I haven’t followed football in years, but apparently there was quite a scandal over the weekend when the New England Patriots were caught using sideline video to steal signals during a game against the New York Jets. It didn’t affect the outcome — the spying was discovered early on, and the Patriots won by a wide margin — but this kind of illicit surveillance drew a stiff penalty from the NFL. (Non-sports fans: Keep reading, there’s a political angle coming up)
The National Football League fined New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 yesterday, and the team will forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it makes the playoffs, for violating league rules Sunday when a Patriots staff member was discovered videotaping signals by Jets coaches during the season opener at the Meadowlands.
The Patriots will be fined $250,000. If they fail to make the playoffs, they will forfeit their second- and third-round picks in 2008.
It is the first time in league history a coach and franchise have been disciplined for videotaping — essentially spying on — opponents. The league’s ire with a team that has won three Super Bowls in six years and that until last week was considered a model of success was obvious in the unprecedented severity of the punishment. No coach has ever been fined such a large amount. Teams have forfeited first-round picks before, sent to other teams as compensation in tampering cases, but no team has ever lost a first-round pick as an outright punishment.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) had a very clever response to all of this.
Democratic Presidential candidate Governor Bill Richardson, campaigning today in Iowa, issued the following statement regarding the recent “spying” incident involving the National Football League’s New England Patriots:
“The President has been allowed to spy on Americans without a warrant, and our U.S. Senate is letting it continue. You know something is wrong when the New England Patriots face stiffer penalties for spying on innocent Americans than Dick Cheney and George Bush.”
You know, that’s a very good point.
The NFL has rules about spying, the president has laws about spying.
When the Patriots’ coach got caught, he said he misunderstood the rules.
“Part of my job as head coach is to ensure that our football operations are conducted in compliance of the league rules and all accepted interpretations of them. My interpretation of a rule in the constitution and bylaws was incorrect.”
When Bush got caught, he knew the law, but broke it anyway because he thought he should.
“[T]he FISA law was written in 1978. We’re having this discussion in 2006. It’s a different world. And FISA is still an important tool. It’s an important tool. And we still use that tool. But also — and we — look — I said, ‘Look, is it possible to conduct this program under the old law?’ And people said, ‘It doesn’t work in order to be able to do the job we expect us to do.'”
When the Patriots’ coach got caught, he apologized.
When Bush got caught, he lashed out at anyone who dared to question him, insisting that critics of his illegal surveillance don’t want to catch terrorists.
When the Patriots’ coach got caught, he was punished.
When Bush got caught, he was rewarded with a new FISA law that granted him new and expansive powers.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t want the political world to be more like the NFL, but….