes that entirely.

Don’t forget, this is a message-board transcript of Le Batard telling a story he heard (and he never says who told him the story) of something Flutie allegedly told Saunders. O’Leary’s at least four parties removed from the original “source”, and he never interviewed Flutie, Saunders or Le Batard to get verification. There’s no way multiple-party hearsay like this would ever pass any publication’s sourcing standards.

But here’s the beauty line from O’Leary: “This story has been circulating for years and Doug Flutie has yet to deny the story. He could simply take an interview and take back his words, but he allows the anecdote to remain unrefuted.”

Get that? In O’Leary’s tortured mind, the burden falls on Flutie to disprove fourth-party hearsay of something he may never have uttered in the first place. This is what constitutes proof?

In interviews, O’Leary embellishes even further. On a Buffalo radio podcast, he said this:

“They continue to talk to Tom Brady right through the snap, they're telling him what the defenses are, they're telling him perfect adjustments, and when he asks about it, he's told, 'Don't worry about it.' And when this story becomes known, of course many people want to interview Doug Flutie to get him to repeat it. Well, by then, he had been coached by the Patriots owner, fans, or whoever, so now he won't repeat it, but he also conspicuously doesn't deny it. So essentially, it happened or he'd be denying it.”

In addition to new story flourishes (“Don’t worry about it”), O’Leary says somebody muzzled Flutie. This is something of a habit for O’Leary, the paranoid delusion that anyone who won’t talk to him must have been silenced. When Mortensen wouldn’t do an interview, O’Leary said, “Why would he have need to not talk to me at all? The NFL's telling them in no uncertain terms to put the kibosh on it.“After Matt Walsh refused an interview, O’Leary tweeted, “Ever wonder why Matt Walsh never wrote a book about Spygate? R must have paid him off.” When no media member would give him the time of day, he tweeted, “ESPN won't have me on, they are in the pocket of NFL.” And recently, after Bill Cowher said Spygate had nothing to do with any of the Steelers’ losses to the Patriots, O’Leary tweeted, “how would Cowher know ? Covering scandal for NFL like everyone eating from that trough, ie NOT asking obvious questions.” Starting to sense the pattern here?

So the whole “15-second cutoff” line – the entire backbone for his “how it all worked” speculation – was never stated by Mortensen and wasn’t part of the Le Batard account of the Flutie rumor. O’Leary made it up out of whole cloth.

O’Leary’s second chapter opens, “The first thing every conspiracy buff knows: where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Rational people know this isn’t true, and it especially isn’t true when even the smoke is manufactured.

Each new O’Leary claim is more ridiculous than the last, including:
• Ernie Adams is the true ringmaster, with the power to overrule every play call, even when the play is in progress. Belichick, per O’Leary, is no more than the team’s public face (because we all know how much he relishes and excels in that role). This all stems from the fact nobody knows what Adams does.
• The assistant coaches are worthless because they didn’t come from big football programs (Hope Don Shula – like Josh McDaniels a John Carroll alum – knows he’s worthless). In fact, the Patriots don’t look for coaches, but co-conspirators, since Adams knows every single thing that’s about to happen on the field.
• Tom Brady took a team-friendly deal because he knows his success is only a byproduct of the “Spygate apparatus”. He couldn’t hold out for fear of the secret of his success being revealed.

It goes on like this chapter after chapter. There’s nothing resembling proof for any of the claims; Just O’Leary’s fevered fantasies about “how this would work.” It would take a book twice its size to point out all the lies, fabrications and just sheer lunacy in this book.

O’Leary’s trump card, he believes, is his statistical analysis, but those studies are fatally flawed by the notion that NFL teams represent a homogenous population. Over the course of 11 seasons (the chosen range for the studies), there are too many variables to consider such as injuries, player turnover, and coaching turnover to be able to view these teams with any sort of sameness. The Patriots and the Eagles are the only teams that had the same coach over that 11-year span. And the Patriots had Brady for 10 of those years. How can that organizational consistency be measured against the Bills or Dolphins, who each had four coaches over the same span, or the Raiders, who had seven? Even Peyton Manning had three coaches over that time period.

