New England Patriots coach caught winning

Ariy-El Boynton

Ariy-El Boynton

We all do it.

Hey what’s the answer to number 14? “I copied half the paper from the encyclopedia. It turned out pretty good.”

The statement, “if you ain’t cheating (I mean bending the rules) you aren’t trying” applies to a majority of college students around the country. Using our creative resources is how we fight the man to get our C’s and walk during graduation with a diploma in our hand.

Enter New England Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick. He is in hot water from the NFL for the 2007 “spygate.” Belichick has admitted that he taped the New York Jet’s sideline in order to steal signs.

Some, like Jets head coach Eric Mangini, are crying foul and calling for the Pats’ coach’s head.

My take on the issue: All is fair, in the tough NFL world.

One of the fiercest jobs in the whole nation is a professional football player, and an even more demanding job is that of NFL coaches, who surely get fired if they do not get wins for their home team.

I guess hindsight is 20-20, but Belichick was a former head coach at Cleveland, and his record was 5-11 for his last season with the Browns. You know what happened to him? He was labeled an inadequate coach and fired.

Pretend that at Belichick’s final press conference he had said: “My players played their best, and as a staff we know we didn’t cheat.” This would have been a big cop-out; Belichick was paid to win games, and he did not win period.

The question may be asked, but the end should never justify the means, right? Try telling that to a coach who took a job as an assistant at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

The Oakland Raiders took the proper NFL philosophy: “Just win.”

The argument may be made that the Patriots should get the same punishment that the NCAA gave to University of Michigan basketball program for student-athletes accepting money during Chris Weber and the fab five days (1992-1993). The NCAA took both of Michigan’s Final Four banners down and took away all victories that the University won from 1992-1994.

If you think that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should take away the Patriots’ Super Bowl trophies for the last three out of four years, you are dead wrong. There would be rioting in Foxboro (just miles away from Boston, and home for Gillette Stadium) and the NFL would receive a bigger big black eye than (enter joke here).

For those of you who doubt Belichick’s greatness as a head coach, rest assured he is the hardest working and most talented coach in the NFL. A first round ballot hall of famer for sure.

Some critics may call him a cheater, but there are worse words associated with an NFL head coach, such as: uninspiring, idiot, coward, scared or just plain stupid. I do not think he really cares about what other people are calling him. Granted, he probably cares about what Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Patriots players, friends and family say and feel about him. But the other haters can talk and write whatever they want, and Belichick can still sit back in his office and see three Super Bowl rings staring at him from his trophy case.

Is his job to be liked by the media, or even seven year old Billy from Bridgeport? No, his job is to prepare his warriors for NFL Sunday and the Playoffs, which the Patriots have made for six years in a row.

Agreed, he did break a rule and should face the consequences. Even when Belichick cheats he still is a genius; he was the first to get caught stealing signs. This is the equivalent to be the first guy/girl to use a camera phone to take pictures and send them to friends for a “cheat sheet.” The school’s policy will more than likely say cheating of any kind is wrong, but this is an advanced form of cheating and the school policy probably did not have a “no cell phone during tests” rule. The schools have caught on, and most schools now have a ban on cell phones during tests.

Same goes for Goodell. He made the statement to the NFL teams that cheating of any kind will not be tolerated in any way. Goodell did not have a “no stealing signs with a cameras” rule in place, so the punishment would have been stiffer if there was such a rule. The NFL will catch up, just like the schools have.

So far Belichick has been fined by the NFL for $500,000. That is a lot of money, yes, but I’m guessing Belichick would rather have blown out the Chargers last week than kept 500,000 dollars.

Oh, and ain’t America grand? A group of law proffers said that Belichick can deduct that fine from his taxes, according to a Wall Street Journal’s law blog.

So college students and NFL coaches alike break a few rules here and there. So what? The slight advantage is needed in this tough get the grade, win the award world.

But, Ariy-El, what do we tell the kids?

Just win, baby.