New England Patriots caught cheating

Everyone puts their hand in the cookie jar, he got caught. No, it doesn't make it right but it is really a very petty offense in genuine terms of gaining an unfair advantage.

Jason Cole sizes this up and its real INSIGNIFICANCE in his Yahoo column:

Ancient antics.

That's my dime on the matter.

 

I think Goodell got the punishment right.

 

When you catch the big cat with the cream on his whiskers, you make him stay outside a couple of days. Yeah, he should have to stay off the sideline for a couple of games.

 

They should have had to forfeit their game, too.

 

The more I think about it, the more I think you guys are right. The penalty was too light. I think the monetary penalty should have been $500k for the team and stayed the same for Belichick. But, he should have been suspended to the tune of 3 games and the Patriots should have forfeited the Jets game.

 

That's too much, IMO. There is no proof that was done then (even though we can assume it was), but there was proof for the Jets game. that game should have been forfeited.

 

Now that would just be silly.

I do think that if the NFL is truly serious about stopping teams from doing this type of thing, then they should have had to forfeit the game against the Jets and he should have been suspended for about 3 games. That is the only thing that is going to get the attention of the teams in the league.

 

I think it's too light.

This is the same team that opens their outside stadium doors at the end zone if the opposing team is trying to kick a field goal.

Also, this is the same team that snow plowed a portion of the snow covered field so their kicker could kick a game winning field goal.

 

We are living in a time when the work force accepts cheating, in politics we accepts fraud, if the other side does not turn to my view they aren't working in good faith with us and where is there more in fighting and fraud than in the church. I recall where folks from different views of theology could and did get along well as long as they agreed on the fundamentals and still taught their theology views with in their churches and schools.

With the above said, I'm glad to see the NFL do something to punish cheaters, but I don't think they went far enough. Look at F 1 racing, they know how to handle there last problem, in the past it hasn't always been true of them, what was it a $100 million, that might hurt. Parking the coach for 3 to 8 games would have been good. Why so hard, the NFL had just send a letter out to all the teams, not to do it, and they must have believed they were bigger than the NFL.

 

That is the out look on sports, steeling from work, not telling the truth and being unfaithful to ones spouse and drugs and many other things, everyone else is doing it, so it must be insignificance.

 

Let's not be too hasty on this one.

2 years ago, we learned that Ferrari's budget was $600 million. McLaren's budget is comparable, so a $100 million fine is 1/6th of their budget. Ron Dennis, team principal owner, is worth $200 million. $100 million fine looks good in the paper/on the Net, but won't hurt the team as much as you might think.

Further, I don't think it makes much sense for the drivers to still be racing if what McLaren did is all that bad. From what I understand, McLaren didn't even use the information they had. Possessing it was supposedly bad enough according to the FIA, which doesn't make much sense considering how there aren't any real technical secrets in F1 racing.

None of this even takes into account the likelihood that the fine will be reduced on appeal. It will amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist for McLaren.

 

The team is worth 900+ million and they got a $250,000.00 fine and the coach got $500,000.00 fine, looks like a big difference to me. I don't know the budget but I would say $250,000.00 isn't 1/6 of their budget.I know little if anything about F1, I like NASCAR and up untill the COT cheating and not getting caught was the game, now they are even trying to come down on rule breakers.

 

I think you may have misunderstood me, Bob. I was commenting on the F1 penalty only. A $100 million fine to a team like McLaren won't be a big hardship to them. I suspect the Patriots/Belichick fines won't be a huge hardship to either.

Sorry for the confusion.