POSTED 9-17-07

There are rotisserie heroes and fantasy goats. But some performances are so ugly, egregious or plain perplexing that it begs the refrain: What the F--k! Here is Update's seriously twisted moment this week.

So what if the Patriots were videotaping the New York Jets signal calling in the season opener? Does it really deserve the back page of every newspaper in America? For all the hubbub and consternation "Videogate" has caused, it is nothing more than an embarrassing faux pas for Bill Belichick & Co.; not the cheating — that's hardly reprehensible — but rather getting caught. Cheating is a part of sports. Ignore Barry Bonds for a moment and consider that baseball players have been stealing signs since the game's inception. When the guy on second reads a catcher and tips off the location of a pitch, it's celebrated as smart baseball. And isn't it? Fans and media clamor for victory in anyway possible. Why do you think baseball spent over a decade ignoring steroids and other drugs? It was good business; it was good for the sport. Now should Belichick have been videotaping the signals? Probably not, but it doesn't really matter. If you think there's a team in the NFL that doesn't have scouts hawking coordinators, trying to glean some useful morsel to put their team over the edge, then your sadly naive. In this era of sports cheating is king. The Patriots learned something valuable here — next time don't get caught.