Did Belichick go too far with Analytics?

Even if you are not a football fan, by now you have probably heard about videogate. The NFL expressly prohibits a team from video-taping on the field. Alas, My hometown team, the three-Super Bowl powerhouse, the Patriots, got caught last Sunday against the Jets, despite the fact that they had been warned. Coach Bill Belichick and the team have been punished severely, and the coach for his part, has taken full responsibility and apologized to the team, the owners and the fans.

What does this have to do with Analytics? I mentioned in a previous entry that Tom Davenport's in his excellent book, "Competing with Analytics" cites the Patriots and the RedSox (baseball) as big disciples of using Analytics on the field and to run their business. ( See this CIO feature article by Davenport ).

Teams routinely have staff on the sidelines trying to decipher the hand signals the opposing team's coaches are using to instruct the players on the field. All part of the game to get an edge. Every team does this. But using the the video-tape with the formations on the field as the game is progressing can provide a team with more accurate data and an advantage.

Now, there is some question whether the Patriots have been successful in doing this for the game in progress, or is Belichick so data-driven that he just wanted to add more data to his vast database to analyze and use in future games. In this case, the information gleaned is the specific hand signals a particular coach is likely to use. After all, the Patriots meet the Jets at least twice each year. Last year, they also met in the playoffs.

Perhaps, more teams have been video-taping on the sidelines. But Belichick got caught.