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.
