When did the NFL become OK with cheating? Major League Baseball has been complicit with, if not supportive of, cheating for many years. Spitball pitchers are in the hall of fame. Finding new ways to hide pine tar or Vaseline or sandpaper has brought accolades from the writers and players and the higher ups for as long as baseball has been around. Stealing signs with a hidden camera in the center field scoreboard was thought of as commonplace. Catchers change the manner of giving signals when a man is on second for fear that he may now what pitch is next and tip off the batter. Only recently has baseball started to try and polish it's image. Steroids have been a polarizing issue for the American sports fan. Barry Bonds is vilified for never testing positive, but being accused of doping. Steroids now carry a stigma in most sports, baseball especially. Why all this talk about baseball when I started this piece with a line about football? Well, I'm glad you asked.
Where baseball has embraced cheaters to a certain extent, football has not, especially not the NFL. When people have found a way around the rules, football has rewritten them to stamp out cheating. Early on in the college game, a coach sewed a patch looking like a football onto the jerseys of his team to disguise the ball runner. Football changed the rules to disallow that. On kickoffs, one team placed the ball up the jersey of a player in a huddle so no one appeared to be carrying the ball. Football changed the rules to disallow that. NFL linemen gained an advantage by whacking the opposing linemen on the head to disorient them. Football changed the rules to disallow that. A referee changes the course of a game by interpreting a long forgotten rule to negate a fumble. Football changed the rules to disallow that. Football seemed to be trying to deter cheating and keep the game clean, that is until recently.
Last season, a linebacker was suspended for using performance enhancing drugs. He was a starter on a playoff team. He was briefly suspended. He returned. He also made the Pro Bowl. The honor of making the Pro Bowl and the bonus that accompanied it were not taken away from him. He was allowed to play in the game supposed to highlight the best and brightest the game has to offer. A cheater was allowed to represent the best players in the NFL. How does that happen? The man was found to have broken the rules of the game. Specifically, a rule that prevented him from making himself bigger, faster and stronger than anyone else on the field. Yet, he was physically better than the others (hence the election to the Pro Bowl) and allowed to be showcased at the event for premiere players as a starter no less. How does this possibly make sense?
Recently, the New England Patriots were caught taping signals from the opposition. Did the coach get suspended? Did the coordinator get suspended? Did the team forfeit the game? Is the team forbidden from playing in the post season? No. A monetary fine was levied. A fine which any team, even the Raiders or the Bucs could easily pay. The biggest penalty is contingent on the Pats making the playoffs. A different coach was suspended for violation of the substance policy of the NFL, but outright cheating by a coach has to only pay money. Really, a coach on forbidden substances doesn't help a team nearly as much as a coach outright cheating, does it?
Apparently, the NFL is OK with cheating as long as you are on a popular, playoff quality team. The other teams have to deal with costly suspensions and disgrace. So, I guess the message is if you're good, cheat and be even better, but bad teams shouldn't cheat to even try to compete with those the NFL likes.
