Would you pay $500,000 and a first round draft pick to win a Super Bowl?

That was the bill Bill Belichick received from the NFL for cheating. And it's only a first round pick if his New England Patriots make it to the playoffs this year. If poetic justice prevails and the Patriots don't reach the postseason they would surrender only a second and a third round pick. The Patriots also were fined $250,000.

Let's see ... Belichick knowingly flaunts the rules by the use of videotaping the sideline signals of opponents, the NFL knows he's done so, almost every team in the league suspects he's been doing so, questions abound as to whether the Patriots deserved to win three Super Bowls and this is the best Commissioner Roger Goodell can do? Is Patriots owner Bob Kraft running the league?

How can Goodell not suspend Belichick indefinitely, just as he did Mike Vick?

Why doesn't he put the Patriots on an NCAA type of probation where they're not eligible for the playoffs this season?

What ever happened to the integrity of the game?

This kind of discipline is a message, just not the right message. It's the mercy rule. Belichick's pre-sentencing apology wasn't even sincere.

All Goodell has done is raise the stakes in a whatever-it-takes to win a Super Bowl atmosphere. How bad do you want it? Just do this. And don't worry about

Why not do the crime, if there's no time?