Spygate: What To Do When Your Boss Asks You To Bend The Rules

All in all, it’s fair to say that 2008 hasn’t shaped up to be too good a year for coach Bill Belichick and his New England Patriots.

Belichick, the irascible football genius who coached the Patriots to three Super Bowl trophies, began the year losing Super Bowl XLII to Eli Manning and the upstart New York Giants . The loss was one of the greatest upsets in football history and denied the Patriots the chance to make history by being the first team to go 19-0 in a single season.

Then, the long-simmering Spygate scandal that first made headlines early in the 2007 season got some legs and promises to be front and center through the off-season. The NFL is looking into allegations that Belichick and the Patriots staff were secretly stealing the defensive and offensive signals used by their opponents.

Recent headlines have revolved around a former member of Belichick’s staff, Matt Walsh, a video assistant who has emerged as a key figure in the scandal involving the illicit videotaping of opposing team signals.

Walsh is due to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other officials on May 13 to discuss what he knows. Last week, he turned over several tapes to NFL officials showing the team’s surveillance practices.

Walsh, it seems, was in the uncomfortable position of being asked by his boss to do something illegal. What should you do if you find yourself in a similar situation? How do you handle being asked to do something illegal, immoral or somewhere in between?