And even if we accepted O’Leary’s statistical methodology, he still can’t play it straight. He omits the Patriots’ 5-11 year (which would skew the numbers); he says no other team averaged over 6 home wins a season, when in fact the Ravens did; and he keeps saying the Patriots were “three standard deviations” from the average, when in fact they were closer to 2 than 3.

The only mainstream interview O’Leary got was with the New York Post’s Bart Hubbuch (who, on the eve of a Pats/Jets tilt, recognized a good vehicle to tweak his readers when he saw it). O’Leary told Hubbuch he invested $30 thousand into writing and self-publishing the book. O’Leary published the Hubbch article on his website, save for the part where Hubbuch brought up the time O’Leary was fined and suspended by the NASD. Unable to be honest about anything, O’Leary wrote “Edited down for length”.

People can believe what they want about Spygate. But this book is simply the ranting of a pathological liar, packaged in $30,000 worth of tin foil.

1.0 out of 5 stars Opinion not fact., August 29, 2012
By
Joey - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Hardcover)
This guy does some research and stat analysis, but nothing that can be considered completely accurate. All the info comes from other news sources. No interviews of his own.

To say this story was buried by the NFL when they showed the tapes on National TV and it was talked about for a year straight, is pretty misleading.

1.0 out of 5 stars Is this guy for real?, August 18, 2012
By
History Man "Pseudo-intellectual" (Southern, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Hardcover)
There is virtually nothing in this book that you can't find from public sources so don't waste your money on this crap. Most of his so-called "proof" are theories the author puts forward without a shred of actual proof behind them, He is just strings together items and follows up by asking if its a conspiracy. Typical fallacy of those uneducated in scientific theory. You know "Riots almost always occur in warmer weather, ice cream sales also increase, perhaps we should check out what Ben & Jerry are putting in their ice cream to cause riots??"

Second, the statistical analysis is just the author using basic formulas from algebra I that you took in seventh grade and then acting like they mean something. Like the Patriots beating the Vegas point spread 68% of the time, well, duh, good teams usually do beat the spread, that's why they are good.

Also the author fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of the spread, it is NOT to predict the winner and loser of the game. The purpose of the point spread is to EQUALIZE the AMOUNT OF MONEY BET on the two teams so that the house will not lose money no matter who wins. From the house point of view the ideal spread is the one that gets equal amounts of money on both teams so that the house can make money off the "vig" the difference the loser pays over his bet, since football bets don't have odds like other sports like horse racing to attract money to the less attractive teams, e.g. the underdogs. So the basing of his "accusations" of NE cheating based on point spreads is like saying that farmers yields are controlled by the commodities futures pricing--just because relationship exists, it doesn't equal control.

This book is waste of time, money and energy.

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[TommyD420]

1.0 out of 5 stars Questionable Author Background, August 13, 2012
By
P. Wilson (Seacoast NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Hardcover)
It's interesting that the author a financial "professional" was fined and suspended by FINRA, "NASD Regulation, Inc., today announced that an NASD Regulation Hearing Panel expelled Premier Capital Management, Inc., Dallas, TX, for placing materially misleading advertisements in national publications to tout Continental Investment Corporation (OTCBB:CICGQ), failing to disclose compensation received from Continental, and other violations. The firm's president and owner, Bryan James O'Leary, was suspended for 325 days and fined $62,500"

(hee)

1.0 out of 5 stars Opinions, circumstantial, and unreliable resources, August 6, 2012
By
bonne - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Hardcover)
I overheard a discussion about this book this morning and when asked several times "Would anybody go on record saying that?". The author's response was "no" and concocted facts to relate them in a manner that is far from the truth. His "opinions" are constructed in a manner to make this "scandal" greater than it was. Records alone show the coaching genius and talent of this team for the Bill-Brady decade. Also stated by the author "no journalist would touch this story out of fear". On the contrary, journalists report on facts and resources, statisticians manipulate numbers to alter obvious facts.

2.0 out of 5 stars Stop beating dead horse, September 6, 2012
By
Steve Griffin (BALTIMORE, MD, US) - See all my reviews
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Spygate the Untold Story (Kindle Edition)
The facts in this book are fascinating. My only complaint is the author just kept repeating himself over and over. I started feeling like he was just trying to fill up pages. Get to the point!!!

Bwahahahahaha

The comments in the reviews are even more entertaining than the reviews themselves, when D22 jumps into his sock puppet accounts and tries to defend himself.

