Bob Cook

When you hear the New England Patriots are accused of sending a spy to videotape an opponent’s signals, do you think, “There is no WAY that would EVER be tolerated on a team coached by Bill Belichick?”

Thought not.

As his team gets further removed from its Super Bowl run, Belichick’s career as a Hall of Fame coach is quickly being overtaken by his career as a Hall of Fame jackass. Even though Belichick is far from being found culpable in the case of the Patriots employee wielding a video camera where none should be, the coach’s long history of poor sportsmanship means it hardly stretches the imagination to see him being Dick Cheney in the NFL‘s version of warrantless wiretapping.

If this is all just a big misunderstanding, all apologies to Belichick. But the NFL determined Tuesday that the Patriots did break the rules. So NFL commissioner Roger Goodell needs to go all Pacman Jones on Belichick, who is a repeat offender when it comes to the crime of sore winning and sore losing. Forget losing a draft pick or two if the Patriots are found to have violated the league rule against videotaping another team’s signals. Belichick, if he is at any way responsible, should be suspended for a bad attitude that has played out in ways that makes Terrell Owens queasy.

Not only is it no surprise that the coach who Machiavelli thinks is a little too committed to winning at all costs would (allegedly) send a spy to steal signals during Sunday’s 38-14 victory over the New York Jets, but it’s also no surprise that, as a league source told ESPN, this is not the first time such an accusation has been made. According to that account, the Green Bay Packers last year kicked out the same Patriots representative being investigated by the league for the Jets incident.

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Sign-stealing has long been a sports pastime, and often it’s seen as crafty gamesmanship to slyly figure out the opponents’ signals. But only the sore-winning, sore-losing Belichick would be as ham-handed as to send a guy with a video recorder to stand on the sideline and videotape the opposing coaches.

It shows the same brand of subtlety he displayed, say, brushing past someone trying to shake his hand after a loss.

Belichick has been on a particular roll since the last game of the regular season: shoving a photographer during a season-ending win over the Jets; having LaDainian Tomlinson question whether the Patriots who danced at midfield after a playoff win at San Diego took their cues on classlessness from their coach; and blowing off Peyton Manning after the Colts beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, followed by Belichick giving CBS’ Solomon Wilcots a short, prickly interview that inspired network analyst Boomer Esiason to call the coach “unprofessional.”

Then on a Sept. 2 radio show, Vikings coach Brad Childress revealed he had a tense conversation with Belichick when Childress wanted to claim a player Belichick had put on waivers in hopes of bringing him back to the practice squad. Childress said Belichick told him he wouldn’t claim a Vikings player if Childress backed off. When he didn’t, Childress said, Belichick claimed a Vikings player. “He was trying to leverage, but you always find out who is honest and straightforward,” Childress told WCCO-AM.