Self-described sports ethicist sees many gray areas in NFL,
Does cheating in NFL sprout from rules ambiguity?
Shawn Klein, a philosophy professor at Rockford (Ill.) University and self-described sports ethicist, says he was inspired to choose his course of study by Spygate, the 2007 scandal involving the New England Patriots videotaping opposing coaches’ signals.
Since then, the NFL has fed Klein a steady diet of material. As he sorts through issues from another Patriots controversy — Deflategate — he finds himself contemplating an issue much broader than whether the NFL acted justifiably in suspending quarterback Tom Brady for four games for being at least generally aware of club personnel deflating footballs in violation of league rules: the ambiguity with which the NFL has enforced its rules and disciplined violators, actions he says have created “a breeding ground for the rules violations.”
“By a lot of people’s accounts, this kind of manipulation or tampering with the footballs is commonplace throughout the league,” Klein told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s happened for a long time. That the NFL has been, to use their terms, generally aware of it, but hasn’t done anything about it ... you get a kind of tacit approval.
“The NFL only seems to react when (rules violations) become too egregious or it gets caught on tape or someone blows the whistle.”
Most recently, Cleveland Browns general manager Ray Farmer was suspended for four games for the 2015 season for violating the NFL’s electronic device policy after sending text messages to the sideline during games in 2014. The Atlanta Falcons were docked a draft pick and fined $300,000 for pumping fake crowd noise into the stadium during games in 2013 and ’14.
The league is only a few years removed from Bountygate, when New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for a season after the league discovered a system under which payments were established for injuring opposing players. Salary cap violations by the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins also led to action against those teams.
“Is there a culture of cheating? That’s hard to say,” Klein said. “But I do think there’s a culture of grayness.”
The NFL’s leadership contributes to that culture, Klein says.
“Anyone who has kids knows that ... you’ve got to make sure they know where the boundaries are and what the consequences are going to be,” he said. “And when they cross those boundaries, you have to follow through with those consequences. I think what you have in the NFL is a failure with all three of those. The boundaries aren’t clear, consequences aren’t clear and there isn’t any consistency in what the punishments are.”
Former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, who played for the Redskins from 1974 to 1985, says bounties were common during his career.
“If you didn’t have a bounty on you, you weren’t worth anything,” he said. “It was almost a badge of honor if somebody thought you were valuable enough to take out. That’s how perverted it was.”
Former Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy says it would be a mistake to shrug off Deflategate.
“When you bend the rules, there is reason to be hot and bothered,” said Levy, suggesting people with authority can help curtail the cheating.
The philosophy professor, former player and ex-coach say they think the level of cheating in the NFL does not exceed what’s found in society at large. But Klein says there’s reason to be troubled.
“It’s not pull-the-fire-alarm be troubled,” he said. “I don’t think we want to ... hold the NFL up to some idealistic standard that we don’t hold any other field or profession up to.
“But there are patterns here that we should be concerned about in terms of teams pushing too far. ... I think what we need going forward is better leadership in the NFL itself.”