The drive home from work Wednesday night was unremarkable, save for a particular moment of irony.

A national sports talk radio show filled the airwaves, blasting away at New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s latest video indulgences.

Then came time for a commercial, in this case an ad for the latest in radar detectors designed to stay one step ahead of the police.

I immediately slowed down, of course, then laughed at the notion that a device designed to help drivers cheat the law was being used to subsidize the constitutional right to opine about alleged cheating in the NFL.

But that’s what much of the sports world has devolved into, the rounding of any corner to gain a competitive edge.

From stealing signs the old-fashioned baseball way to steroids and human grown hormones, circumvention of the rules or cheating – pick your phrase – is escalating in some of our most cherished athletic institutions. And it has to stop, or soon we’ll be left with nothing but competition with question marks.

Belichick always has been a master of his game, but he’s also been a condescending sort everywhere else, from the ragged clothes he wears on the sidelines to his terse press conferences where Patriots fans hang on his every word but get little in reciprocal loyalty.

He’s also not new to flouting rules he deems unworthy. Consider the NFL’s injury list and his need to list Tom Brady as “probable” every week as a protest of sorts for what he feels is an unnecessary endeavor.

We’ve given him a pass because he’s brought the Lombardi Trophy to Foxborough three times, and even once to Bangor. We laugh at his wardrobe, we shrug off his unwillingness to accommodate the media or fans as just Belichick being Belichick.

But having a staff member surreptitiously videotape New York Jets coaches last Sunday in an effort to steal offensive and defensive signals – in the first game after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had reminded coaches to knock off that practice and abide by what is a black-and-white rule – now leaves the Patriots defending their own success.

That’s a penalty flag the players don’t deserve.

A myriad of possible penalties for Belichick were suggested for his unsportsmanlike conduct, and ultimately Goodell came down fairly hard. Belichick was fined the NFL maximum of $500,000, and the team was fined $250,000 and ordered to give up its 2008 first-round draft choice if it reaches the playoffs and second- and third-round picks if it doesn’t.

And while all the facts about the case are still coming out, what I have learned from Videogate is this: Bill Belichick is not nearly the genius we’ve been led to believe.

Why would he think his former assistant and current nemesis, Jets’ coach Eric Mangini, wouldn’t rat him out? And you’d think he would have come up with a better plan than just having a guy in a Patriots polo shirt on the Giants Stadium sidelines doing his dirty work, especially given all the rumors about previous videotaping shenanigans.

Yeah, maybe everybody does it, but when you do get caught cheating, there’s a price to be paid.

I guess that’s why there’s still a market for radar detectors.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net