Fine, Just Fine
NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Belichick should be able to read this signal clearly:
Spy on your opponents, and it will cost you.
The New England coach was fined the NFL maximum of $500,000 Thursday and the Patriots were ordered to pay $250,000 for stealing an opponent’s defensive signals.
Read the Full Story on Yahoo Sports
That’s a heckuva fine, and probably less than he deserves. Tape-Gate was really starting to get rolling. (Get it? rolling? tape? 
) I expect that Belichick is actually relieved to have things resolved this quickly. I’ve read some articles that suggested that the Patriots may have been using improper taping strategies for years. A couple of blog posts (on a Jets fan site 
) went so far as to suggest that the Pats be stripped of their Super Bowl titles. I can’t see Roger Goodell doing that. He would be admitting that his sport is in the same bad shape as the NBA and MLB.
And the fine? Peanuts, really. The McLaren racing team was docked $100 million for their own cheating scandel. Seems they got their hands on an owners manual for their opponents car.
Whatever happened to cheating the old fashioned way? With pine tar on your bat and stickum on your fingers?