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Football, Lies and Videotape
by Chris Brophy
20/9/2007
Last Sunday all the talk following the Patriots win over the Jets was focusing on the dominance that was displayed by the Super Bowl favourites and in the explosive debut of Randy Moss in the red, white and blue. Within a few hours, all of that was a side show to the fast growing rumour and then confirmation that the Patriots and Head Coach Bill Belichick were to be investigated by the NFL for allegedly videotaping the Jets sidelines to try and gather information about the (defensive) signals they were using to send in plays.
Within a few days, evidence was gathered and a decision made. The Patriots were found guilty and were punished with a loss of draft picks (depending on their circumstances).
Open and shut case it appears. But it opens up a can of worms and those little critters head off in many different directions.
How Long Has This Being Going On?
As the story grew, several players and teams seemed to think this wasn’t a one-off. Have the Patriots being doing this for as long as Belichick has been in charge? This is a team that is the team of the decade thus far and a lot of the credit for that success has gone to Belichick, a guy who has seemingly gotten over not having quite as much talent as some other teams but being able to put people in the right place and get production from them. Add in his scheming ability and you have a coach who could have retired at the end of last season and be heading straight to Canton if he so desired. Now, all that credit he has received has a dark cloud hovering over it. Have the Patriots had the drop on everyone and if so, for how long?
It will be impossible to prove, but almost impossible for the speculation to go away as well. Being found with your hand in the cookie jar means people tend to believe it’s not the first time you’ve been snacking without their knowledge.
Is It Cheating Though?
Belichick, when addressing this matter, made out he had misinterpreted the rules. A likely story you might think and I dare say, he knew he shouldn’t be doing it but teams are always looking for an edge and I’ll wager it’s something that teams have tried to do before, just in different ways. So you can’t tape the signals, but you could have someone watch and make notes (on paper or with a dictaphone). It might not be half as effective, but it could still help provide similar results.
All teams use film to study what opponents do. This seems to be a case of matching up the signals to the plays so it would probably be possible to match up some notes to try and garner the same results although admittedly, it would probably be less effective.
Also, given that nearly every (offensive) play caller you see sending in his call to the quarterback via radio covers his mouth, it shows the level of paranoia coaches in the league have to this kind of thing going on so I doubt very much that the Patriots are the first or last team to try and gather information by being, shall we say inventive, on an opponent as the game goes on.
Does The Crime Fit The Punishment?
Roger ‘The Hammer’ Goodell came down hard and quick on the Pats. A loss of a high draft choice(s) as well as a fine for Belichick and the team were his decision.
Was that the best option though? I understand a message had to be sent and being seeing as weak on this was not an option but could something more effective have been done? The loss of a future draft choice hurts any team, especially one that has used the draft as effectively as the Patriots, but it’s still a punishment that might take some time to really come through and at the end of the day, you can’t miss something you never had. There is also the salary cap to consider. While every team wants to add good players, they cost money and the Patriots now don’t have to spend the money that signing a first round draft choice takes. Instead, they can just throw that money at a free agent. If you are going to punish a team by removing a potential high profile player from them, then you need to throw in a cap hit as well to make its impact felt with full force.
The fine to both team and coach don’t exactly hurt either. If you are going to punish a guy earning $4million plus a season, it has to be at a higher level. Same goes for the team itself, as the Patriots aren’t exactly going to go under (financially) because of this.
For me, two punishments would have been better. A suspension for Belichick and by suspension, I mean he is not allowed anywhere near the stadium on game day. The best game for it to happen should be for the return fixture with the Jets. The other punishment I would have considered levying is the loss of the win. I would not reverse the result and give the Jets a win, regardless of what went on. The Jets didn’t lose the game by such a margin just because of this incident and given the advantage the Patriots would have gained it seems like it would have had more effect in the return fixture later this season so just give both teams a loss, allowing the Patriots to only maintain the points scored for the game in their tie breaking procedures if it ever applies. This way, they are punished but the Jets are not rewarded, they just get the disadvantage they would have had in the next game cancelled out by Belichick not being there and hit with a loss without actually losing the game which given the uproar this has created, looks better on paper this season.v By doing this, the punishment plays into this season, just like this situation has played into this season. It gives the Patriots a handicap they were trying to unwittingly put on other teams against the opponent they were caught against. Taking a high draft pick away does effect the team long term and some might say if they have been doing this for a period of time, then something that gets them back over time is the best way to deliver justice but at the end of the day, they have been found guilty of doing wrong in one game, the other stuff is just speculation at this point so taking the result away and restoring the parity that the NFL so loves for the next Pats Jets match up makes the most sense to me.
Stop It Happening Again.
No one wants to see the league brought into disrepute like this so it would be good to see something done to address this for the good of the game overall. At this moment in time, offenses in the NFL have an advantage because they can send in their plays via radio. It’s quicker and apart from the covering of mouths as mentioned previously, is a lot less likely to be intercepted by an opponent. If offenses can do this, why not allow defenses to as well? All D’s have a signal caller (usually the middle linebacker) so allow the Defensive Coordinator to be able to do the same as his offensive counterpart and have both sides of the ball on a level playing field.
He NFL enjoys giving offenses the advantage in many ways, rule changes and innovations such as radio have happened because the league is scared to death of a return of the so called ‘dead ball era’ and thinks offensive football puts bums on seats (in stadiums and in front of the TV) but when an event like this happens, you have to consider the overall good of the game. At the end of the day, cheating of any kind always has a negative effect on the way any game is perceived. By doing this, you cut a possible avenue off. Just because the Patriots got caught, doesn’t mean someone else won’t try something similar in the future if things are left the way they are.
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