Integrity of the game
Recently two of the major professional sports, baseball and basketball, have been rocked with scandals that go to the integrity of the competition. Baseball with performance enhancing drugs and basketball with the referee gambling scandal. It has always seemed that professional football was immune to such scandals, even though the tell tale signs of performance enhancing drugs are seemingly evident in the sport.
And now the story that will not go away for the NFL, Spygate. If you are unfamiliar, Spygate is the controversy surrounding the New England Patriots using taping equipment allegedly to record the game signalling of their opponents, to purportedly gain an advantage. As in baseball, the contrary opinion about the effectiveness of the cheating focuses on execution. In baseball, you can shoot your buttocks with every performance enhancer known to man, yet still have to pitch a baseball accurately or hit it. In football, the advantage of "stealing signals" is dependent on players being able to translate that information into execution on the field.
Getting beyond the punishment of the Patriots and the commissioner's destruction of the submitted evidence, I think there is a greater issue to be considered, and it concerns the integrity of the game. The league and its fans need to believe that the competition on the field is real, on the level, and that no team or player has attempted to secure an unfair advantage.
I don't really think that the advantage has to be successful to make it punishable. Rhetorically speaking, we criminalize and punish such things as attempted robbery and murder. It is the spirit of the offense that we are trying to deter.
The NFL posted a memorandum earlier this season about videotaping game signals of opponents. The Patriots, notably their coach, did exactly what they were prohibited from doing. Why? Beyond the obvious competitive advantage argument, it offends the spirit of competition and calls into question the integrity of the games that we all watch on Sunday -- since all teams do it to some extent.
Now, new information has arisen suggesting the Patriots taped the Rams walkthrough prior to SB 36. As I recall the game, the Rams were stifled for most of the game by a brilliantly executed game plan. I must question now if the play on the field was affected by these alleged acts. I hate that feeling that something smarmy is afoot regarding this.
It is why I have felt that stronger sanctions should have been taken against the Patriots and their coaching staff for this year's Spygate controversy. Forfeits or forfeit of playoff eligibility would not have been so far-reaching because this goes to the integrity of the game. Suspensions of coaching staff who knew of or authorized such taping, up to and including multiyear or lifetime suspensions again would not be too far-reaching.
In some ways, I think that if the evidence warrants, the Patriots may face further sanction for not only the recent Spygate events but for past events as well. To me, all justifiable if it can be proved that they were trying to upset the integrity of the game