The New England Cheaters? Fans and Team Caught Red Handed!
October 19, 2007
The New England Patriots spent the last year in court suing eBay to find the names of 13,000 of their fans who violated the rules, i.e. ‘cheated’ by selling their tickets online. During that same period of time NFL Commissoner Roger Goodell determined that the team violated league rules, i.e. ‘cheated’ when the team used electronic devices to steal the defensive signals of at least one opponent. Pundits speculate that the Patriots, who won three Super Bowls by an average of just 3 points, may have been cheating for years.
The Massachusetts ballclub sued eBay (StubHub) last year and today today the company was forced to turn over the names of 13,000 people who bought or sold the team’s tickets. The Patriots plan to cancel season tickets of customers who used eBay to sell their tickets. They also plan to refer the names to State officials for possible criminal prosecution. What was the Patriots penalty for cheating? A relatively small fine for the team and the coach.
Anyone else bothered by the hypocrisy? The State is changing the scapling laws to allow for the resale of tickets, but teams will still be allowed to prohibit the resale of their tickets. I think the Patriots should rethink their policy and allow fans to buy and sell tickets to and from anyone they wish. At the very least they should give their fans a free pass on this one in light of their own transgressions.
