If you gave other coaches the chance to record opposing teams' offensive and defensive signals during games for an eight-year period, and at the end they would lose a first-round pick and their teams would get fined, would they say it was worth it?
I think almost every coach in that league would say yes. This is a huge advantage. And that's why the punishment did not fit the crime.
Jimmy Johnson has said the effect taping had for his team was minimal - so much so that he stopped doing it because it wasn't worth it. Belichick said (and I paraphrase), on a scale of 1 to 100, the benefits of taping were a one.
So why would you forsake the opportunity to draft a player who will
actually help you on the field for eight years (if the pick is a good one) so that you can gain a slight advantage in preparation for something that was, and still is, legal?
Rosenberg's premise for "More Punishment!" is based on his own very ill informed assumptions. How can any rational, thinking person call for a harsher punishment when they have so little knowledge of the actual incident or the benefits gained from such illegality?
If Bill was using the tapes after the games were played (which all evidence would suggest) and we know that coaches change their signals from game to game or even quarter to quarter, wouldn't the most likely reason for taping be to pick up on trends in signals for particular coaches and staffs? Meaning they never actually knew what the opposing defense was, they were
still merely making a guess as to what the defense was going to be. Their guess was simply more educated than others (educated illegally for the last year and a half, mind you).
The punishment was excessive (in my mind), but I understand why: Belichick disobeyed the new commish's own declaration, which could not happen because it flies in the face of the hierarchy that is the NFL power structure. Goodell jumped the gun and was pandering to the media uproar, but the punishment is what it is for the same reason that any newly crowned autocratic leader punishes opponents and critics harshly - to prevent further dissension.