Vikings coach Brad Childress readily admitted earlier this week that his backup quarterbacks regularly spend part of the game trying to steal the other team's defensive signals. He likened it to the practice in baseball of a runner on second trying to steal a catcher's signs.

There's nothing in the NFL rulebook that prohibits what the Vikings do. But there most definitely is something in the rulebook that prohibits what Patriots coach Bill Belichick did last Sunday in his team's 38-14 win over the Jets when he had a club employee use a video camera to try to steal the Jets' defensive signals.

It was spelled out in a memo from NFL vice president of football operations Ray Anderson to Belichick and the rest of the league's coaches and general managers just a few days before the Patriots played the Jets.

"Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to the taping of an opponent's offensive and defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches' booth, in the locker room, or at any other location accessible to club staff members during the game," the memo said.

Yesterday, Belichick and the Patriots found out the price they are going to have to pay for making that illegal sideline video. It was steep, but it could have been a lot steeper. Commissioner Roger Goodell fined Belichick $500,000 and the Patriots another $250,000 for violating league policy. More significantly, the Patriots must forfeit their first-round pick in the 2008 draft if they make the playoffs this season, or their second- and third-round picks if they don't. Goodell stopped short of suspending Belichick.

It's hard to keep up with the rapid-fire advances in technology. What was state-of-the-art Wednesday is obsolete today.

"I was on the competition committee for a long time and we talked a lot about the electronics involved in the game," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren told reporters this week. "There were rules set up. The way technology is going right now, you could probably set up a lot of things to take advantage of teams. So you just say, `OK, these are the rules. Let's all play by the rules."'

Belichick didn't feel like playing by the rules, and now he will be remembered as the guy who cheated rather than the guy who won three Super Bowls.

Thanks to Belichick, it's a pretty safe bet that the league's owners will approve the use of a helmet radio to receive defensive plays next year, much like the one a quarterback uses to received the offensive plays. That will effectively eliminate the stealing of hand signals.

The proposal came up just two votes short of passage last March.

"Because of this issue, I think (it will sway some votes)," said Holmgren, who voted against it last winter. "We'll see. I don't know how I'd vote if we voted again this time."

Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who previously was against the use of a radio helmet on defense, now is in favor of it.