Deflate Gate

In 2007, the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL), were caught red-handed illegally video taping the New York Jet's defensive hand signals in the first game of the season. This later became known as the Spy-Gate scandal. Approximately a week ago, the Patriots were thrown into another ethical dilemma as it was discovered that 11 out of the 12 balls they used for the AFC championship game were deflated beyond the documented rule for the PSI level of the balls. This new ethical accusation is now known nationwide as Deflate Gate.

This incident raises ethical issues for multiple reasons. The first, and the obvious, is creating an uneven playing field against the competition for their own advantage, or more simply, cheating. Another significant reason why this decision raises an ethical issue is the mere fact that this is the second major offense related to cheating within the same organization, with the same coach, GM, and other executives involved in the business operation of the Patriots. When faced with the dilemma Bill Bilichick and Tom Brady (the coach and quarterback, respectively) took the position of claiming that they basically didn't know any better. Bilichick even made a statement in an interview asking about the incident claiming that for the 40 years that he has been employed by the NFL, he has learned more about ball inflation and deflation rules more in the past few days than he has in his time with the association. Tom Brady, as you could imagine was forced to take a similar approach.

When examining the decision with a big picture perspective it gets a bit more disturbing in my opinion. From a business and money consideration this ethical dilemma gets much larger than having a competitive nature and doing anything to win a game even if that entails bending or even breaking the rules. It has been proposed by the NFL that consideration for the punishment to the Patriots to be decided after the team plays in the SuperBowl in two weeks. This raises some questions and perhaps a larger ethical dilemma than the one currently being discussed. One can make the argument that the potential profits that can be made from the Patriots playing in the Bowl are exponentially greater than if the team gets kicked out and replaced by the Indianapolis Colts (the team defeated in Deflate Gate by a score of 45-7). This proposition is not one easily disregarded being that the Patriots Vs. the Seahawks creates a matchup of both #1 seed teams that is sure to attract more viewers and hence more profits. The ethical issue here might be one greater of the League as well as the Patriots.

It is very possible that the ethical framework used by the organization to make such a decision is one of a utilitarian outlook. Being that this view is basically a cost benefit analysis, the Patriots may have calculated the risk of making the decision, concluding that the worst case scenario would still be one of them in the SuperBowl, the largest television broadcast in the United States, and one that comes with major financial gains for the majority of anyone involved in the achievement. Therefore I must deem this decision to be incorrect, unethical, and of an utterly greedy matter.

Troy Aikman, a former NFL QB star that is now a broadcaster for ESPN, made a statement earlier today claiming that Bill Bilichick, Tom Brady, as well as the whole Patriot organization should be punished at a level of "historically severe", after citing former NFL cases and their penalties and their decided consequences. After the analysis of this ethical dilemma, I must agree fully with this proposition.

Source: Business Insider
URL:http://www.businessinsider.com/defaltegate-troy-aikman-punishment-new-england-patriots-2015-1