It is a dumb rule.

But even dumber than the rule is violating it after the repeated warnings given by the NFL to its 32 teams.

The National Football League fined New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 yesterday, and the team will forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it makes the playoffs, for violating league rules Sunday when a Patriots staff member was discovered videotaping signals by Jets coaches during the season opener at the Meadowlands.

The Patriots will be fined $250,000. If they fail to make the playoffs, they will forfeit their second- and third-round picks in 2008.

It is the first time in league history a coach and franchise have been disciplined for videotaping — essentially spying on — opponents. The league’s ire with a team that has won three Super Bowls in six years and that until last week was considered a model of success was obvious in the unprecedented severity of the punishment. No coach has ever been fined such a large amount. Teams have forfeited first-round picks before, sent to other teams as compensation in tampering cases, but no team has ever lost a first-round pick as an outright punishment. No team will receive the draft pick or picks the Patriots will forfeit.

“This episode represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid longstanding rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field,” Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to the Patriots.

Quite a penalty for the offense of filming what is done in the open, able to be seen by tens of thousands of fans in the stadium and (potentially) millions on television broadcasts of the game. As such, the notion that there is something wrong with "signal stealing" is rather absurd.

However, this is a rule that has stood for years, and warnings were issued about it just last season. As a result, I have no sympathy for Belichick and the Patriots, despite Goodell's acknowledgment that the taping had not had an effect on the game.

Still, is this a rule that makes sense -- and does it need to be revisited and modified, if not completely stricken from the books?

Posted by: Greg at 09:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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