Happy Friday, NFL. College football is embroiled in a cheating scandal that makes Spygate look as innocent as a game of Stratego, and while that may seem like the ideal time to kick your feet back and laugh about what color ties university presidents will wear to their congressional hearings, it should be a call to action. Namely, a reminder to take a stroll through your own internal intelligence to make sure your closets are clean.
In case you missed it, the Michigan football program allegedly employed a former military captain to aid in its effort to decipher and steal opposing teams’ signals, ESPN reported Friday, with Yahoo Sports first reporting the NCAA’s investigation into the program. That’s a wild fact to take in, but, for me, the more stunning part is the lack of surprise from the college football world in general.
Pat Narduzzi, the coach at Pitt, said that it “definitely happens” all the time and that he would like the NCAA to stop it. One could make the case that Greg Schiano, the coach at Rutgers, was telling the world about it during a halftime interview. For years, college football coaches have obscured themselves with sheets or other obstructive devices to protect their play calls from being intercepted from the press box. Here’s an article about Western Kentucky doing it in 2019. Western Kentucky!
