It was for sure without the players' knowledge. Players switch between teams all the time. You can't have them taking that sort of knowledge out of the organization.

I can't believe they didn't use more of a hidden camera.

That is the point of signals though, right? So that the people trying to intercept them can't figure out what they are communicating.

Football is more like war than any other American sport, with the different tactical coordinators, the on-field general (QB), the complexity of the schemes, the opposing fronts, the overhead camera shots, the electronic communications, the ground attack, the aerial attack, and now the spying.

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"I’ll just say this: We’re not talking to teams about their second- or third-best players." Joe Dumars talking about his plan to get other teams' 4th best players.

I understand that the Jets head coach, a former assistant to Bellichick, was the stooley. Sounds to me like he should be fined also. If he knew of this wrongdoing back during his tenure, and he didn't come forth then, that makes him an accomplice............. ...Mangini.........

Nah, that's part of the risk. Why do you think they made Weiss disappear to Notre Dame?

It's only cheating if you get caught. I don't see the Pats losing any Superbowl rings over this.

WCF doesn't even allow cheerleaders, you know the Lions have been at a competitive disadvantage for years playing the role of choir boys.

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I'd like to see the Patriots' ownership fined and the team should also lose draft picks. Basically, a message needs to be sent to the rest of the league. It's a shame the Pats fans will have to suffer (loss of draft picks) but they've had it pretty good for a long while now.

Is this a joke? It's alright to photograph every angle of every offensive play that a QB directs and have the info downloaded to a laptop or printed and ready for review before the QB can finish slugging some Gatoraid and sit down. He slaps on a headset and and participates in a conference call with coaches upstairs as they disect the last possesion.

So now it's illegal to corellate the sideline defensive signals with the legally obtained encyclopedia of realtime player movement.

Much ado about nothing.

I feel this was about the whole issue.........................

The League has fined Pats coach Bill Belichick the maximum $500,000 fine and the team an additional $250,000. The team will also forfeit their First Round draft pick in 2008 if they make the playoffs this year or their 2nd and 3rd round picks if they don't.

ESPN - Belichick fined $500K for taping Jets' signals - NFL

Wow, that's a pretty steep penalty. Your thoughts?

How was Tim Donaghy involved in this?

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Tim was just a bad apple. Stern threw him away and now everything's cool.

Intentionally breaking the rules of the sport is far from "much ado about nothing". The penalty imposed tonight sends a clear picture that cheating in the NFL will not be tolerated. The commissioner got it right on this one. Good for Goodell. I'm glad he penalized both the team and the coach.