Spygate

Cheating has always been about finding an advantage. From the classroom, to the home, to the workplace, cheating is a plague which has immersed itself into our culture from every angle. Call it human nature, or primal temptation, but the truth is that cheating is still frowned upon, today more than ever, which is why whenever a huge cheating scandal surfaces, it commands the media's attention. No scandal has been more prevalent in recent history than the Bill Belichick "Spygate" incident, which arose in 2007 but still haunts the New England Patriots coach to this day.

As captured in a stream of articles on boston.com, the Belichick scandal received heavy media attention, especially because of the Patriots' incredible successes both on and off the field during this time. In short, Belichick was found guilty of spying on opposing teams' practices and recording their signals such that he can out-predict the opposing playbook on game day and dominate the opposition. Belichick was caught, and was fined $500,000 by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the largest fine handed to a single individual in the history of the league. 

This scandal, like all major scandals, bled its way into many major areas in American culture in the following months, even those which typically express no genuine interest in the gridiron. I personally remember the incident today not for the actual media attention it received, but for the episode of South Park in which Eric Cartman acts as a mentor for school children, explaining that they will only be able to get ahead if they learn how to cheat properly, like Bill Belichick. 

Even though the show is only satire, writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone do bring up a valid point. Despite the scrutiny, Bill Belichick is much better off having cheated. He is currently the head coach of one of the most successful teams in the history of the league. Despite the massive fine which he had to pay, Belichick is still making massive "moolah" every year, topping the league in salary with $7.5 million per year. He is still praised as one of the greatest NFL coaches of his generation, marked for his ability to take a historically pitiful team and lead them to 5 Super Bowls in 11 seasons. But was it all a hoax? Recent reports, while quite preemptive, claim that Belichick is cheating again, and that he never actually stopped his unorthodox "advantage strengthening" methods. Is the phrase "once a cheater, always a cheater" appropriate in this respect? Even more importantly, when surrounded by the fame and money which comes with being a successful head coach, does Belichick really lose sleep about his questionable integrity?