We have always had respect for what Bill Belichick has done on the field but never really liked him as a man. I mean this is the guy that screwed the Jets after taking their head coaching job just because one that he liked better suddenly popped up. This is the guy who disrespects opposing coaches and camermen who get in his way when trying to get to midfield for a handshake. His players have never really liked him very much. And, he dissed Peyton Manning after his Colts finally got by the Pats in the playoffs last year. Finally and maybe most importantly, the guy dresses terribly! How can you like a guy that dresses like a bum?

This recent cheating fiasco (caught videotaping Jets signal calls on the sideline last week) reinforces what we already knew - Belichick is a bastard! A winning bastard - but a bastard nonetheless. Does this cheating incident tarnish what he and his Patriots teams have done over the past six years? Yes it does. It puts a bit of an asterisk on their accomplishments. A big asterisk? A Barry Bonds sized asterisk? No. He is a great coach without cheating. Tom Brady is going to go down as one of the best QBs ever. This does not take away from the tremendous skill that resides with this team. The Pats would have likely done most of what they did without cheating.

But, with three Super Bowl wins by 3 points each, it makes you wonder a bit. If they were in fact cheating in this way over the past six years, it gave them some sort of advantage. The NFL is a sport in which games can be decided by one play here or there, or by inches (just ask the 1999 Tennessee Titans who came up six inches short of a Super Bowl victory at the buzzer). You’d have to say that this kind of unfair advantage, if used somewhat consistently over the 100 or so games the Pats have played the past six seasons, helped the Pats win a few games they might have otherwise lost. It makes you wonder. And it makes us lose a lot of respect for one of the greatest coaches of all time.