Of course, by taping it they can do both. But playcalling is a huge part of the NFL on both sides of the ball, and that's why it's not silly at all, just as is it's why it's more like a war than a brawl. It's also why taping your opponents practices and games is REALLY out of bounds, because if you know all their plays AND the calls, when their coach sends in each play they AND YOU immediately know what it is. That creates a hideously unfair advantage in a game built around defensive and offensive captains recognizing how the other team is lined up and switching to a different play at the last second. It's like that scene in "Patton" where Patton's disappointed to learn that when he won his first engagement against Rommels army Rommel wasn't actually there, and one of his junior officers points out that "Rommel planned the battle; if you beat Rommels plan, you beat Rommel". In football as in war, if the other side knows your every move before you make it, you can't win.

I'm not going to play the "my sport can beat up your sport" game seriously or otherwise, if only because I'm too enraged at McDaniels right now (and I was already pretty disgusted). There's a reason why I like football and virtually no other sport though, and a large part of that is the same thing that makes this so disgusting.