Self-righteous pundits love anything with a "-gate" at the end

Think he'd give this up for a little reputation repair? Nope.

With all of this Bill Belichick business finally starting to settle down, most of the national pundits are finishing up their self-righteous rants about cheating and dishonesty.

As you've seen with many controversial subjects on this blog, my stance is usually a bit divergent from the media consensus about incidents.

When someone commits a wrong in sports, national columnists and pundits across the country can't jump to their keyboards fast enough to denounce the evil doer. If there is a juicy story out there, you can bet that anyone with a platform will try and one-up one another in an effort to strong-arm their way into the discussion. Sometimes it seems like some columnists are running for the President of Sports with one strong platform: "I'm tougher on crime than my opponents."

Given, what Belichick did deserves punishment. He broke specific rules concerning the monitoring of another team. What all of these self-righteous yahoos fail to recognize is that what Bill Belichick helped his team gain a distinct advantage that absolutely earned him and his franchise far more than the fines and penalties they incurred. Depending on who you talk to, he's been doing this for some time. If so, he was able to get away with something most teams dream of being able to pull off. He successfully stole the other team's advantage. And in the end, he is only accountable to himself and his franchise. The NFL can impose penalties until they are blue in the face, but until those penalties outweigh the gains derived from the infractions, they'll be useless. If you asked Patriots owner Robert Kraft if he would take a paltry fine and the loss of a draft pick for three Super Bowl championships and a position as a premier NFL franchise...well, you see the obvious answer here.

Other writers have made other logically faulty arguments defending Belichick's actions as just and simply of a competitive nature. These are not accurate either. Stealing signs in baseball has always been the norm, but nobody has been outed for using extra means to attain them, i.e. electronic means. You can bet it's been done though. They've just been too sneaky to get caught. Now that this business about Belichick has come about, the likelihood that anyone will will be caught in the future is slim. There are plenty of ways to survey another team without having a cameraman blatantly standing on the sidelines.

Stealing another team's advantage has been around since sports began. It will continue to be prevalent, even if the perpetrators go uncovered.

Reasonably yours,
Scooter
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NFL needs a common sense injection

Wade Wilson, Cowboys quarterbacks coach will have five weeks off.

It was announced today that Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson will be suspended for 5 games and fined $100,000 for possessing a banned substance.

In the wake of New England safety Rodney Harrisson admitting to using human growth hormone, it was discovered Wilson, who is a diabetic, had also acquired banned substances to help him deal with his diabetes.

So, taking a hard-line stance against banned substances, commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL took action against Wilson as harshly as they could.

Did this strike anyone else as being incredibly off base? It's such an odd story. Why would the NFL penalize a coach for taking medicine that helps him deal with something as serious as diabetes? He's a coach, after all, and isn't playing or testing his physical mettle. HGH is a physical aid, not mental, and he was obviously taking it for a serious medical condition. He even admitted that he took it and made no excuses. He obviously wasn't trying to hide anything and was taking care of himself.

"If I was trying to hide something I wouldn’t have put it on a credit card. I had no idea this was illegal or against league policy."

It's a move that lacks common sense and represents the overzealous nature that Goddell has displayed thus far in his tenure as commissioner.

Normally I have no qualms in damning rule breakers to the consequences of their actions, but I make exception in this siutaiton. The NFL obviously has a lot of image and behavior problems, but punishing a diabetic 48-year-old quarterbacks coach isn't the way to clean it up.

Reasonably yours,
Scooter
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Billy Donovan has no personal responsibility

Well, nix that. Various sources are reporting that Billy Donovan wants out of the contract he just signed with the Magic. Come now. Really?

Evidently he really toiled with the decision in the first place, and ultimately, he should have toiled a bit longer.

And, just to name who got screwed the most, it was the Magic. Not only have they set the bar on how much they are willing to pay a coach and tipped their hand a bit, but they have also sold over 200 season tickets over the last few days to fans who wanted to see what Donovan could do with the young Magic players. If I work in the Magic front office, I am so angry right now I can't even see straight.

So, once the Magic release Donovan from the contract (and they will), he will likely be duly compensated by Florida with a hefty new contract. He might not get quite as much, but it will likely be close.

When someone signs a contract with you for a set amount of money for a set amount of years, that person is supposed to honor that contract. It's brutally simple. Learn some personal responsibility and learn to accept the decisions you make, or don't make them in the first place.

So, now the Magic have until tomorrow to decide whether or not they will release him. Boy, how weird would that be if they took a hardline stance and told him to live with his decision? Donovan accepts the decision but fails horribly in the first season because his heart isn't in it. Plus, his players would never really trust him because he was fully prepared to leave them in his dust on his was back to the swamp.

Any respect I had for Billy Donovan is now gone. I'm sure he'll be heartbroken that I disapprove of his actions.

Reasonably yours,
Scooter
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Billy Donovan really did learn from his mentor

Billy Donovan’s sudden jump from rock-star status at the University of Florida to coach of the Orlando Magic really took me by surprise. After two straight titles and 11 years of building, Donovan looked to be getting rather comfortable in Gainesville. He had even turned down a rather lucrative offer to coach at his alma matter at Kentucky. So, initially the news came across as shocking. But, not really. With five years of security and $27.5 million ($5.5 million per year) staring him in the face, Donovan did what any sane person did. He took the money.

The talk among many was that if Donovan would have agreed to a contract extension with the Gators, he would have become one of the highest paid college coaches in the country, or he would at least come close. To provide a bit of scale on that, Rick Pitino, the college-to-pros-is-a-bad-idea poster child, just signed a six-year extension with Louisville that will earn him about $23.2 million (average of $3.86 million per year) over a six-year period. According to The Orlando Sentinel, if Donovan had signed an extension with Florida, it would have started at $3 million per year and escalate to $3.75 million by the end of his contract in 2013-14. At seven years, assuming a $0.125 million-per-year increase that would graduate up to $3.75 million in the final year, that would likely earn him $23.625 million. That's a difference of $3.825 million total...but in two more years if he stayed at Florida.

Every time a successful college coach makes the jump to the pros, everyone compiles the list of the past failures who have done the same. I’ll spare your time, as well as mine as it really isn't the point.

Many national columnists have second guessed Donovan, as they do every time a coach leaves college for the NBA for leaving a supposed dream situation to coach in a higher pressure, potentially higher profile environment.

Maybe Donovan really just wanted a different challenge, just like he said. Maybe that extra $3.8 million was too much to pass up. Or maybe, in the back of his mind, he knew he could do what Pitino did and test out his NBA coaching prowess and return to the college ranks later on if it doesn't suit him. I'm imagining it's a combination of all three.

Reasonably yours,
Scooter
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