Let me begin with a disclaimer. I do not like the NE Patriots. Part of it is subjective - they've beaten a team I do like very much, the Steelers, with regularity. But part of it is objective - they strike me as smarmy.
Now there is unfortunate proof of their total smarminess.
The NFL has caught them cheating - videotaping the signals the other team sends in from the sidelines to the players on the field. Simply put they were caught stealing plays. It makes winning a whole lot easier when you know what the other team is going to run. This happened over the weekend in New York.
NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella on the New England sidelines when it was suspected he was recording the Jets' defensive signals. Sources say the visual evidence confirmed the suspicion.Goodell is considering severe sanctions, including the possibility of docking the Patriots "multiple draft picks" because it is the competitive violation in the wake of a stern warning to all teams since he became commissioner, the sources said. The Patriots have been suspected in previous incidents.
It has apparently happened before - last year in Wisconsin when the Patriots were playing the Packers.
For the sake of the game, the NFL better step up with those very severe sanctions. So much has been made about the need to punish individual players who take steroids or other drugs. But what of teams that cheat? What of those huge businesses called football teams cheat? Shouldn't they be severely punished as well?
The answer has to be yes and it should begin with the firing of the head coach. Any coach who permits and benefits from this should be fired - or at the very least suspended for some number of games. It really is gross stuff. And it makes you wonder about those three Super Bowls the Patriots won... or I should say it makes you wonder how they won those Super Bowls.
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Thinker, I agree. At some point I started referring to the Sports Page as "The Truth Section" of the newspaper.
I get the feeling someone's still bitter about that gorgeous 2002 Patriots upset playoff victory, blocked field goal attempt returned for a touchdown and all... :-)
I'm in an odd position with this. I'm a Patriots fan, but my psyche is scarred far more by cheering for a college that regularly takes a beating for playing by the rules in a farce known as Southeastern Conference football. So no matter how much I admire Belichick (note the spelling) in some areas, I can't defend cheating and claim even a speck of intellectual honesty.
So I don't defend the Pats here. I hope the consequences are severe. Even if "everyone does it!" (the refrain of the SEC fan), everyone needs to stop. The way to get there is through consistent enforcement of the rules.
At some point I started referring to the Sports Page as "The Truth Section" of the newspaper.
Ha! You don't live in the Southeastern US, I'll wager? It's still so absurd that I infer you must be speaking sarcastically.
A certain amount of deception, misdirection and obfuscation is part of football strategy, offensive and defensive. Likewise is developing the mental tools which enable one to decipher various physical keys and clues as to what the opponent is actually up to. The problem here is the use of prohibited technology, thereby gaining an unfair advantage. The same would be true if a team were caught intercepting the headset conversations of the opposing coaches.
I am a sportswriter who has covered championship football teams at the high school, and NCAA Division III, Division II, Division I-AA and Division I-A levels. I know several kids who have made it to the NFL. They are of one accord on this point: pro football is a business, cold, calculated and ruthless. It is not like college, they say. Given the degree to which big money and the media spectacle have corrupted the values of the NCAA (and I have witnessed exactly what happens when a small time program makes the leap to the majors) this is definitely food for thought. The Patriots' actions probably say more about business ethics than sports ethics.
Yes, some sportswriters are truth-tellers. But others are merely fanning the flames of the spectacle, riding the gravy-train and enjoying the perks of a high-level sports beat. Their sense of self-importance is often tied to the status of the beat they cover and they are unwilling to kill the goose that lays the golden egg by telling too much truth at one time.
Athletics at the highest-paid levels are becoming so corrupted by money and marketing, professional athletes are the last people we should look to for cultural mythmaking. It is at the lower levels -- high school and non-scholarship college programs-- where the positive competitive values still remain relatively intact. And it isn't a myth. It's a gritty, sweaty reality. The most genuinely heroic athletic achievements I have witnessed have invariably been at the high school level.
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