Musings on Patriot Cheating
A (Slightly) Contrary View
Sep 15, 2007 Gregory Arthur Anderson
The New England Patriots, the closest thing the NFL has to a dynasty at the moment, not to mention an organization other NFL teams have tried to emulate, got caught red handed last weekend. NFL Security caught a Patriot assistant coach videotaping New York Jet coaches. The NFL frowns on such actions, and slapped both the team and Head Coach Bill Belichick with hefty fines. Belichick accepted the league's decision calmly and tried to move on to the next game. Tony Dungy, head coach of the world champion Indianapolis Colts, called the incident "a sad day" for the NFL.
That's certainly true. Credibility is essential to any sport, especially professional sports. Fans must be confident they're watching honest competition, not a scripted sham. Cheating cannot be countenanced.
The question, of course, is what constitutes cheating. Belichick argued-- briefly-- to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that the taping was legal under Belichick's interpretation of the rules. That makes a certain sense. If the Patriots had believed they were breaking the rules they probably would not have done the deed out in the open. If there is "wiggle room" in the rule banning taping of opposing coaches, perhaps the Pats were free of evil intent. Goodell likely had larger intent in coming down so hard on the Patriots. After the Michael Vick disaster, the NBA referee point-shaving scandal, baseball's battle with steroids and other substances, and various athletes in various legal troubles, Goodell may have decided to draw a bright line for the sake of pro sports.
After all, had the Patriot coaches stolen Jet coaches' signals without using technology, no one would' say they shouldn't do it. The Jet coaches, and all coaches, are responsible for developing signalling systems that can't be easily stolen. Baseball teams use complex signalling systems for precisely that reason. Football teams, in fact, use phraseology to hide the plays they are going to run.
Concealing intentions goes beyond sports, of course. Businesses do it. Political parties do it. Governments do it a lot. Humans tend to push rules as far as they can get away with, and that's not always a bad thing. Many of the people responsible for human progress, after all, stretched and even broke the rules of their time. That's not to elevate the NFL beyond football, but it is to suggest an organicatiom filled with ultracompetitive men shouldn't be completely shocked when tules are tested. If one group tries to conceal, a competing group will likely attempt to discover.
The Patriots should not have tried to cheat. The NFL should come down hard on any team that tries. The attraction of sport, however, is that its a simpler version of the real world. In the real world, humans don't always follow every rule. That's one aspect of human nature.
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