There's been so much talk the last couple of weeks about Patriots' coach Bill Belichick and the video flap. (He was even referred to as "Bellicheat" on a sports radio talk show I was listening to). Let's take a step back and examine this issue.

Cheating is so common throughout life, but it seems to engage fiery opinions when sports are involved.

The baseball steroid issue, for instance. We've got a war going on, a deficit growing to Biblical proportions, the medical costs in this country are spiraling out of control and our elected leaders jumped all over the steroid issue. Sounds like a nice diversion to the real problems the world was facing at the time and are still facing today.

In sports, at every level, people try to get an edge. Is it cheating for a basketball player to knock a ball out of bounds with an opponent in close proximity, but that player pretend it went off the other guy? Intentionally holding someone in football and not getting caught by the official; then trying to do it again on the next play? A catcher "Framing" a borderline pitch? How about stealing signs in baseball?

In soccer, players fake injuries all the time to try and get an opponent yellow- or red-carded. Then once play resumes, the player is miraculously playing at full speed when moments before it looked like he was dying on the field.

Look away from sports for a minute. How common are cheating spouses? Cheating on income taxes? Cheating on election results (Hello Florida, but then, Gore couldn't even carry his home state, so what does that tell you?)

Is it cheating for a standout incoming high school athlete to use open enrollment (or any other option available) to abandon the school in his residential district for a better athletic school elsewhere in town?

How about a standout wrestler who repeats eighth grade (called a redshirt year, if you can believe it) so he'll be a year older than others in his grade when he's in high school. Maybe he'll be a 19-year-old senior wrestling against 15- and 16-year-olds.

Let's face it: No one wants to admit it, but cheating is a way of life. The well-publicized cases get a lot of attention, but there's plenty of stuff happening in all walks of life. If your comments about sports cheating seems a bit harsh, look in the mirror.

Me? I've never cheated on a spouse, I haven't cheated on my taxes. In my own sports days? Yeah, I've pretended my basketball team should have possession when I've knocked the ball out of bounds. And it's been awarded to my team a couple of times.

That's what I mean about looking in the mirror.

I'm still a sports fan, and bending the rules, looking for an edge or even (wink, wink) a little cheating isn't going to alter that.

There's no way the high school football season should be starting before the end of August. This year, there were two weeks of football before September 1 arrived.

The heat wave that prompted delays in starting times has no bearing on this opinion. Heck, we're in the Central Valley. We could have a heat wave like that in September.

The current setup is just too early. Practices start too early in the summer and the season ends too early. The regular season ought to end in mid-November, and the starting of seasons should be adjusted accordingly. There's even a break should one of the Central Section teams get a chance at qualifying for the state playoffs.

The only advantage of an early start: The teams that don't advance to the postseason are finished before the winter sports begin, so the winter sports teams at those schools are at full strength if they rely on fall sports athletes. But at many schools, this isn't as crucial as it was years ago because so many more athletes are specializing -- that is, they are only playing one sport and not bouncing from a fall sport to a winter sport to a spring sport that was so common in the past.