Overtime | Belichick receives well-deserved cheating penalty for Patriots

Kyle Nelson Columnist

Usually this column takes a fairly laid-back stance on over-sensationalized sport issues, but New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick’s cheating is cause for some serious contemplation. Apart from the Red Sox ending the curse of the Bambino and Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star, there are few moments I find to be more anticipated than the opportunity to rip Belichick apart.

After Belichick was caught videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals in a game earlier this month, the National Football League (NFL) took action, fining Belichick a record $500,000 and the Patriots $250,000. They also deemed it necessary to take away a 2008 draft pick, which will likely be a first- rounder. Are these penalties appropriate? Yes, they absolutely are, and if the NFL decides to keep fining the Patriots for the next 50 years, it will still be an appropriate punishment.

Let’s not forget that Belichick is the Coach K of football. He is the Darth Vader of the sports world, a crotchety old man who puts the media in fits and leaves fans scratching their heads. Watching him go down is a weenie roast for sports journalists and opposing fans alike.

It’s not like the Wesleyan alumnus is breaking down and humbling himself; he’s throwing napalm on the fire.

“As the commissioner acknowledged, our use of sideline video had no impact on the outcome of last week’s game,” reads Belichick’s apology. “We have never used sideline video to obtain a competitive advantage while the game was in progress...My interpretation of a rule in the Constitution and Bylaws was incorrect.” We’re talking about one of the least sincere apologies since before crooks comissioned PR execs to write apologies for them!

The evidence is simple, even if you barely watch a game each year. Watching the Patriots offensive line effortlessly stop every Jets blitz was painful enough, but the image of a smug Tom Brady picking the Jets’ defense apart is a thousand times worse. And the handshake at the end of the game made my blood run cold; the gall of Bill Belichick!

This, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of the worst kind of cheating. Taking steroids is an individual cheating and is perhaps more understandable in our society. However, when a successful team and an organization is complicit in such devious cheating and a coach widely considered to be one of the true masterminds in the game’s history is behind the whole enchilada, it exposes the way that the game is played and how the League is run.

This is not the first time, either. The Patriots have received complaints in past years about drifting video cameras on their sidelines. But, just like the refereeing scandal that rocked the National Basketball Association this summer, fans were told that their paranoia was getting in the way of a good time. If you think that Commissioner Roger Goodell’s record fines are anything but an apology to Jets fans and NFL fans alike, you are crazy. A team that has dominated for as long as the Patriots will have to face the same scrutiny that record-breaking Major League Baseball sluggers or professional cyclists receive after steroids allegations.

I can’t say that I feel bad about the decision. For a team that has obliterated my Panthers more than enough times, and who not only had the courage to sign Randy Moss but also make him one of the comeback successes of the year, I feel no sympathy. It’s like Goliath stealing David’s playbook or Jaws gaining an even greater advantage over northeastern sea bathers. What the heck! With the recent influx of (European) football jerseys on campus, I’ll suggest another comparison. It would be like Liverpool cheating in a game against Bolton: unnecessary, pointless and completely uncalled for. Basically, the Patriots had an advantage to begin with and cheated anyway. Is there anything much uglier in the sports world?

Cheating is never a good thing, but the kind that the Patriots conspired is even less acceptable. And yes, there are millions of other issues out there that are far more serious than cheating in the NFL, but Belichick’s downfall deserves to be celebrated for years to come. The Patriots aren’t going to stop winning any time soon and they’re still the best team in football, but it’s important that a man as arrogant as Belichick knows that his reputation doesn’t come with a get-out-of-jail-free pass.

Kyle Nelson ’09 is an English and Africana Studies double-major. This semester he will editorialize on issues in national athletics.