To cheat or not to cheat?

Logan Miller

Bill Belichick, the head coach of the New England Patriots, didn’t cheat.  He was taking advantage of new technology and twisted rules like coaches have done since the start of athletics.  According to The Washington Post, in the 1950’s, teams were required to send copies of their practice films to their opponents before they played them.
George Halas, former Chicago Bears head coach, used to send his opponents blurred and disfigured films so that they could not tell exactly what the play was.  Teams have sought for advantages since the NFL’s creation.The only difference this time is that Belichick deliberately broke a league rule after being warned not to.  But by the time New Englands defenses play was called so was the Jets offenses. Therefore, the Patriots could not have used the filmed signals to their advantage.  Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, acted too quickly to make an accurate decision; there should have been more of an investigation. Belichick’s and the Patriot’s punishment was worse than it should have been.  Coaches and teams have used tactics to their advantage for years and what the Patriots did is nothing different.

Michael Craig

Last week, the NFL fined Patriot’s head coach Bill Belichick $500,000 (the league maximum) for violating league rules and videotaping another team’s defensive signals.  No coach in NFL history has ever been fined such a large amount of money.
 In addition, the New England patriots will also be fined $250,000 and will lose future 2008 draft picks.  If the Patriots fail to make the playoffs this year they will be forced to forfeit their second and third round draft picks.
 If the Patriots do reach the playoffs, they will have to give up their first round pick.  Patriots assistant, Matt Estrella was caught videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive coordinator while he was giving signals to his players on the field during the Sunday game at Giants Stadium.
 The NFL rules state that “no video-devices are allowed in the coaching booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game.”  This incident is the first ever report of spying in the NFL.
    I think that the idea of spying on another NFL team is absolutely unacceptable.  The New England Patriots are, in my mind, among the top five most talented teams in the league and are not in fear of having a bad year.  Spying on another team for the purpose of learning their play signals is  cheating.  I have no doubt in my mind that what the NFL did was right.  
The team deserves to be punished heavily for their actions and the NFL needs to make an example out of this embarrassing situation.  During the off-season, the Patriots gained many talented players and do not need to cheat in order to win their games.  I think that it will be interesting this year to see how the Patriots react to their punishment.  For New England it’s a lose-lose situation, the playoffs or their first round draft picks.