High school teams wouldn't pull a Belichick, would they?

In the midst of another fine high school football season, the professional game keeps creeping into my mind.

Or, perhaps better termed, the recent NFL "gamesmanship" is creeping me out.

As many of you are aware, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 by the league and the team docked a future draft choice for videotaping defensive signals given by New York Jets coaches during their season-opening game.

How does that relate to the high school game? Pretty closely, actually.

Let's just say the sidelines have become awfully crowded the last couple of seasons.

Now I'm not saying high school coaches are dispatching camera-toting spies to gain a competitive edge, but who are all these people on the sidelines?

Given the recent NFL scandal, shouldn't suspicions pique a little bit?

A bunch of local reporters spend every game, every weekend on the sidelines to get a better feel for the action. Most games I try to spend a half on each.

The one thing I'm amazed at is the number of folks lurking in and around the team's designated area. Because not all of them are feverishly jotting stats in notebooks, I can only guess at what they're doing.

Several have cameras. Few have visible credentials.

Media coverage of high school football -- especially online -- has grown tremendously in recent years, so the numerous cameras are somewhat understandable. Even our very own Daily Herald has begun putting videotaped action on its Web site.

I also know parents often are allowed to take pictures. Other roaming photographers snap individual shots in hopes of selling them to players' families.

Teams, meanwhile, have become virtually addicted to video. It's the lifeblood of their programs.

They videotape their games and practices from various angles for future analysis, the most common shots taken from atop the press box and from behind the end zone. Those end zone cameras with the fancy cranes, by the way, cost several thousand dollars.

Video is big business, even at the high school level. With all that cash invested, is it that odd to imagine someone trying to pull some monkey business?

Lax sideline monitoring makes it rather easy to plant a spy. And it wouldn't require several thousand dollars. Those cool camera phones might even do the job.

One of the more hotly debated topics among conferences is whether to allow third-party teams to videotape games for scouting purposes. But considering the rapidly advancing technology, who would have to know about it?

Instead of sending two scouts to a game, send three. While two of them sit in the stands taking notes, the third could stand on the sideline -- obviously not in their own team colors -- and videotape like they own the joint.

It'd be that easy.

The hard part is taking that crucial step across the ethical threshold. I doubt any of the coaches I speak with on a regular basis would try such tactics, but I can't speak for the rest of the state.

Come playoff time, contenders will use every avenue to track down videotapes of their opponents. Whether they're gathered from coaching friends or through cable broadcasts, the ultimate goal is to gain access to every game tape possible.

Will they take it a step further and pull a Belichick?

Keep an eye out … you never know who might be watching.