Don't Go To the Video Tape

The Spygate situation is beginning to look verrrry familiar. Accusations of cheating in a major sports league? Investigations? Prominent politicians getting involved? Now, where have I seen this before? Hmm, let me think... Oh, yes, I remember now: Spygate is starting to smell like baseball's problems with performance enhancing drugs. Whether it's athletes using steroids and human growth hormone or a coaching staff secretly videotaping the opponent's strategies, the pattern is disturbingly similar: They are cheating. That along with Roger Goodell and Bud Selig's lack of success in ending their respective crises are damaging the credibility of their sports. Everyone knows that the Mitchell Report is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg, and until MLB develops a legitimate test for HGH and it's accepted by the Players Association (Yeah, right), the problem will go on indefinitely and continue to whittle away at what's left of baseball's credibility. But is Spygate the tip of the iceberg for the NFL? That's the big question.

Stats, records and historical achievements have always been one of the features of sports, particularly in baseball. But Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens and their use of P.E.D.s have distorted the numbers and as a result, the fans have become apathetic towards records. It's always been fun to hear about a player reaching a milestone or passing somebody on a certain list because not only is it a great achievement, it also provides the important service of reminding fans of the great players of the past. It's an invaluable link to the game's glorious history. But now it seems to have become virtually irrelevant and that is not at all good for baseball. A perfect example is that Ken Griffey Jr. is closing in on 600 career home runs but it's barely getting any interest in spite of his apparent lack of involvement in the steroids scandal. Down the road, however, the fans will certainly show more interest if Alex Rodriguez and/or Albert Pujols approach 763 home runs if for no other reason then to get Bonds out of the record books. God forbid Rodriguez and Pujols don't stay clean.

As always, when it comes to cheating, money is the chief motivational factor on both sides. If Clemens hadn't done steroids or whatever else he did, he would never have been in a position to get that obscene contract from the Yankees last year. By the same token, Bonds would not have been brought back by the Giants to steal the home run record, and many other players wouldn't have been able to pull in a multi-million dollar Major League salary because their natural abilities would have been normal instead of enhanced. As long as that "enhancement" helps an athlete and therefore helps the team, management has no problem turning a blind eye. They don't give a damn about ethics. They don't give a damn about the long-term health risks. It's about winning at any risk and the potential money to be made. It's the same mentality that fuels gambling addiction.

Baseball's been doing this for many years and that's what's gotten them into this mess. They knew the problem existed as far back as the 1980s but they instituted their own "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to keep a potential disaster from occurring. After the 1994-95 strike they redoubled their efforts so that the home run could help regain the game's popularity. Mark McGwire was becoming the next Babe Ruth in the sense that Ruth's enormous appeal and the advent of the home run saved the game after the 1919 Black Sox scandal. But there was one major-league difference back then: Ruth was never in danger of getting caught cheating. It seemed to be working again this time, even though the rumors of steroid abuse in sports and baseball in particular and the calls to do something about it were getting louder by the turn of the century. But when Jose Canseco crawled out from under his rock, that blew the doors off the whole thing. Unfortunately, it was far less satisfying than it should have been because Canseco was only motivated by greed and childish revenge instead of being interested in the good of the game. Such are the times.

Meanwhile, Spygate just won't go away and the parallel is getting too close. Even after the NFL fined Bill Belichek and the New England Patriots $750,000 and ripped their first round draft pick from them, Spygate continues to linger around the NFL like morning breath. Roger Goodell is trying desperately to sweep the whole thing under the rug because he knows it has the potential of having the same ramifications that the steroids scandal has had on baseball. The problem grew murkier when Senator Arlen Specter got involved. Then, just before the Super Bowl, Matt Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant who was fired after the 2002 season, said he had untold information about the sordid affair. You can bet Goodell and the NFL had visions of Canseco's book dancing in their heads. Walsh didn't seem to be using it as a ploy to sell a book, but the NFL was taking no chances. They've held meetings and talks and negotiations that at this point almost appear to be stalling tactics designed to make everyone weary of it. That was the case with Barry Bonds. In spite of the overwhelming evidence against him, some people were actually calling for him to be let off the hook because they were tired of hearing about it, or they felt Bonds had suffered enough (a laughable reasoning if ever there was one). The personal feelings of an outside observer is no excuse to halt justice against a suspect, no matter what the situation. If the NFL has it's way they'll gladly let Spygate become more of a nuisance than a major issue of ethics and let it dwindle away in obscurity without anything else being done. Of course, the possibility exists that there isn't anything else to be done but my trick knee tells me if that were truly the case, the punishment levied on the Patriots and Belichek would have been the end of the matter right there. It wasn't.

The NFL is not learning from MLB's failures and it's too late now to avoid the comparisons. The inevitable question is going to come up, if it hasn't already: Should there be a complete investigation (a legitimate one) to find out if other teams have been doing the same thing the Patriots did? My answer is yes. Do it now. If other teams are cheating, find out who's guilty, deal with it appropriately and get it over with before it snowballs any further. Otherwise, Goodell's credibility could drop to the level of Bud Selig, who has about as much credibility as a broken watch. Goodell tried to establish an immediate reputation as a no-nonsense leader by being forceful with troublemaking players, but that's starting to look like a smokescreen. Instead of doing something about Spygate, he and the NFL are praying by their bedsides at night that the whole thing will just quietly go away. But the problem is not going away, Mr. Goodell, and that all by itself could wind up being a much bigger problem for you and the National Football League. Where do you think the name, "Spygate" came from?