Wall Street Journal - The TaxProf blog, which gets its second salute from the Law Blog today, tackled an interesting question: Whether Bill Belichick (pictured), head coach of the New England Patriots, can deduct the $500,000 fine — the biggest ever for an NFL coach — he received after violating league rules by videotaping defensive signals from New York Jets coaches in the Pats’ regular-season opener earlier this month. (The team was fined $250,000.) The answer: Yes. The blog excerpted an email discussion by 12 tax law professors who, after 10,000 words on the matter, including testy exchanges over the interpretation of some old tax cases, mostly agreed that the fine is deductible under section 162 of the internal revenue code, “trade or business expenses.”

First of all only a bunch of tax geeks would need to include a picture of Bill Belichick to clarify who he is.  Dude, that’s like saying Elvis (pictured above).   Secondly is there any doubt that Bill Belichick was at least 7 of the 12 tax law professors referenced in this email discussion?   The guy is everywhere.  He’s omnipresent.   In any event we can cross the $500,000 fine off the list of penalties.  Now I’m waiting with baited breath to see he turns our lost draft pick into some sort of draft day bonanza.   And to be honest I’m still not ruling out that Belichick orchestrated this whole thing just to help get the Pats focused this year.   He’s that brilliant.