Don't spend my tax dollars to prove the Patriots are cheaters!
Filed under: Extracurriculars, Tax
The cheating was simple: New England Patriots staff members videotaped the signals of opposing teams. That's not allowed by the National Football League. The team got almost no punishment for their cheating. (A relatively light fine and the loss of a first-round draft pick.) End of story.Unless you're a United States Senator. Then you must suggest that taxpayer money be spent investigating these football shenanigans. No, I'm not kidding. Senator Arlen Specter says he wants an investigation done because the NFL hasn't done enough about the cheating.
Is he serious? The cheating was bad. The lack of punishment was worse. But it's football, for pete's sake. Are any other teams really complaining? No. (Although I promise you if it was my beloved Green Bay Packers who cheated, we'd never hear the end of it... ever.)
But no one really cares anymore. So just leave it alone. There are plenty of other uses for our tax money. And the fact that there was a huge investigation into steroids in Major League Baseball does not mean that we should throw away more taxpayer money on an essentially meaningless "investigation" of professional football. Next issue of national importance, please.
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-15-2008 @ 11:34AM
Sportsfan said...
"The team got almost no punishment for their cheating. (A relatively light fine and the loss of a first-round draft pick.) "
What?!?!? That is the harshest penalty in NFL history.
Not to mention the fact that there is evidence of tapes by several other teams have surfaced with no penalty (that we know of) being handed out.
This comment alone discredits your opinion. Which is too bad, because everyone can see that Sen. Spector is just wasting our precious tax dollars persuing his own personal vendettas (ties with Comcast who are at odds with the NFLNetwork, ties with Philly who lost a SB to the Pats).
Let's fine you $500,000 out of your paycheck and see how "light" you think it is.
Reply
5-15-2008 @ 12:00PM
Tracy Coenen said...
Key word: relatively
The $500k fine is light relative to Belachick's annual salary, which is a minimum of $4.2 million, and possibly as high as $8 million (although no one will confirm).
The team's fine of $250k is next to nothing, compared to their revenue which exceeds $250 million a year.
We don't need to fine me because I don't cheat. :)
5-15-2008 @ 3:08PM
Marc said...
Relatively, indeed. but relative to the wrong thing. the 250k fined to the team was the highest allowed by the NFL rules. The 500k fined to Belichik was the highest ever for a coach. The 1st round draft pick taken away was completely unprecedented and may impact the team much more than the fines. 1st round picks in the NFL are incredibly valuable. More-so than any other sport, except maybe basketball. So, relative to precedent? The fine was enormous.
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5-15-2008 @ 3:15PM
screenplay said...
There is a little town out west, maybe you've heard of it, it's called Las Vegas. And just in case you were born yesterday, I have to tell you that in Vegas over the course of the last seven years billions of dollars have been wagered on NFL football games. When you add up all the collective betting on football on a global scale it is hundreds of billions of dollars. A lot of people lost a lot of money because of the Pats cheating.
Now,in the gambling world, its called "fixing a game" when organized cheating occurs within a sports franchise. When this happens you leave the rhelm of sports and enter the sleazy world of crime.
Regardless of what Rodger would have us believe, Specter knows that the Pats had a huge advantage from cheating. So would people betting on the game if they knew about the fix. And lots of people knew about the cheating, probably the whole team. So, how many of them were betting on the games? It's not a stretch to think at some point over seven years organized crime might have gotten wind of it. When a horse race or a boxing match is fixed, they don't loose a draft pick, someone goes to jail. I hope Specter gets to ask questions to some people under oath
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5-15-2008 @ 3:58PM
Tracy Coenen said...
You raise an excellent point. But what is an investigation going to find? That they were cheating?
5-15-2008 @ 11:45PM
Alex said...
The Patriot Organization is the potrait of Decadence. And "Bill Belecheat" is the Demigod of Subterfuge. But Patriot fans, and I mean this with the utmost sincerity, are just plain-old, flat-out, cut-and-dry Ignorant.
Reply
5-16-2008 @ 10:00AM
Roger said...
The league should refund the fines and give them their 1st round pick for next year.
The punishment should be allowing all their opponents, this coming season to film the Patriots signals. All of them, offense, defense, special teams, calls for gator aid, etc.
If the Patriots did not make the playoffs, that would teach everyone a lesson and would be appropriate discipline. An eye for an eye.
But ,if they did, would this not prove that the video taping does not give much of an advantage. Would it not end all of the speculation?
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