Opinion: Patriot Way is not just winning as latest rules scandal reminds

Nancy Armour | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Are Patriots proving theory of once a cheater, always a cheater? SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Lorenzo Reyes breaks down the Patriots history of cheating and why we shouldn't be surprised by latest allegations.

There’s more to the Patriot Way than winning.

Like cheating, deception and lies.

It doesn’t matter whether New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick ordered, blessed or even knew about the video recording of the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline. The bungled subterfuge – and it’s clear from the clip aired Sunday by Fox Sports that that’s exactly what it was – is confirmation that New England’s entire culture is warped, devoid of all ethics.

If there’s an opportunity to gain an edge, the Patriots will take it, rules and fair play be damned.

The crime this time is minor, certainly not on the same level as Spygate or Deflategate. That’s beside the point, though. The NFL has busted New England twice for cheating, and it hasn’t changed a thing. Incredulous as it might seem that the Patriots would be brazen enough to play fast and loose with the rules after being docked $1 million and a first-round draft pick, they can’t help themselves.

This is who the Patriots are. This is what they do. Breaking the rules, trying to game the system for even the slightest edge, is part of their DNA.

No doubt the Patriots and their fans will claim this is simply jealousy, envy of a franchise, coach and quarterback that have won six Super Bowls in the past 18 years. But why is it, when something is amiss, New England always seems to be in close proximity?

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There is the signal stealing (Spygate) and equipment tampering (Deflategate), of course. But there also are the headsets of the opposing coaches that never seem to go on the fritz anywhere but Gillette Stadium. The deceptions with the injury report.

Now it's a videographer, despite years of working for a franchise where secrecy and paranoia are paramount, claiming he didn't know he couldn't film an opponent's sideline and their substitution patterns.

The NFL is investigating New England's latest transgression, and how harsh the punishment will be will likely depend on how high up this went. But that misses the point, which is that there is a fundamental flaw in the Patriots franchise that has blurred the bright line between right and wrong into a very distinct shade of grey.

The culture of the New England franchise is such that someone, or someones, thought nothing of getting a videographer to shoot close-up footage of an upcoming opponent’s sideline. Or the videographer, assigned that feature on the advance scout, figured he’d get a little something extra while he was at it.

The Bengals are the Bengals, tanking this season without intending to. The Patriots probably could have let one of Cincinnati’s advance scouts sit in on their meetings and New England still would have won by a couple of touchdowns.

But Zac Taylor is also a new head coach, one that Belichick and his staff have little familiarity with. How he and his staff communicate, who’s doing what on the sidelines, that kind of information could come in handy. Knowledge is power in the NFL, particularly for a franchise that views the game as if it's tactical warfare.

Now, there are plenty who have insisted New England couldn’t possibly be this stupid. The videographer was wearing Patriots gear, had applied for a credential. Given New England's history, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell won't let more wrongdoing slide.

But rocket science has never been the foundation of any of New England’s schemes.

Remember that one of the employees accused in Deflategate called himself “The Deflator.” When caught, the Patriots tried to say the nickname referred to weight loss. Also remember that Tom Brady said he routinely destroyed his old cell phones, only for investigators to find that he’d actually only destroyed one – the one that could have shed light on his role in the scheme.

Maybe the Patriots were gambling on not getting caught. Maybe they thought that, if they did, they could talk their way out of it.

“I can delete this right here for you,” the videographer, a longtime employee of Kraft Sports and Entertainment, can be heard telling Bengals security in the clip that Fox aired.

“The damage is done, my friend,” the Bengals security person replies.

“No it isn’t because we can delete it,” the videographer said.

Or, more likely, the Patriots didn’t give much thought to anything beyond their own potential gain.

Winning is the Patriot Way. Whether it's done the right way is an entirely different matter.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.