(Click here for the trash-Belichick free-for-all in the Football Forum)

(Click here for the I-love-Belichick-you-leave-him-alone thread in the Football Forum)

 

Bill Belichick's reputation sleeps with the football fishes after he was whacked by Gridiron Godfather Roger Goodell Thursday with the largest fine levied against a coach in NFL history.

 

Give a little assist, too, to the blood-thirsty sharks in the media for snapping up the morsels of Belichick's sinking legacy.

 

The Gridiron Godfather has wasted no time stamping his imprint on the league after inheriting the family business earlier this year. Even Michael Corleone would be impressed by the way the NFL commissioner has gone after those who have double-crossed his football family.

 

Thanks to Goodell, no fewer than six NFL players or coaches had already been whacked for all or part of the 2007 season (Rodney Harrison, Chris Henry, Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Michael Vick and Cowboys assistant Wade Wilson).

 

The mighty Belichick is the latest victim of the Gridiron Godfather's bloodlust, after the Patriots were caught Sunday filming the defensive signals of the N.Y. Jets, in clear violation of league policy. As a result of the infraction, according to the NFL:

• Belichick will be fined $500,000 maximum
• The Patriots will be fined $250,000
• The Patriots will forfeit a 2008 first-round draft pick if they reach the playoffs, or a second- and third-round pick if they don’t reach the playoffs.

The fine against Belichick is the highest allowed by league policy. (You can read the text of Belichick's reaction to the penalties here, as reported by Mike Reiss of The Boston Globe.)

 

Those who believe the penalty is too steep will point out, correctly, that every coach and every athlete in every sports attempts the decode the signals of their opponents.

 

Belichick made the mistake of filming the attempts. That's the whole crime here, folks.

 

Because the practice of signal-stealing is so widespread, coaches around the country, past and present, seem overwhelmed by the media firestorm that has propelled what’s essentially a tepid, lukewarm story into the national spotlight.

 

Let's put it this way: if the Detroit Lions or Arizona Cardinals committed the same violation, nobody would give it a second thought and it would barely register on the local radar screen in those communities, let alone explode into the lead story on national news networks, as "camera-gate" has become.

 

You know this is true. And we know this is true.

 

That acknowledgement makes this story, by definition, a media-created firestorm. As the Cold, Hard Football Facts noted in The Boston Herald Thursday, sharks were already circling Belichick, waiting to move in for the kill. His violation of league policy simply puts a little blood in the water that whips up his critics into a fever, especially those critics in the media who have felt slighted by him in the past.

 

But consider the reaction from the coaching community:

In the big scheme of things, what Belichick did is the pigskin equivalent of jay-walking or driving 70 in a 65 m.p.h. zone. It’s not like he committed a true violation of industry standards, like a journalist openly stealing the work of another and passing it off as his own. That’s a game perfected by vocal Belichick critics.

 

 

Still, Belichick did violate a clearly stated league policy, one the commissioner reiterated to the league as recenty as September 6, three days before the transgression.

 

So Belichick deserves to the pay the price.

 

And, as we noted, it’s an incredibly steep fine – the highest allowed by league policy – especially given the fact that the infraction caused no physical or financial harm to any party and had no impact on the outcome of a game, and considering that the practice of stealing team signals is, according to many sources past and present, fairly common in the coaching community.

 

But that’s why Goodell is the Gridiron Godfather and you are not: he rules with an iron hand and whacks anyone who brings shame to the family name.

 

It's not personal for Goodell, the way it is for the anti-Belichick stool pigeons in the media. These bumbling football Fredos now tearing into Belichick for filming signals (we're talking cameras!) have felt slighted by the coach's non-answers at press conferences. They're now taking it out on him in print and over the airwaves, as if it's the coach's job to make their lives easy. "Do you know who I am?!" they seem to scream with every scathing syllable. These media tools are doing what they do best, using their forums and their personal agendas to shred another reputation.

 

But, no, it's not personal to the Gridiron Godfather himself. It's strictly business: Belichick has shamed himself and the league.

 

The media tools have gone so far as to suggest this controversy clouds New England's three Super Bowls over the past seven seasons. Clearly it does, at least in the eyes of factless public perception.

 

But in light of those allegations of on-going cheating, it deserves mentioning that the NFL, in penalizing Belichick and the Patriots, cited no other incidents other than the one Sunday against the Jets. If this had been a long-term problem, it's interesting that the NFL failed to point it out when issuing its ruling. And if it had been an on-going problem over the years, it's interesting that the NFL never acted before to penalize what is clearly a violation of league policy. This failure to act upon past transgressions provides further proof that the media, especially Belichick critics in the media, drove this story.

 

It’s important to keep in mind that, as part of the penalty, the Patriots will forfeit their own picks in the 2008 draft. They have two picks in both the first and third rounds, their own pick in each round, along with San Francisco's first-round pick and Oakland's third-round pick. If the Patriots perform as well this season as many anticipate, they’ll actually keep the earlier picks and forfeit their own picks later in the round.

 

We'll have a much better idea of how New England's season will unfold Sunday night, when the Patriots host competing AFC power San Diego in what essentially becomes a rare "must-win" game in Week 2 for an organization that, often for better but this time for worse, is at the center of the nation's sporting attention.