Anyway, I like this quote from that same article:
...The first game was the Colts' easy win over the Broncos, and the one guy who should've covered his mouth was not a coach but a player, Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning. He's Dudley Do-Right in public, but on the field Manning seems to have the vocabulary of a dyspeptic carnival employee. The lip-readers counted nine televised f---s, many dammits, and, once, just for variety's sake, a f-----' dammit!
In the first quarter, after a replay had overturned an apparent touchdown pass to wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Manning was seen to say, disgustedly, "Why'd they show the f-----' replay?" When a running back short-armed his screen pass, he yelled, "F-----' get in there!"
After the game, when our correspondent went to the locker room and told Manning the lip-readers had nailed him, Manning took the stringer's cell phone and called me.
"They got me, huh?" he said, dejectedly.
"Nine times," I said.
"Man, I don't like to use that kind of language. I hate for the kids to see that stuff. But you forget the camera is on you, you know? It just pops out. Nine times? My mother is going to call and reprimand me for that."
I thought the difference was the videocamera. “Stealing signals” is just a part of the sport. You can find many many references to it at many levels.
Does the league specify not to steal signals? Or does it specify not to videorecord certain things with certain broad equipment types?
The fuss over the “stealing signals” portion of the accusations is profoundly silly. Some people can even do that kind of thing unconciously. Unless someone can cite a rule which says otherwise, it seems to be that the issue here is the use of technology in place of human ingenuity.
By the way....what was elaborate about the scheme? According to reports, the guy doing the videotaping was clearly identified as being part of the Patriots Staff, in plain view. Accounts vary as to which side of the field he was on (in reading articles, there are citations for each).