In a page out of the Philadelphia Phillies playbook, the New England Patriots were caught using a sideline camera to steal defensive signals from the New York Jets.

The NFL determined that the Pats violated league rules and said that they may face sanctions that include being docked multiple draft picks. Apparently, this is not the first time that the Pats were suspected of stealing signs, and they are also allegedly being looked at for irregularities in their use of radio frequencies during the same game.

Now, what will the sports fan make of this. We’ve already seen that people don’t care about NFL steroid suspensions (see Shawn Merriman), nor do they care about drug violations that don’t result in increased home runs (see MLB pitchers). What will they do with the Super Bowl favorites caught cheating during an actual NFL game. I suppose since they didn’t hit any more home runs in this game than previous games, they will take their punishment from the league, and go unpunished in the court of public opinion.

If only Barry Bonds played for the Patriots, then they’d have to pay. Asterisks, boos, throwing video cameras at the players on the field, etc.. But they only got caught in the act of stealing signs, and possibly illegal use of the radios during a divisional game against a known rival. Hell, Shawn Merriman is starring in NFL commercials. Talk about sweeping his steroid suspension under the rug.

The NFL is no cleaner than any other sport. But when the Patriots cheating goes mostly uncared about by football fans, and one of it’s marquee players steroid suspension is so quickly forgotten, no further proof is needed to show that not all sports are created equal. When Barry Bonds retires and no one cares about steroids in baseball anymore, everyone will see that this entire anti-steroids trend is all about Bonds.

There is a terrible double standard in sports when it comes to breaking the rules. You’ll see the treatment of Rick Ankiel and Troy Glaus is going to be a lot different than the treatment of Rodney Harrison. The treatment of the good ‘ol Patriots will be a lot different than it will be of Barry Bonds (never caught). The treatment of suspected steroid use by baseball power hitters is far worse than NFL players or baseball pitchers who’ve actually tested positive.

The steroid issue came about for one reason: to level the playing field. Make sure no one has an edge. Suspected steroid users, or even known steroid use is no match to stealing signs in terms of level playing fields. But today’s society just doesn’t care about old fashioned cheating. You’ll see when no one is outraged at the Patriots other than Yankee fans, and by week six, no one remembers this story. If only Tom Brady hit a few home runs this weekend, people might care about the Pats cheating.

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