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Wasn’t there an old saying that cheaters never win and winners never cheat? This play on words sounds respectable but also confusing because sometimes it seems like cheaters do win - at least for the short term. But it really is those who don't cheat who are the true winners because, whether they win or lose, they do it fair and square. The National Football League has now joined forces with Major League Baseball, and the National Basketball Association, to define 2007 as the Year of the Cheat.
The somber chord we hear is the constant cacophony of ingratitude of the national sports scene, made by those directly involved in its make-up and seems straight out of a Shakespearean tragedy. No matter how much we want it to take a different course, the powerbrokers of professional sports seem determined to let integrity and the character of the game fall easily and deeply into last place.
In baseball the surreal and impotent Mitchell Report name names to whet our fifteen-second sound bite appetite. But it doesn’t do enough to underscore how the commissioner, the owners and the players promoted, by doing nothing, the dissolving of the once great game’s beauty and national prestige. In the name of what? Better ratings? Higher salaries? More revenue?
At what price?
All the gaga about the New England Patriots quest to go undefeated has neglected, week after week, to add the one caveat that must be strongly reiterated. In early September it was determined that the Patriots violated league rules when they videotaped defensive signals by the New York Jets coaches. A league rule prohibits teams from using a video camera on the sidelines for any purpose. NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella on the New England sidelines. Sources say the visual evidence confirmed the suspicion. After head coach Bill Belichick met with the Commissioner Roger Goodell, both the team and head coach were fined and the Patriots would forfeit their own first round pick in the 2008 NFL draft.
They were caught cheating and certainly could have impacted the outcome of the game. Why wasn’t the game forfeited, along with a one-game, or better yet, one year suspension of its head coach?
On September 16th, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell went on national TV and promised he would get to the bottom of the Patriots' sign-stealing. In a decision the Commissioner may come to regret, four days later the NFL announced all videotapes and other spying materials obtained by the league were destroyed. Goodell never said, to this date or presumably forever, what the confiscated tapes contained. The rapid shredding occurred although Goodell said nothing about plans to destroy the materials when he was on national TV vowing his purpose was "maintaining the integrity of the NFL." Obviously this opens up tons of possibilities about what the tapes showed including whether any or all three Super Bowl victories are now tai
(con't Part 2)
In case you forgot, here is the chronology of events by ESPN’s Gregg Easterbrook:
Sunday, Sept. 9: During the Patriots-Jets season opener, security officers seize a video camera a team official on the New England sideline was using to film signal-calling on the New York sideline. NFL rules forbid filming the opponents' sideline or recording opponents' signal calling. Clubs had been reminded of this prohibition by a strongly worded directive sent from league headquarters in September 2006.
Thursday, Sept. 13: Commissioner Goodell declares the Patriots guilty of "a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid long-standing rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field." He imposes on New England the strongest penalty in NFL history: loss of a first-round pick (if the Pats make the playoffs), or second- and third-round choices in the 2008 draft (if New England fails to reach the postseason); a $500,000 personal fine against Belichick; and a $250,000 club fine. Goodell orders the Patriots to turn over all videotapes and other materials obtained in violation of NFL rules, although this part of his decision is not publicly announced.
Sunday morning, Sept. 16: On ESPN, Chris Mortensen reports Goodell's directive that the Patriots surrender all videotapes and notes containing cheating materials.
Sunday evening, Sept. 16: On NBC's "Football Night in America," Goodell says New England has not yet complied with his order to surrender all illegal materials, adding the Patriots will be penalized more if the materials don't arrive soon.
Monday, Sept. 17: Asked whether he will surrender videotapes and notes to the league, Belichick answers, "Of course." Asked by The Boston Globe whether NFL headquarters has received the Patriots' materials, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello answers, "We don't have anything else on the matter to report right now."
Sometime between Monday night, Sept. 17, and Thursday afternoon, Sept. 20: The New England materials arrive at league headquarters.
Thursday night, Sept. 20: The NFL announces all of the Patriots' materials have been destroyed, disclosing nothing about their contents.
One would think that after all the credibility MLB has lost by refusing for so long to address the issue of substance abuse – cheating - the NFL would jump on the videotaping issue and really put its foot down no matter whether the consequences interfered with the Patriots quest for history.
