General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: *ahem* [View all]hughee99
(16,113 posts)The NFL clearly takes cheating very seriously. Brady got a 4 game suspension, the Patriots got a $1 million dollar fine, and they lost their first round pick next year and a 4th round pick in 2017.
At the end of November, the Vikings got caught, on TV, heating up footballs on the sidelines during a cold weather game. When it was brought to their attention, the NFL officials asked them to knock it off. Then a memo was issued reminding teams they couldn't do that.
http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/11218/nfl-aware-of-game-ball-incident-during-panthers-vikings
Less than 6 weeks ago, Atlanta got caught piping in crowd noise for a COUPLE of seasons at their home games. They got a $350k fine, lost a FIFTH round pick and their team president was suspended. Not suspended from being team president, just not allowed to be the Chairman of the NFL competition committee (the ones that WRITE the rule book), for one year.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25128847/report-falcons-will-lose-draft-picks-over-crowd-noise-scandal
The same day, Cleveland got a $250k fine, a 4 game suspension for their GM who was the one that actually violated the rule but no loss of draft picks for "illegal texting" during the game.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25128837/report-browns-texting-scandal-nets-gm-suspension-no-draft-pick-loss
Apparently, at some point between March 30th and May 11th, it would appear the NFL significantly changed their position on punishing those that challenge the "integrity of the game".