So Bill Belichick admittedly broke the rules to gain an advantage - in other words he cheated, but that doesn't mean it wasn't smart. Think about the process that needed to happen in order to do what the Pats are accused of doing which is stealing the opponent's defensive coaches signals and then corresponding those signals to plays all by utilizing a camera man on their sideline.

This has long been practiced in Baseball. I know someone who used to do this exact thing for the Mets under Bobby Valentine - it was called "advanced scouting". The difference is that the Patriots were doing it mid-game on the fly. This gave Belichick and Brady the unfair advantage of knowing what the defense was going to do. All in all you would have to be pretty intelligent to pull something like this off. If not for Mangini the Pats may never had been called out. I guess the apprentice was sick and tired of the antics once they were used against him.

Lets take a step back and think about the crime at hand. It must take some sort of genius to really be able to make something out of the information that they were obtaining. I mean really, what good is it to know some signals anyway. You still need to know how to interpret those signals and how to adjust your own gameplan accordingly. All of this should be taken into account when assessing whether or not this should tarnish Belichick's image as a genius. Twenty years ago did teams have the ability to look at still pictures on the sidelines of the previous drive? Ten years ago did the quarterback have the ability to get signals from their coaches up in the coaches booth via a speaker in their helmet? I don't think they did. What if Belichick is just a visionary figuring out a  new way to exploit technology for his own good? The only problem with this argument is that it is still against the rules therefore Belichick must be punished.

The Jester would like to put forth the following punishment:

• The Pats lose their first pick in the next two drafts
• The Pats lose the ability to use the technology afforded to them by the NFL including all communication devices, pictures, instant replay, and air conditioning/heaters on the sideline
• All of the Patriots coaches must be on the sideline during the game