Even more surprising is the media’s lack of focus on the issue especially as the Patriots continue to win. Usually the media “watchdogs” would browbeat the NFL’s attempt of a cover up in lieu of the Patriots run to ‘perfection” into the ground. It’s as if their getting caught red handed is now irrelevant since a meager fine was imposed.
Wasn’t 18 minutes of erased audio tape enough to bring about the only resignation of a United States President?
All the more concerni
(Part 3)
All the more concerning is the media’s flocking over the Cheaters during their pursuit of football history. In the December 31st issue of Sports Illustrated we have, in addition to the mag’s cover showing Bill Belichick in a Santa Claus suit (talk about the one person not of good cheer) the following is an excerpt by author Tim Layden describing the Patriots season:
“And this is the best part: In an age of narcissism, the Pats have embraced the sweet old concept of playing as one. Now they close in on the ’72 Dolphins and roll inexorably toward Super Bowl XLII. And if they should win the championship in Arizona and stand beneath a shower of confetti falling from the sky, perfect in every way, all the game will be better for having witnessed their journey.”
Perfect in every way? That describes Mary Poppins, not the Patriots. And even that Poppins woman was “practically” perfect in every way. As a refresher, perfect means: “being entirely without fault or defect; flawless (a perfect diamond), or; perfect implies the soundness and the excellence of every part, element, or quality of a thing frequently as an unattainable or theoretical state (a perfect set of teeth).
Not only do Goodell and the NFL seem get a free pass, how would media reaction have been if NBA Commissioner David Stern collected all the evidence about referee Tim Donaghy altering games, immediately destroyed the evidence without saying what it showed, and did so four days after promising to get to the bottom of things?
If it can be argued that Barry Bonds should have an asterisk next to his name in the record books, what do the Patriots deserve? Praise?
A key ingredient to the slow dissolution of our culture is a parallel acceptance of cheating in all its forms. Degrees of cheating exist because humans exist. People download pirated music from the Internet, file false insurance claims, steal from the office, buy or sell securities with inside information, evade taxes, cheat on exams, etc. But despite the internal rationale one may use to argue that they are not really hurting anyone, in reality, the costs of cheating gets passed along to others, and often those who are honest in turn subsidize the cheaters. The unintended consequences of music piracy are record companies cutting back on the money they can pay start-up bands and taking fewer risks.
It still comes down to personal responsibility. Those who can best change the current sports culture, or ensure the culture is beyond reproach, are the players themselves. They must care more about the integrity of the game than themselves, not an easy thing to do. But all of major league sports hierarchy must lead by perfect example as imperfect as it is to do. It should be their primary function. Selig and Fehr, Goodell and Upshaw, and the rest of sports powerbrokers must have the perfection of its sport as its number one priority. Everything else will fall into place.
Baseball and the NFL powerbrokers
(Part 4)
Baseball and the NFL powerbrokers have lost their credibility. Instead of really cleaning up the game they are promoting the things that do not matter. We need new leadership. Baseball should shut down the game until all proper failsafe’s are in place to ensure a game beyond reproach. The NFL needs to look in the mirror and see that their non-response to cheating has more severe long term ramifications than the Commissioner’s latest lie moments before kickoff of the Giants-Patriots game that the league's unprecedented decision to show the game on all three channels was "all about the fans," but didn't explain why the NFL took a different stance toward all the other games on the NFL Network.
Is it OK for baseball to turn away from its degradation because attendance to major league games continues to set records and the revenue generated by the sport closes in on the NFL? What does it say about where we are headed as a people? Have we simply shrugged it off as part of the current culture?
Gregg Easterbrook summed it most astutely: “If you're tempted to say, ‘Gregg, at worst this is just cheating in some dumb football games,’ here's why the affair matters: If a big American institution such as the NFL is not being honest with the public about a subject as minor, in the scheme of things, as the Super Bowl, how can we expect American government and business to be honest with the public about what really matters?”
By sitting back and watching the continued rotting of major league sports at its core how long do the players and owners think it will take before the fans become totally cynical and jaundiced? By the looks and sounds of the Patriots drive to perfection, it could still be quite a while.
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