[patsRmyboys]

omg, what a ****ing loser... as to the NASD issue, you mean to say he... CHEATED? *Gasp*

[patsRmyboys]

Why does this Dawsondouche suck this guys dick all the time?

[Patriots4ever]

Also the author fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of the spread, it is NOT to predict the winner and loser of the game. The purpose of the point spread is to EQUALIZE the AMOUNT OF MONEY BET on the two teams so that the house will not lose money no matter who wins. From the house point of view the ideal spread is the one that gets equal amounts of money on both teams so that the house can make money off the "vig" the difference the loser pays over his bet, since football bets don't have odds like other sports like horse racing to attract money to the less attractive teams, e.g. the underdogs. So the basing of his "accusations" of NE cheating based on point spreads is like saying that farmers yields are controlled by the commodities futures pricing--just because relationship exists, it doesn't equal control.

I can even keep track at how many times numerous folks here, mainly Mikiemo IIRC, tried to explain this to him. These comments and "reviews" are hilarious. One guy actually wrote, "the facts in this book are fascinating. My only complaint is the author just kept repeating himself over and over. I started feeling like he was just trying to fill up pages. Get to the point!!!"

LOL, this thread is like a time machine, yet in the now.

[Beaglebay]

Originally Posted by patsRmyboys

Why does this Dawsondouche suck this guys dick all the time?

No one knows why, it's a Suckdickgate mystery.

[Hawg73]

Those reviews posted here were pure gold. The poor saps that actually bought this book found out the hard way that D22 is a crazed nutbag-- a conclusion we all reached years ago without having to invest a dime.


The author is a crazed sports fan, drunk with hate, and this book is an incoherent mess with no credible sources and some insane conspiracy theories. He gathered up all the old stories that anyone could find on the web, did a couple of statistical calculations and pulled a theory out of his ass.


Beautifully put and the idea of all these people discovering that they spent cash on a lunatic's rants is a delicious treat over morning coffee.

Thanks to all for bringing this stuff to my attention. I had no idea that the book was real until now and the legal charge against him is just frosting on the cake.



He spent 30 grand on this piece of shit! LMFAOWTFBBQ!!!!!

[mikiemo83]

I must defend my close personal pal D22 and explain this was not the quality work of Lee from NRG. Lee would be much more complete and detailed in his writing when he uncovers the greatest criminal sports mind in history Bill Bellychick.


Lee hung with some great men on knowledge

Ronnie Reegen



judy Priest

[Beaglebay]

Dtutu withheld information about BB's ties to Illuminati, Patriot-owned satellites made by a super-secret company called SpaceKraft-and TFB being injected with Atlantian DNA during his knee surgery-for his second blockbuster of Classic Illiterature.

[Hawg73]

The more I think about this story the better it gets.

Failed rock drummer and stock fraud is driven insane by Patriots success which he is convinced is due to cheating, even though that is how he makes his living, writes self-published book for 30K and fraudulently attempts to puff it up to make it successful, is exposed as a swindler by NASD, heavily fined and suspended and then exposed as a fraud by people lured in by his lunatic ranting who then go out of their way to make sure nobody else buys his hilariously insane and amateurish attempt at a book.

This might be the greatest story ever told. His life is ruined and the New England Patriots had a hand in it.

Somebody call ESPN for a 30/30 special.

[patswin]

I look forward to D22 posting again someday from a homeless shelter with a borrowed smartphone, defiant to the end.
The man is a true lunatic. And that's saying something, given some of the lesser nutjobs that have passed through here.

[patsload]

Wait is Bryan O'Leary, "Lee" aka D22?

(I'm slow)

[mikiemo83]

Originally Posted by patsload

Wait is Bryan O'Leary, "Lee" aka D22?

(I'm slow)

no he is not

D22 is Lee Mangano - drummer of NRG band on the original soundtrack to transformer in 1987, leader of the Drum school videos, sex god to the masses of women who knows he can keep the beat!!!!

[patsload]

Originally Posted by mikiemo83

no he is not

D22 is Lee Mangano - drummer of NRG band on the original soundtrack to transformer in 1987, leader of the Drum school videos, sex god to the masses of women who knows he can keep the beat!!!!

Well then I am confused.