Thanks for the comment. First, “[P]olaroids and binoculars” do not constitute video taping. Second, video taping by the teams, in the manner that the Patriots did, is not permitted. On September 6, 2006, Ray Anderson, a vice president for the NFL, sent all teams a memorandum that specified:

“Video taping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent’s offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches’ booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game”

The NFL’s Game Operations Manual similarly provides that “no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches’ booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game.”

Of course teams are allowed to record games, but the manual also states that “all video shooting locations must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead.” The “employee’s location,” as you put it, is relevant precisely to forestall cheating: if, from his location, the employee could videotape hand signals, those signals could be matched against the overhead recording of the game to determine which signals correspond to which plays.

A more elaborate version of my abbreviated response is available from the http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2007/09/13/a_sorry_state/ .

In any event, the point of the post was not to engage in a technical dispute about the interpretation of the rules (although this was Coach Belichick’s initial response). Instead, it is to pose the more fundamental question of how and why highly-competitive environments lead to behavior that most, if not all, agree is undesirable. After all, even if the issue were just “an employee’s location” (which I don’t believe it is), the fact remains that the team circumvented the rules for competitive advantage. Why would one with so much to lose do that?

It is amazing how poor readers still like to write. If you were to educate yourself, you’d know that the NFL permits video taping (filming, polaroids, use of binoculars) by the teams to glean information about each other. Read all about it, it’s in the rule book. There are restrictions as to where you can be when you do the recording, and a Patriots employee was in a non-authorized location on Sunday. That’s the entire issue here: an employee’s location. Every team studies every other team every week. Did you really not know this?