Patriots Punished

[Scoot McGroot]

Taken from the Pacers board....

I know I'm going to be a little biased because I am a Colts fan, but this just doesn't seem right to me. I read last year that the Patriots were caught doing this twice and just told to stop, thus the memo this year. So first of all, do you think that fining the coach and organization pocket change and taking away one of their two first-round picks is enough punishment for a team that just seriously damaged the league's reputation? Secondly, after faking an injury to get home field advantage, engineering the tuck rule, winning another controversial game that led to rule changes (against Indy when the DB's held receivers before the ball was in the air), and still winning two of their three Super Bowls by only 3 points while possibly stealing signals during all three, can you even view this as a dynasty anymore? There's an entire article on SI about other instances they've been accused of cheating in, including disconnecting headsets on key drives.

I'm not much of a pro football fan so I'm not going to get into this too deeply. But shouldn't the logical consequence for cheating be forfeiture of games in which you are caught in the act?

Make the Patriots forfeit the win in last week's game against the Jets. And in any other game where it can be proved that they cheated.

You cheat, you lose. Sounds like the logical consequence to me, and one that would be far more likely to put a stop to cheating than does fining people who are already absurdly wealthy, or making them forfeit a pick or two NEXT SEASON.

[fdefore]

honestly i think they should have come down similar to what stern did to the twolves following the joe smith disaster.

i think there should have been multiple first rd picks (08, 09) and then i think the fines were about right and then suspend belichick. not that suspending him for a couple games would really do much, but it would be symbolic. i think ultimately the punishment was too light and the commissioner came down much harder on players that have had multiple run-ins with the law (outside of the game) than a coach who was cheating within the game.

i think that would have sent a message loud and clear - and with seven rounds of drafting it wouldn't seem excessive to me.

maybe i'm alone on that.

[bruno sundov]

You guys are jsut hating. If this what the Colts it would be why is the penalty is stiff. I think the ruling was fair. Now look at it like this, say a horrid team like the browns get caught cheating. The coach is making 2 mill a year and get fined $500,000. Now that is 25% of his salary gone and the team pays a $250,000 fine and loses a top 5 pick.

You have to be consistant in these ruling. So the next team that gets caught doing this should have to pay the same fine.

[PR07]

I doubt there will be a next team that gets caught after this episode. I felt the punishment was pretty stiff, was it as stiff as it could've been? Probably not, but I do believe Goodell sent a message to the coaches around the league that this behavior will not be tolerated.

[fdefore]

You guys are jsut hating. If this what the Colts it would be why is the penalty is stiff. I think the ruling was fair. Now look at it like this, say a horrid team like the browns get caught cheating. The coach is making 2 mill a year and get fined $500,000. Now that is 25% of his salary gone and the team pays a $250,000 fine and loses a top 5 pick.

You have to be consistant in these ruling. So the next team that gets caught doing this should have to pay the same fine.

no to me it doesn't matter that it was the patriots. what matters to me is that it was a team explicitly violating rules that they were warned about before the season AND the same team was warned about this last season.

the asst. coach for the cowboys was suspended FIVE GAMES for something that didn't impact the game of football. the patriots did and willfully. i'm not hating, the patriots got off easy.

[FreeRon]

You guys are jsut hating. If this what the Colts it would be why is the penalty is stiff. I think the ruling was fair. Now look at it like this, say a horrid team like the browns get caught cheating. The coach is making 2 mill a year and get fined $500,000. Now that is 25% of his salary gone and the team pays a $250,000 fine and loses a top 5 pick.

You have to be consistant in these ruling. So the next team that gets caught doing this should have to pay the same fine.

You're just not reading. The pick is only a first rounder if they make the playoffs, so it's not going to be a top 5 pick. And the fine would have to be in terms of percentage made, not just plain dollars. In other words, a ridiculously small portion of their salary. And the Colts wouldn't get caught doing this because they have integrity - something the Patriots have been accused of lacking. At first I thought this was just because people were hating, but nobody says this about the Cowboys, Niners, or Steelers dynasties and those were real dynasties. I personally also think that any game you're caught cheating in should result in forfeit. That is assuming that you were caught doing something like videotaping the sidelines, not breaking some silly rule that nobody even knew was there. And honestly, do you think Belichick will ever admit he was wrong?

[pacerfan]

mizzoupacers has a good point: If you get caught cheating during a game, makes sense to require a forfeit of the win.

In football, while losing a first round draft pick is always serious, let's face it: the Patriots pick will be a bottom five pick, not a top five pick.

[count55]

I would tend to agree that cheating in a game should lead to a forfeit, but I did not, or would not expect it without a huge amount of warning.

This was probably appropriate, given the absence of precedence, but I would love to see harsher penalties handed out on a lot of things.

As to whether the Patriots has any impact on my view of their punishment, I basically think anyone who wears a Pats uniform should be put up against a wall and shot, but on the whole, this was about what you'd expect. Enough to grab a headline, not enough to prevent the Patriots (or the others who are also doing it) from repeating their sins....

[J.Kim]

I would tend to agree that cheating in a game should lead to a forfeit, but I did not, or would not expect it without a huge amount of warning.

This was probably appropriate, given the absence of precedence, but I would love to see harsher penalties handed out on a lot of things.

As to whether the Patriots has any impact on my view of their punishment, I basically think anyone who wears a Pats uniform should be put up against a wall and shot, but on the whole, this was about what you'd expect. Enough to grab a headline, not enough to prevent the Patriots (or the others who are also doing it) from repeating their sins....

Don't you think that's a tad harsh?


As for the actual 'cheating' itself, the actual filming of signals is allowed. Anecdotes and recurrences by players and previous articles show that teams regularly film other teams' signals. The offense that's being punished here is the location of where this filming was taking place.

[PR07]

The Pats loss of the first round pick will still be one less value impact player they will have for the next 10 years. When you look at the players they've drafted in their past first rounds: Maroney, Wilfork, Mankins, Ty Warren, etc. they've found good value in the later part of the draft....and so I think it is a pretty stiff penalty considering if you took away one of those guys, it would be a significant blow to their team. I mean if you took away an Addai, Dallas Clark, Marlin Jackson, etc. wouldn't it hurt our team?

[count55]

-= original quote snipped =-





Don't you think that's a tad harsh?


As for the actual 'cheating' itself, the actual filming of signals is allowed. Anecdotes and recurrences by players and previous articles show that teams regularly film other teams' signals. The offense that's being punished here is the location of where this filming was taking place.

Not for the cheating in question...

Just for actually wearing a Pats uniform...I can think of no greater crime that doesn't involve the Detroit Pistons.

[J.Kim]

-= original quote snipped =-



Not for the cheating in question...

Just for actually wearing a Pats uniform...I can think of no greater crime that doesn't involve the Detroit Pistons.

TBH, I'm not nearly as annoyed as I am of the Patriots, as I am of the Colts.

Rather, with the Patriots, I'm in awe right now, at their efficiency and effectiveness.

[PR07]

A buddy of mine found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EU1O-hGxgg

I thought it was pretty funny and well-done.