Even Bill Belichick doesn’t know the meaning of ‘Pink Stripes’
COMMENTARY
Ernie Adams is still a mystery. “Pink Stripes’’ is still a mystery.
Not even Bill Belichick knows what the words mean.
“Yeah, I don’t know,’’ he said on WEEI Monday.
The phrase, “Pink Stripes,’’ has created a stir. In the documentary about the Patriots Super Bowl XLIX season titled “Do Your Job,’’ Adams is shown sitting in his office — where the football magic happens — and in the background, the words “Pink Stripes’’ are written on his white board, as noticed by BarstoolSports.com. Its meaning is unknown.
The show came days after a report from ESPN “Outside the Lines,’’ which outlines Spygate and Deflategate. In the article, Adams is painted as “a quirky man’’ and “a socially awkward amateur historian of pro football and the Vietnam War who often wore the same red, hole-ridden Patriots sweater from the 1970s.’’
Adams was also at the heart of the Patriots’ videotaping efforts during the Spygate scandal. And the legend of Adams grew in New England.
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For the years where the Patriots were taping signals, the man, who had a photographic memory and a gift for breaking down footage of hand signals, was an integral character. He would reportedly analyze the tape, catalogue and archive that footage, and relay information to Belichick by headset during gameplay.
“You’d want Bill and Ernie doing your taxes,’’ a former Patriots assistant coach told ESPN.com. “They would find all the loopholes, and then when the IRS would close them, they’d find more.’’
Quotes like this contextualize why the “Pink Stripes’’ phenomena gains momentum and is frequently referred to as #PinkStripes on Twitter.
The words probably have no more significant than Rust Cohle eating Vietnamese food in “True Detective’’ season 1. The banality of it’s meaning could greatly disappoint. Like the Vietnamese food, “Pink Stripes’’ could be no more than a red herring — perhaps intentionally placed to let viewers’ imaginations run wild with conspiracy theories. That would be typical of the Patriots and, apparently, of Adams — they love misdirection and mind games.
But perhaps, “Pink Stripes’’ is an essential phrase that unlock’s Adams’s secret football existence. Probably not.
With “Pink Stripes,’’ we’re all in the dark and, if you believe him, so is Belichick.
Casting the “Deflategate’’ movie
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