INDIANAPOLIS — When it was first reported earlier this week that the New England Patriots were being investigated by the NFL for their alleged use of a video camera to spy on New York Jets defensive coaches during last week’s game at the Meadowlands, Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy was asked for his opinion on the situation.

Dungy, though, begged off for the moment, opting to wait until the league office announced any sanctions against the Patriots or their head coach, Bill Belichick. But he promised that he would have something to say when and if that occurred, telling reporters to check back with him later.

On Friday, Dungy took the opportunity to air his views on New England, Belichick and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to levy substantial fines against the team and coach while also docking the Patriots a draft pick next spring.

In a statement released by the league Thursday evening, Goodell fined Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000. He also ordered New England to forfeit a first round draft pick (if the Patriots make the playoffs) or a second and third round pick (if they miss the postseason).

“Really a sad day for the NFL. Another case of the 99 percent good things that are happening really being overshadowed by one percent bad. So I think it’s a really bad, bad situation for the NFL in total because, again, people aren’t talking our product. They’re not talking about all the great things that happened in week one [of the NFL]. They’re talking about a negative incident,” Dungy said.

“I feel sorry for a lot of people involved. I feel sorry for some really good guys on the Patriots that are going to be tarnished by this. I look at [quarterback] Tom Brady, [defensive end] Richard Seymour, [wide receiver] Troy Brown. Those are guys I talk about to our team, of the way you do things. The way you want to represent the NFL. We’ve got two guys on our team, [placekicker] Adam [Vinatieri] and [defensive tackle] Dan Klecko that are the same way. They’re going to be linked now with negative. And that’s too bad.”

The Colts coach didn’t stop there, as he wondered aloud what the lasting effects of such an incident would have on a successful franchise like New England in particular and the league in general.

“Everytime I’ve talked to [Patriots owner] Bob Kraft, he presents the type of image I know what he wants to present. I feel bad for him, because he’s going to have to answer a lot of questions. Going to have to answer questions all the time, from here on out. When headsets go wrong, which they go wrong everywhere. Headsets go wrong in our stadium. But when they go wrong up there now, he’s going to have to answer is it something that just happened or is this planned? There’s bad grass everywhere. But when the grass doesn’t grow up there, you know, he’s going to be asked about it. And that’s too bad,” Dungy said.

“I feel bad for him. I feel bad for young people that have looked at this organization [the Patriots] and said, ‘Hey, these are people who won three Super Bowls. That’s what I want to be like.’ And I feel bad for young coaches. I hope they don’t feel like this is what you have to do to win, because you don’t have to do that to win. It’s tough. Nobody wants to throw stones at anybody else. I’m certainly not throwing stones at them. But I think it’s a very, very bad thing for the NFL. Just another situation that we’ve had that isn’t good for us or our fans. And we’ve got to be careful. We got to make sure that we don’t end up like some other sports where the negative headlines outweigh the positive. I think we have to look at what it is. We’re not talking about stealing signals and we’re not talking about individual incidents. What we’re talking about is breaking the rule. I think that’s the thing that’s different in this case and that’s the part that’s too bad.”



No opinion change — Dungy said Friday that his opinion of Belichick hasn’t changed one way or another after what has happened this week.

“No. It’s too bad for the league. It’s just one other negative incident that we really don’t need,” he said, adding that it’s been his philosophy to not worry what other teams might or might not be doing.

“We never really worry about what other people are doing. I think everybody takes precautions with their signals, but you don’t assume anybody’s breaking the rules.”



Tarnish the Patriots’ image? — The Colts coach said that it would be up to the media and the public to decide if what happened last week would permanently tarnish New England’s image as an NFL dynasty.

“Well, I think that’s going to be up to you guys [the media]. And that’s what I’ll be curious to see. We’ve seem to have tarnished [San Francisco giants outfielder] Barry Bonds and we’ve pointed that even though he’s a great player and he hit a lot of home runs, because of what some people that work around him have done. It seems to have tarnished him in the court of public opinion. We’ll see,” he said.



Tom James writes for The Tribune Star in Terre Haute, Ind.