How is it that Bill Belichick can be caught cheating in a regular season NFL football game and the NFL doesn't ask him the obvious question:

Bill, have you done it before?

If a grade school teacher catches a student cheating on a test, the first question asked is whether this was the first test the student cheated on.

The question is obvious and yet NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall seems not interested in asking it.

I wonder why?

Actually, I don't wonder at all. I'll tell you why the NFL isn't interested in pursuing that question.

The reason is because the increasingly obvious answer is that Belichick and the Patriots have been cheating for years. Apparently, the Patriots have been taping the signals of opposing teams, observing what play is run when a particular signal is called – and, the next time they see that signal, bingo, they know what to expect.

Since the Spygate Scandal broke, numerous accounts of the Patriots taping signals (and electronically jamming the headsets of opponent coaches) have come out of the woodwork. Yet, incredibly, "no comment" from the Patriots, Belichick or the NFL.

Stonewall, whitewash, silence.

The Patriots have enjoyed remarkable success this decade, winning three Super Bowls. Belichick has "earned" a reputation as a genius. Quarterback, Tom Brady is supposedly one of the most clutch QB's in history.

But, maybe, their apparent genius and clutch plays were due to the fact that they knew what the other team would do in advance. Even I could hit an open receiver if I knew ahead of time who would be left open.

Did the Patriots win those three Super Bowls because they cheated?

That's the unasked and unanswered question at the moment.

The answer, if we ever get it, will likely challenge the fundamental integrity of NFL football since the Belichick era began.

That's why the NFL doesn't want to go there.