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Originally Posted by willravel
It's funny, in attempting to be sarcastic you are actually making a decent case. Cheaters, no matter which rules they break, should pay for their mistakes.
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You know, Will, in a perfect world this would be the case, there would be a perfectly level playing field and everyone would play by the rules and those who didn't would be punished, but sports is never surgically sterile like this. There is a razor thin line between gamesmanship and cheating sometimes. Why is it perfectly legal to tape from other parts of the stadium and not the sidelines, while it is lauded when someone uses binoculars from the press box to "steal signs." George Allen, I think, used to have someone ride around the Skins complex on a bike to watch for people taping the practice (he always suspected Al Davis, probably with good reason, and was also very suspicious during cowboys week). The problem is also that some rules are being broken all the time. You could flag at least one person on the offensive line of any team, on virtually any play for a holding violation, according to the rules. Should all these "cheaters" be fined or suspended? What about the holier-than-thou Jets themselves? They have been repeatedly caught breaking the rules themselves, for violating rules that govern when you can and cannot speak with players, coaches and trying to recruit before they were supposed to. As I keep saying, I do not condone cheating, however there are dramatic differences IMHO between kinds of cheating. What the Patriots did was unfortunate, but it is nowhere near as scandalous as what Tim Donaghy, or the Black Sox or Pete Rose, or probably even the afore mentioned Broncos did. If you want purity in sports, look to 12-year-old Saturday soccer games, because you are unlikely to find it in the world of professional sports (or most D1 college sports, for that matter). I don't like it, but I accept it. If you want to complain about it, do not watch sports. ever. Because it is pervasive.