M.L. on the N.F.L. "It's (Expletive) PAThetic"

Author: Mary Lane

He was fined $100,000 - a third of his salary - and suspended for five games. When given his punishment, he acknowledged that what he did was wrong, but he did not know at the time that the rules applied to coaches as well as players.

I'm talking about Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson, who bought and used steroids to treat his diabetes. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged the reason for Wilsons' purchase, but fined and suspended him regardless.

So why is it that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick gets off without a suspension or any disruption to his team's season after he was found spying on the New York Jets' defensive signals last week?

Belichick has been personally fined the NFL maximum of $500,000, while the Pats will have to pay $250,000. For a franchise valued by Forbes at $1.2 billion, $250,000 isn't even a slap on the wrist. It's more like a poke of the finger - annoying but completely inconsequential.

New England will lose their first round draft pick if they make the playoffs this year and their second and third picks if they don't. Like they care. They still have San Fran's first round pick (which they got when they gave up their first round pick in the '07 draft).

To his credit, Goodell has stood behind his pledge to crack down on the unruly and shameful behavior in the league, but his slack punishment here show both the NFL's tolerance of the Dynasty Boys' repeatedly unscrupulous behavior and the emergence of a new type of crime: the tidy, subtle white-collar indiscretions of franchise leaders.

Although the press hadn't exactly brought it into the limelight before the Jets incident, this isn't the first time Belichick's crew has been caught spying on other teams. And everyone around the NFL knows it. LaDainian Tomlinson has never been one to bash other teams, but he mentioned in an ESPN interview that, "so many things have been going on for years now. People complained about things the Patriots were doing -whether it was playbooks or players or what have you," and he was finally glad the league stopped turning a blind eye to it.

Tomlinson remained remarkably cool when asked about the ostentatious celebration the Patriots performed on the Chargers logo when they won the divisional playoffs last year at Qualcomm Stadium. There's another blatant example of the league playing favorites. There are rules and regulations for length and type of celebrations, accompanied with hefty fines and here the Patriots were carrying on like rabid banshees. No fine, nothing.

What disturbs me most, though, is that the Pats were caught taping other teams' signals twice last year, at Green Bay on Nov. 19 and against Detroit on Dec. 3. When Lions coach Rod Marinelli noticed his defensive coach being filmed, he notified officials who asked the Pats to stop. They resumed filming and were stopped again, then started a third time and were left alone.

Belichick said in a press conference that this is in the past: "We're done with it." Oh, come on. This coming from a coach whose unofficial motto seems to be, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying"? (See Rodney Harrison.) You're a disgrace to the game and a danger to the integrity of the entire league, Belichick. Old habits die hard, if ever.