Written by Ron Clinton Smith   

Cheating When There’s No Reason To Cheat:

The Belichik, Nixon, and Madoff Syndrome






The videotaping cheating scandal of 2007 cost the New England Patriots their first round draft choice, $250,000 in fines, and Belichick personally $500, 000 in fines. That’s a hell of a lot of money, of course. But as they say, money isn’t everything. There’s also reputation, integrity, and trust.

It doesn’t matter whether the Patriots would’ve gained some advantage by covertly taping the New York Jets signals on the sidelines, to study and use in their next game, though they probably would’ve. The point is, it was seeking an unfair advantage and against the rules, and they knew it.

Dan Reeves, former player and Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons head coach, said: “Bill Belichik has cheated more than anyone in the league, and the thing is, he didn’t have to.”

By 2007 Belichik and the Patriots had won 3 Super Bowls with Tom Brady and were a virtual professional football machine. Their success was dominant. They could regularly shred other teams, always made the playoffs, won NFL Championships, and there was no reason to suspect they wouldn’t.

So why cheat? What was the point? Wasn’t their success enough?

Previous to 2005 the home team always provided the footballs for NFL games. Tom Brady lobbied the NFL to allow each team to provide their own footballs, saying at the time, “Because every quarterback likes them a little different.”

Following the Patriots/Colts AFC playoff it was discovered by the officials that 11 out of 12 of the Patriot’s balls were under inflated, making them softer and easier to grip and catch.

“It’s obvious that Tom Brady had something to do with this,” former All Pro Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman told a Dallas radio interviewer. “For the balls to be deflated, that doesn’t happen unless the quarterback wants that to happen, I can assure you of that.”

It doesn't really matter what part deflated balls played in the Patriots trouncing of the Colts, or whether the Colts could’ve even stayed on the field with them. If the Patriots were using beach balls to play the game, and they were improperly inflated, or deflated, by someone in the Patriots organization, for one game even, then they cheated again, and for what reason? And how many other games did they do the same?

Are Belichik and the Patriots so obsessed with winning, or so desperately afraid of losing, that they look for unfair advantages in a game they've dominated for a decade? Is it unthinkable that they might just play football and win that way, instead of looking for conniving ways to win?

Why do people cheat, in business, politics and sports, when they don’t even have to? When they’re already successful, kicking ass, have plenty of money, power, and are winning already? Cheating is never right or ethical, but when there’s no reason to cheat, when you’re already way ahead on your own merits, what strange snakes in people’s heads makes them cheat anyway?

In the 1972 presidential election the polls showed Richard Nixon was going to clobber George McGovern. The landslide win by Nixon that year turned out to be the fourth worst slaughter in presidential election history, in fact, with Nixon winning 96.7 percent of the electoral votes.

But prior to the election a group of burglars called “The Plumbers” broke into the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, hired by CREEP, or the Committee To Reelect The President. When they were caught and traced back to Nixon’s staff, the President took part in a cover up of the investigation, lied to the American people, and paid hush money to people to lie for him.

There was no reason for Nixon’s people to break into McGovern’s headquarters in the first place. Nixon was going to win hands down. But out of obsessive fear of not controlling and winning, to gain an even greater advantage against McGovern, Nixon authorized dishonest and illegal activity that resulted in him being the only President ever to resign while in office.

He knew it was wrong, and that the American people wouldn't trust him if they found out about it (he’d already been caught cheating in a scandal as vice president, and had been an embarrassment to President Eisenhower) so he tried to cover it up until it was obvious he was guilty, and Congress was in the process of impeaching him.

Why couldn't he just play, and win or lose, by the rules?

All’s fair in love and war, they say. In war we don’t give our enemy a fair chance to kill us. But in a civil society, where there are rules and laws, cheating is always wrong. Otherwise there’s no level playing field, and those who cheat win not according to their talents and skills and hard work, but because of short cuts, deceptions, dishonest handling, and tricking the system. If rules that most of us play by aren't followed by some, everyone loses. Cheaters lose too, because if they win by cheating, they never know if they would have won honestly. Nobody wins, and the whole of society is a scam.

Another recent scandle was the ponzi scheme of Robert Madoff, whose investment firm cheated dozens of investors out of millions of dollars in life savings, in some cases everything they owned. Madoff could have had a lucrative business and lived very well, but that wasn’t enough, so he cheated his clients, stole their money, destroyed their lives, himself and his family.

There is something vicious about this kind of nature. Whether we’re talking about sports, politics, or investing, cheating is an act of malice against all of us. There’s something missing in the conscience and brain of anyone who believes they’re entitled to live by different rules than the rest of us. In sports, what is the point of playing or watching a game if the playing field isn't level? If a game is fixed, even a little bit, it isn't a game, it’s a racket. If a candidate can’t run his campaign without having his office burglarized by his opponent, it isn't an election.

But the oddest thing is, why would anyone who is already highly successful, go the extra step of cheating the system, rather than just competing honestly? If an underdog cheats, you can at least see his reason. It takes a mighty peculiar, greedy, sociopathic mind to cheat when you’re already winning. It’s like saying, I’m not only winning, I’m smarter than all of you, because I’m fooling you all too.

The great NFL receiver Jerry Rice said last week, if the Patriots win Super Bowl XLIX, it will be tainted and you have to put an asterisk next to it. The sad thing is, the Patriots could have been the most respected team in the league, and left a legendary legacy. But instead they will go down in history as probably the most suspect team, and now all of their wins are suspect.

Because the sure fire best way to lose in life, is to cheat yourself.

Ron Clinton Smith is a film actor and writer of stories, songs, poetry, screenplays, and the novel Creature Storms.