“Football builds character.”  I heard that a lot as a kid.  I believed it, because as a kid, I played a lot of football.  When I chipped a couple of my front teeth, it was a character-building moment.  Those were the good old days. 

Football has changed.  I’m not saying it doesn’t build character today, but it’s more likely to build hulk-like bodies belonging to players who seek out opponents like smart bombs.  If a kid resembling me when I was a kid tries to play football today, one hit from a smart bomb will create all the character he’ll ever need.

A reminder of how much football has changed and of how little character matters as one of its values is provided by the continuing saga of the “Spygate” embarrassment involving the New England Patriots and Coach Bill Belichick.  Not too far into the ‘07 season, the Patriots and Belichick were caught secretly videotaping an opposing team’s signals.   

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell, more anxious to avoid a steroids-like scandal than to learn character-building lessons from blatant cheating, investigated the matter and fined the coach and his team.  It was an isolated incident, he asserted.  It had no impact on the outcome of any games.  

But for the pesky inquisitiveness of  Senator Arlen Spector from Pennsylvania (an avowed fan of the Philadelphia Eagles who lost a Super Bowl to the Patriots) and the public revelations of Matt Walsh, the first person employed by the Patriots to do the taping, Commissioner Goodell would have likely had his way by now and put this mess behind him.  Come to find out, however, the NFL destroyed the secret tapes after Goodell’s investigation.  Belichick claimed he misinterpreted the NFL’s rules, apparently reading them to say that secret taping of opponents’ signals was ok.  Goodell never interviewed Walsh.

These revelations taint Goodell’s investigation, given that Walsh began taping opponents’ signals for the Patriots in 2000 when Belichick won his first Super Bowl by upsetting the heavily favored St. Louis Rams.   A Patriots quarterback once told Walsh that the tapes allowed the quarterback to figure out an opponent’s defense 75% of the time.  Walsh was given specific instructions not to tell anyone what he was doing.  Senator Spector is demanding that Goodell reopen his investigation.  If he doesn’t, Congress will do its own investigation.  Sounds reminiscent of the baseball-steroids scandal Goodell wants to avoid.

Every employer has a set of core values that includes principles like character and honesty.  They’re written down in handbooks, posted throughout the organization, and engraved in prominent locations.  The human resources department is often responsible for communicating these values and then making sure they’re enforced.

Think about the stated values in your organization.  What happens when there’s a Spygate?  Quick investigation and then back to business as usual?  Or violators shown the door as an example that your core values are more than words?

Most employers will say that character is important and that honesty is the best policy–until a crisis hits.  I don’t know why that is.  We are all, of course, human beings.  We make mistakes.  But the Goodell approach to crises involving character deficiencies and honesty breaches is too pervasive for those cliches to provide a sufficient explanation.  There must be something that trumps character and honesty at crisis time. 

I often turn to Mark Twain when I’m struggling to solve a puzzle.  The writer, philosopher and humorist almost always seems to shine a light on life’s dark struggles.  And I think he’s done it again.  According to Twain:  “Honesty is the best policy–when there’s money in it.”