In the winner-take-all world of professional sports a number of people live by the adage, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying.” So when the National Football League caught the New England Patriots videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive signals last Sunday, reactions ranged from complete indifference to utter astonishment.
After demolishing the Jets 38-14, football’s modern-day dynasty, the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady-led Patriots, winners of three of the last six Super Bowls, were suspected of betraying the integrity of honest competition. NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella under suspicions he was recording the Jets’ defensive signals and presumably helping New England anticipate what schemes they would encounter when they had the ball. This isn’t the first time the Patriots have been suspected of such “extracurricular” activity. Last year against Green Bay the same video assistant was removed from the Patriots’ sideline for a similar offense.
To many, there exists a “cheating culture” in sports. Teams and players will do anything and everything to gain even the slightest edge. Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders used to excessively water down their home field before games against teams with an abundance of speed to slow them down. The Colorado Rockies have placed game balls in a humidor to weigh them down and decrease offense in the thin air of the Mile High City. The 1951 New York Giants even clinched the National League pennant by stealing the signs of the Brooklyn Dodgers from a center field window at the Polo Grounds, allowing Bobby Thompson to hit his famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
But in the 21st century the Patriots have seemed to take these games of treachery and espionage to a new level. Actually taping defensive signals as opposed to simply trying to discern defensive tendencies in real -time may cast other Patriot achievements in doubt, especially coming on the heels of New England defensive back Rodney Harrison openly admitting to using banned human growth hormone.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is considering severe sanctions, including taking away multiple draft picks from the Patriots, according to ESPN. As seen in the cases of Michael Vick and Pacman Jones, Goodell has been heavy-handed in his attempts to clean up the league’s image. This case should be no different.
Perhaps the Patriots scandal will be the proverbial straw the breaks the camel’s back, but more likely it will do nothing to hinder cheating. Teams will continue to steal signs, and players will continue to use illegal performance-enhancing drugs ,because while most rational people live by another adage, “cheaters never prosper,” if sports has shown us anything, it is that unfortunately, most do.
