Bill Belichick became the head coach of the New England Patriots in the year 2000. In his 15 seasons leading the Patriots, he has won more than 10 games in all but two of those years. New England has won the AFC Championship six times and the Super Bowl four times. His coaching statistics would suggest that he is one of, if not the best, football coach of all time.
However, along with all of the success New England has achieved comes a significant number of asterisks that can be placed next to its name as the years have gone by. Belichick and the Patriots have been involved in numerous scandals, and they always seem to skate by with just a slap on the wrist.
My question for the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell is how many more times will it take the organization in New England to embarrass him before he finally puts a stop to the best cheaters in sports history?
The first time the Patriots were caught at their line-crossing behaviors came in 2007 in a case known as “Spygate.” On Sept. 9, 2007, the Patriots were disciplined for videotaping a regular-season game against the New York Jets from an unapproved sideline location instead of from an approved indoor location.
According to the 2007 NFL Game Operations Manual, legal game videotaping locations “must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead.” Commissioner Goodell fined Belichick $500,000 and the Patriots $250,000, and he docked the team its original first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft. Some people consider this to be the biggest cheating scandal in the history of the NFL.
Next of course is the “Deflategate.” Since it happened last year, there’s no need to go into too much detail. Commissioner Goodell attempted to punish the Patriots, but due to his lack of caution while investigating the case, the judge found more loopholes in his procedural process than a basketball net. Ultimately, Brady was reinstated and his suspension was reversed.
Just when we all thought there would be another five years or so before the next time the Patriots got caught cheating again, there were complaints from the Steelers about something happening in the season opener last week.
Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin passive-aggressively accused the Patriots of cheating by screwing up his coach-to-coach headsets. Not much other information on this issue has been released and it appears the accusations will go to the wayside, but once again the Patriots found themselves amidst another potential scandal. Who knows? Maybe it will turn into something bigger in the next couple of weeks, and if so, I’m sure Goodell will take it easy on their “punishment”.
It’s clear Belichick and the Patriots bend the rules as far as they can until they get caught, and in multiple cases they broke the rules until they were caught. But with the lack of severity in the punishments handed to the Patriots from the NFL, New England will continue to find every gray area known to man until Goodell puts a permanent stop to it.
#Stop__(insert name)__2k15 has become a popular hashtag on Twitter that people use as a joke with their friends. This, however, is no joking matter. Belichick has been abusing the NFL ever since he took over in New England and will continue to do so until the commissioner stops him. The next time the Patriots are caught cheating it should be the absolute last time, but it undoubtedly will not be.
