The espionage world, one previously dominated by governments in their quests to acquire military and government information on their adversaries, and popularized by various films and television series, now appears to have developed as a new sub-culture in the world of sport.
As more and more money is poured into the sporting world, there has been a corresponding increase in the demands on, and expectations of, the coaches and their staff to ‘produce the goods,’ i.e., ‘to win at all costs.’ As the stakes have gotten higher and higher, so has the pressure to bend the rules of play and find ‘an edge.’ Desperate to get to the top of, and remain there, of their respective league or standings, teams and organizations have resorted to all manner of schemes. Spying on opponents during their preparations for important clashes now seems to be par for the course (no pun intended).
Yesterday, England’s Rugby Coach Eddie Jones reported that his squad had been filmed earlier that day from a nearby high rise building block in Tokyo whilst preparing for this Saturday’s World Cup semi-final clash with the two-time defending champions, New Zealand’s All Blacks. Jones even joked that they had someone spying on them in return. The coach might have been passing the incident off as light hearted humour but the espionage business in sport has evolved into very serious business.
Scouting of opponents, is, and will always be, part and parcel of the game preparation phase for any professional sportsman or team. The Advance Scout in baseball is probably the best exponent of gathering information the old fashioned way, by just watching a rival team during a three or four-game series. The scout, invariably, a former catcher (equivalent of cricket’s wicketkeeper) or pitcher, will chart pitches, and look for subtle nuances displayed by the team in various pressure situations. These seemingly minor observations can often be the key deciding factor in crucial games.
As the pressure ‘to win now’ has mounted, organizations have resorted to outright spying tactics. In recent times, two glaring instances stand head and shoulders above everything else. In 2007, the McLaren Formula One organization was fined US$100 million and thrown out of the Constructors Championship after they were found to have illegal possession of all Ferrari’s technical data. The 780-page document had been leaked by a disgruntled engineer, who no doubt, was well compensated for his efforts.
In September, 2007, the New England Patriots football team was accused of filming the defensive hand signals of the New York Jets coaching staff during a game, an act strictly forbidden by the National Football League (NFL) bylaws. The New England Head Coach Bill Belichick, who was accused of issuing the instruction to video tape the opposing sideline, was fined US$500,000, the largest fine ever imposed on a coach in the history of the NFL. The New England organization was also heavily fined and hit with further sanctions. At the time it was reported that the NFL had destroyed the tapes.
Apparently, that was just the tip of the iceberg. In 2015, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” reported that the NFL had not revealed the full extent of ‘Spygate’ as conducted by Belichick and his staff. ESPN informed that the NFL investigators had found “a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others” with a “library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents’ signals, with detailed notes matching signals for many teams going back seasons.” This disturbing evidence was immediately destroyed by the NFL investigators.
Belichick, who has been the head coach of New England, since 2000, has compiled an enviable regular season winning percentage record of .750 to go along with the six Super Bowl victories from nine trips to the big game. He had also been accused of resorting to other tactics such as stealing opponents’ play sheets from the visitors’ locker room during warm-ups, swiping playbooks and scouting summaries from hotel rooms and jamming opponents radio headsets during games.
While Belichick continues to steam roll towards another Super Bowl – New England are undefeated after seven games this season – and the rest of the league plays catch up, the inevitable question is what tactics are the New England Patriots resorting to these days?
In a sport such as American Football, knowing what play your opponent is about to execute does provide a notable advantage, but does espionage information really provide that much of an edge?
Jones has admitted to taping teams in the past but claims to have not done it since 2001. Besides, he added, anyone can look on YouTube and see everyone’s training sessions. As he summed it up, “you just have to be great on the day.”
Just ask Test batsmen who had the unfortunate luck to have to confront the West Indies four-prong pace attack between 1977 and 1995. No amount of espionage data could have prepared him for that relentless barrage of mental and physical torment.
