Comedic excuse leads to laughable punishment for McDaniels
Bill Cowher and I have the same sense of humor because we both guffawed after hearing Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels' explanation for Spygate II. It was the lamest excuse since the pooch ate my calculus.
McDaniels and the Broncos were each fined $50,000 after the organization self-reported the videotaping of a San Francisco 49ers practice last month by Denver's former video director, Steve Scarnecchia. The ex-video dude will now be taping birthday parties and magic shows. Amazingly, McDaniels is still employed.
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| Josh McDaniels must pay the NFL $50,000 for his part in the Broncos' illegal videotaping. (US Presswire) |
Bwaaa....
Bwaaaha...
Bwaahahaha...!
I once saw a unicorn, Josh.
On a beach. While bathing nude with Halle Berry. I had four percent body fat. We were smoking but not inhaling.
We were also watching the Soul Train Awards.
Rush Limbaugh was hosting them.
Bill Cowher, the current CBS analyst, also got a chuckle out of McDaniels.
"I know they say he acted independently. I don't agree with that," Cowher said of Scarnecchia on The NFL Today. "Because I think in every room, in every building, the dynamics, you always have to answer to a superior. I have a hard time believing this was done independently."
Because it wasn't. It's virtually impossible that McDaniels' version is true.
The most stunning part of "Spygate Deuce: This Time It's For Real" is not the faux story of McDaniels. That's the funniest part.
The stunning aspect was the tepid response of the normally punitive hard ass, Roger Goodell.
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The perception -- right or wrong -- is that Goodell is only tough with the players. There's a belief among a significant portion of the player base (I've spoken to dozens of players about this) that Goodell's harsh rules don't always apply to league executives and coaches that run afoul of the rules.
This was a chance for Goodell to dispel any such belief with a stern punishment, and this situation demanded a stern punishment.
A $50,000 fine is almost laughable for a serious offense. The Broncos make $50,000 in seven minutes selling John Elway jerseys. McDaniels can earn that cash back with a few appearances alongside G. Gordon Liddy at a local Radio Shack.
The Patriots and Bill Belichick paid harshly -- $750,000 in fines and the loss of a first-round pick -- for videotaping the Jets' signals in Week 1 of 2007. That's where the precedent was set. How is a second offense of illegal taping worth a far less severe punishment?
"It was not heavily fined enough," Cowher said. "Draft picks should have been taken away."
Jeff Pash, the NFL's executive vice president, said the difference between the Patriots' and Broncos' spying cases was the extensiveness of New England's.
"I think with any disciplinary action, you have to focus on what exactly the facts are," Pash said. "Here you had, as best we can conclude, a single incident as opposed to, in New England, years of activity. You had an incident that, as best we could identify, was carried out by a single employee without direction from the coaching staff or anyone else at the club. That's obviously different from what we saw in New England where the head coach was actively supervising the activity.
"And you had I think in many respects, from the commissioner's standpoint, the most important point was that as soon as senior management and ownership was aware of it, they came forward and reported it to our office and cooperated fully in the investigation. I think that combination of factors resulted in the commissioner's decision, led to the commissioner's decision on discipline. He's been quite clear that had the facts been otherwise, he would have imposed more substantial discipline, and also that he is prepared, if additional facts come to light, to reopen the matter. ..."
That sounds reasonable, but this is still a second instance. The punishment ceiling was raised by the Patriots, particularly since Scarnecchia has connections to New England and the previous spy case.
The light punishment also provides an interesting problem for Goodell. If a team is caught spying in the future, all that team has to do is what the Broncos did: Blame it on some rogue videographer.
I've heard repeatedly that some players have followed the Denver spy case closely and aren't happy about what they believe is Goodell's leniency.
Can't say that I blame them.
