[vincesanity82]

In a statement regarding the punishment imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick, Belichick describes the incident as a "mistake." (The entire statement currently appears on the entry page to the team's official site.)Specifically, Belichick said: "I accept full responsibility for the actions that led to tonight's ruling. Once again, I apologize to the Kraft family and every person directly or indirectly associated with the New England Patriots for the embarrassment, distraction and penalty my mistake caused."Belichick also explains that he has "never used sideline video to obtain a competitive advantage while the game was in progress." Even if that's true, so what? This statement implies that the competitive advantage would have been obtained the next time the Patriots faced the same team or one of the coaches involved in the game, since coaches tend to move around and might use the same signals in the future.

Either way, creating and using the video is cheating.

Belichick offered up the distinction to support his position that his "mistake" came from an "interpretation" of a rule that ended up being "incorrect." The rule in question, per the NFL's release regarding the punishment, states 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." Apparently, Belichick believes that the phrase "during the game" means that it's okay to record defensive signals as long as the video isn't used "during the game" in which the video is made.

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