by James Kirk

Created on: February 07, 2008   Last Updated: June 29, 2011

If the New England Patriots willingly and knowingly, filmed the Jets coaches in violation on league rules, then "yes" by all means the NFL was right to penalize the New England Patriots. What seems to be missed here is how far did New England Patriots actually go to film other teams?

The commissioner and the Patriots have said this is an isolated incident, but now information is coming to light that the Patriots have done this before. Bill Belichick knows certainly of rules about filming. You can not film a team while it is doing its walk throughs or doing final preparations for a game. Knowing this Belichick received possession of a video of the New York Jets from a banned angle and watched it.

The video of the Jets was probably no big help, seeing as New England was by far the better team this year, but other videos can lead to way bigger fish. It seems that the Patriots now have filmed the St Louis Rams before the Superbowl in 2002. The film is said to be of a walk through the day before the superbowl.

If this is true then the Patriots surely have had an advantage in the biggest game of the year. This would classify them as cheats.

Now it's not saying the players had any part of this, but the coaching staff is well aware of game tapes and practice tapes and tapes that they are not suppose to be in possession of. The NFL is a billion dollar industry, if the integrity of the league is compromised football would not survive. The NFL in an effort to keep its integrity did fine coach Belichick and stripped the team of their first round pick in the 2008 NFL draft. This was a just penalty for the circumstances.

Now that new information has come to light the New England Patriots should be investigated by the league. The NFL must be keep on an even field and its integrity must be protected. If the Patriots have again failed on abiding by the rules, then again they must pay but with a stiffer penalty this time. No taking their word that this is an isolated incident, this is just as bad as a player point shaving or a team watching the coaches calls and signals.

All former and current coaches should be questioned. All staff members that helped prepare game tape and coaches who received game tape should be questioned. The NFL should question all players about what game tapes were watched during there years as players for the Patriots.

If Belichick is found the be in blatant violation of the rules then he should be banned from the league like Pete Rose was banned from baseball. I personally think that Belichick was a great coach who is hard to beat.

Now as time passes and more information comes to light I have to stand back and be objective. I have to wonder if the coach didn't have a slight edge over his opponents, if the coach didn't have to prepare as hard because he had specifics of a game plan. Did Belichick knowing get a superior edge over his opponents?

In time the NFL will find out and then we can ask again, do you think the NFL was right to penalize the New England Patriots for filming the New York Jets coaches?

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