It seems like the NFL has really pushed this story to get some heat off of the Vick case. And I think the penalty is a bit heavy handed.

But why even cheat in that manner in the first place? The risk certainly doesn't seem worth the reward.

Pete Rose bet on baseball and made money off of it.
Bonds there is still no solid proof to it only alligations.
Chargers just lost because the Patriots are better.
Just like the Chargers lost tonight in the home opener AFTER all this camera crap has been done....PROVING that the patriots dont need cameras to win.

We obviously disagree on the penalty, Hev; but not on the effect it had to alter the Mike Vick situation. It just seems to be a poor way of "spin-control" to me. And I don't think it is over. Just give the sports writers and announcers a few more days. Mike Wilbon has already opened the floodgates.
Unfortunately, in professional team sports (all) there is a burden placed upon head coaches, managers and otherwise to "win or else". What is the "job expectancy of an NFL head coach? A MLB manager, if they are in charge of a losing team? Not long.
Add to this the phenomena of today's athletes who are paid exorbitant amounts, are pampered to the utmost, and contrary to most thought, are only subject to a few lines in the sports section of your newspaper and the sports section of your local news for a poor performance. They cannot be "fired", or even benched for any real amount of time because the bean counters for that team will start asking: "Why did we pay this huge amount of salary for this player for him to sit"? The coach is blamed.

I think the fines were justified, perhaps even forfeiting the game could have been called for... but losing draft picks seems a bit harsh to me. I think they were trying to make an example of the Pats which adds to the distraction away from the Vick case.

obviously the Pats are still cheating, the Chargers are clearly the better team. Better check out the Ravens too, anybody that beats the Jets must be cheating too.

LMAO

The Bengals and Browns too, holy shit hope nobody took the under on that game?

Misunderstood the rules?????? Do you really buy that crap????? The rule in question states:

To further clarify the NFL sent a memo to all teams dated September 6th that said:

Now let's see the game in question was played on the September 9th.

HMMMM Videotaping of any kind.....seems clear enough to me, and all I have is a high school diploma........Bellicheat?? College educated. Hey what do you know the more education you have the dumber you turn out to be.

ESPN reported today that the NFL has ordered the Patriots to turn over all videotapes that they currently have, it would seem a former assistant has claimed the Bellichek actually has tapes of all the different coaches and coordinators in the league and has used them to help game plan.

It would seem that this story may not yet be over......

It makes you wonder, the Patriots have some great players, and you really do not want to take away from their play on the field, they are the ones making the tackles, breaking tackles and making the catches and passes, however, if they know ahead of time what the opposing team is going to do because they know their signals, is this fair????

As a fan I know that during the game there is a stealing of signals that occurs, as a player in high school I myself have done it. However, during the game, you rely on picking up what the other team does as the game progresses, you do not go into the game already knowing. Herein lies the difference.

dmk

This is going to dog the NFL for longer than Mike Vick ever could. Disciplining players is one thing; but disciplining a coach (or manager) is totally different. I think Roger Goodell just lost himself some respect among the fans of football.
As far as teams you are mentioning, OTF; is this not the guesswork of a fan of those teams? When the Rams lost that Super Bowl; at the time they were considered to be the team of the future that all other teams would now try to emulate. There is no doubt that they were the better team. Now what do we do?

Thanks, Sarge. I Know I could not have said this any better. Now, what do you think the punishment really should be?