Doing whatever it takes....

By Jon

What's worse, using illegal performance-enhancing drugs, or taking illegal videos of the opposing team to gain an edge? Apparently, the New England Patriots don't give a crap about either.

The chic Super Bowl pick from the AFC has now been involved in two instances of blatant cheating (if the most recent reports pan out) in the past few weeks. Nothing like the franchise that has become the face of the NFL over the past 5-10 years finding themselves marred in controversy.

The Harrison story is weeks old, so I'll let that be. But the new allegations bring up so many other questions. How long have the Pats been taping the other bench? Have they been caught before? How many other teams practice this? How much information can be taken from tapes of opposing coaches?

The story that intrigues me most is how they were caught. This will probably be further developed over the next few days, but I am praying that Mangini blew them in. As we all know, the Mangenius, or "Tits McGee," as Ryan prefers, was part of Belichick's staff in New England, and have been involved in a petty high school-esque fight ever since. You have to assume that they were taping coaches when Mangini was there, so did he alert the NFL brass? If he did, it would be a collective middle finger to the entire Pats organization, or so we can only hope.

The NFL is the only major sports league in the U.S. that can handle such constant controversy. HGH, taping coaches, raging criminals...yet they remain on top. This speaks volumes for the work of the Tagliabue regime and the popularity that they helped create. Granted, football was immensely popular before, but the NFL really distanced itself from the competition of other sports under his watch, and continues to reap the benefits with each negative story that comes out.

Your move, Goodell....