The problem with your definition is that cheating is defined by whether or not the act in fact confers an unfair advantage, rather than whether or not the actor is attempting to get an unfair advantage.
When Sammy Sosa corked his bat, he was cheating, even if the bat wasn’t actually any better than a normal one. When George Brett pine tarred his bat, he was not attempting to gain an advantage, so his rules violation was not cheating. T.O.s sharpie is not an attempt to gain an advantage, so it’s not cheating. Belichick illegal taping was clearly an attempt to get an advantage, that is cheating.
He was already told once that the taping was against the rules. If he wasn’t trying to get an advantage for his team, why would he knowingly violate league rules and put a cameraman over there?
Tuck the tape away and look back on it fondly 20 years from now, a little remembrance from his season opening game against the Jets? “Look here grandkids, this is what the Jets were doing on their sideline while Grampa was on the other side of the field… ahh the memories.”
Teams study tapes all the time to learn more about the competition. If you believe there was no intent to study this tape, come up with a believable reason to be taping there.
I think there was intent to study the tape, but the information on the tape did not and could not give him any unfair advantage over the other team. The tapes contained no information which he could not get legally through other means an dhe had no info about other teams that they didn’t have about his own team.
Funny. The way I see it, other people are trying to stretch the word cheating into something it doesn’t really mean. I’m still waiting for someone to tell me how he could have gained any specific advantage from it.
Does “other people” include the NFL Commissioner? From his office a statement was issued saying the Patriots’ actions constituted a “calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid long-standing rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition.”
It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of Walsh and Spygate II but I hope for everybody involved, as well as the NFL’s good name that it’s all just a rumor and comes to nothing.
What’s too bad is that after 18-0 they might be known more for failing to win than any previous SuperBowl loser. The infamy over not clenching at the end might eclipse what was an absolutely brilliant season. No matter where your loyalties lie, that’s a shame.
I believe there was intent to study the tape. I believe stealing other teams’ signals can be helpful, which is why it is so widespread in the NFL. I don’t believe there is any particular difference between such a tape obtained illegally, and a tape filmed from a legal position.
I can’t say for sure why Belichek thought it a good idea to tape in the Jets game this year. As has been mentioned, he was warned not to by the league. I find this warning interesting; if this kind of taping is terrible cheating and an affront to fair play, I would think the league would have done more than send warning letters. To go from that to taking away high draft picks and $750K fines gives me the impression that the new commissioner was trying to assert himself, rather than trying to give a reasonable penalty.
Of course you do. That’s why you try not get caught when you break them. But if you’re not cheating at all, you’re not really trying. Every defensive back grabs arms and jerseys. Every receiver pushes off. Every O-Lineman holds. The rumors about what goes on in dogpiles are hair-raising. The key is to cheat subtly, not to be Boy Scouts. Belichick gave a middle finger to the League by ignoring their warnings about a trivial videtaping violation. They had to show him who wears the pants.
So now you admit it IS cheating, just that everyone does it. So if everyone cheats, than everyone sucks it up and takes their punishment when they get caught. In any case, it’s off topic, because there’s no f’in’ way that it had anything to do with the Pats losing. Your ref conspiracy is the weakest I’ve ever seen mounted in sports.
You should just be grateful that it wasn’t the Packers who made it to the Superbowl and beat them. Can you imagine the Favrewning then?
We’ve all seen the ways coaches try to hide their communications, like holding paper or a towel in front of their mouths while they talk on the headset, so the other team can’t read their lips. If there is a legal place from which to videotape the other team, they can try to disguise or hide their signals from the observers in that place. Put the observers someplace else, and they could, potentially, gain an advantage.
I’ve heard that argument before, and I couldn’t disagree more. Steroids, blood doping, leg whips and corked bats don’t make you a spirited competitor, they make you a cheater.
It was especially upsetting to me, as I had NY3, NE0 in the office pool. I got the first qurter, but if they had put up a field goal in the third, I’d have doubled my winnings.
By the way, who would have guessed a scoreless third quarter?
In the case of Spygate, no it wasn’t cheating, just a rule violation.
Really? You need to get out on the internets more.
I am grateful, believe me. I don’t begrudge the Giants anything and I’m impressed at how well Eli performed in the post season. I’m also eternally grateful that he knocked the fucking Packers out of the playoffs. The media cock-slobbing for Favre would have reached truly horrific proportions. I believe there would have been seripus consideration given to literal deification in the style of ancient Roman emperors, complete with temples and statues.
Anyway, I have these little superstitions regarding sports, whether I’m playing or watching… and as far as I’m concerned the patriots lost because of this one hokey wench on another messageboard who currently lives in Boston, although she’s from the midwest. So she’s not a New Englander and never will be - She’s just one of those bandwagon fans that claims to like the team to please her boyfriend.
Puke.
And in her location of her profile she had this:
Location: Home of the next Superbowl Champions
Right there, I knew she’d jinx the team. I knew it and I was right! She was a freaking jinx! I hope she’s friggen happy now. To add insult to injury, she still has it on her profile.
Assuming for the moment that all the taped information was available by legal means, what is left is either stupidity, laziness, or lack of discipline.
If he was doing this to give the league the middle finger, then he’s stupid. You don’t break a rule in a way that gives you zero competitive advantage, simply to break it.
If he was doing this to make it easier to get the tape, then he’s lazy.
If the cameraman went over there on his own, then there’s no discipline in his staff.
I’m having a hard time buying any of these explanations.