Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
I think this whole thing is hilarious. Cheating because a football is 1 PSI lower than the "low-limit"....
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The issue I have with it has nothing at all to do with how many PSI the ball was under inflated or what the consequence of the under inflation was.
The issue is that there is a clear and simple game rule regarding the ball pressure, the teams are entrusted to comply with that rule, and one or more Patriots employees willfully sought to defy the rule for sole purpose of providing the Patriots with an edge.
Clearly the practical implications and consequences of the under inflation are none. It's the tacit ethical and moral statements of the act of willfully defying the rules of a sport and the punishment that riles my dander. Quite simply, there's nothing sporting about that sort of behavior.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying Ace
if they really cared about cracking down on cheating, suspend Brady for the entire year.
The punishment implies that NFL just doesn't think this is a big deal and effects the integrity of the game. All things considered, spygate was a bigger issue.
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Exactly.
Yes, spygate (the Plame Affair?) had much more serious practical implications/outcomes. But practical ends and a culture's (nation, city, neighborhood, company, family, group, etc.) ethical/moral values can't be compared such that they can be deemed more or less important than one another.
Of course, where one stands on consequentialism vs. deontology (
http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_deontology.html) determines how one will feel about the cheating. (
http://www.iep.utm.edu/conseque/) I'm sure you can plainly see that regarding cheating in a football game, I am squarely a deontologist. Mind you, I don't always take that position. Regarding the Plame Affair, I'm far more consequentiallist.
Why the dichotomy? Well, that's where the practical considerations come into play for me. Where the practical concerns are few and/or of minor import, I'm likely to be consequentialist. I think it's safe to say that there really wasn't any worthy practical outcome to have been obtained from willfully violating a very clear rule of a game, a rule, moreover, that one is trusted on one's own devices, in other words "honor bound," to follow. Thus on the matter of the cheating, my ethical compass aligns with deontological principles.
All the best.