By Sarah Bigelow
After last week, I'm embarrassed to call myself a New England Patriots fan.
That's because last week the Patriots were accused of cheating. During the Sept. 3 game against the New York Jets, someone associated with the team videotaped the Jets' defensive line with the intention of stealing the defense's signals.
And this is the team that just signed Randy Moss.
Fortunately, the NFL has taken a stand, punishing not only the team, but the team's coach, Bill Belichick. Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,000 and, if the Pats make it to the postseason, they must forfeit their first round draft pick. If the team doesn't make it to the playoffs, it loses its second and third round picks.
The Pats got what was coming to them, right? Maybe not.
For the average UP student, these numbers are probably gut wrenching. But for an NFL coach, $500,000 is a drop in the proverbial bucket. When you consider that the average NFL coach makes $5 to 6 million a year, $500,000 doesn't hurt quite as much.
And think about the NFL draft procedures. The worse the team, the sooner it gets to pick in the first round. The Super Bowl winner picks last. Chances are, if you made it to the postseason, getting an amazing draft pick is not you top priority.
No, the Patriots didn't get a slap on the wrist. But they weren't forced to forfeit the Week 1 game against the Jets. Nor was Belichick or anyone on the team suspended. And after trouncing the San Diego Chargers 38-14 last Sunday, it doesn't seem the Pats are too concerned with their crimes.
I'm struck by the similarities between the Patriot's situation in what has been dubbed "Spygate" and that of Richard Nixon in Watergate. Nixon probably could have won the '72 election without tapping the Watergate Hotel, and the Patriots are a good enough team that they don't need to steal other teams' defensive signals. After all, it wasn't that long ago that the Pats won three Super Bowls in four years (2002, 2004 and 2005). Since 2005, they've consistently appeared in the playoffs; last year they made it all the way to the AFC title game, where they lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champions, the Indianapolis Colts.
The NFL commissioner's lax treatment of the Patriots only reinforces the growing degradation of professional sports. Apparently sporting events aren't about contest anymore. They're about who can cheat the most and get away with it.
Just look at the series of mishaps that plagued the sporting world this summer: the Tour de France became a laughing stock as racer after racer was ejected for using performance enhancing drugs; an NBA referee admitted to fixing games by making inappropriate of unnecessary calls; Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's home run record, a feat he'd probably still be working at if he hadn't been dabbling in steroids.
Meanwhile, young athletes are learning an important lesson: It doesn't matter how you play the game, it matters that you win it.
Here on campus, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) governs ethical matters, and the University makes an effort to avoid any entanglement that might be considered a breach of compliance.
Only two pages are devoted to ethics in the NCAA's Division I manual, but those two pages succinctly cover everything that has been plaguing professional sports. Steroids are in there, as is wagering on a sporting event and fraudulent activity. And the NCAA's punishment for any such violation is equally as clear: ineligibility.
It's too bad that the world of professional sports doesn't follow such stringent guidelines. Maybe if such strict guidelines did exist, cheating would still be considered inappropriate, instead of becoming another play for the offensive coordinator.
I hope someone out there in the world of professional sports sees all this corruption and tries to do something about it. I hope that fans will support change for the good of the sport over their own desire to see their favorite team win. And I hope that our young athletes realize that there's more to the game than being number one. Being the best is not always synonymous with winning.
