The game went down to the wire before the winner was declared – and a player from the opposing team was ejected for inciting a small melee on the field. Considering that Super Bowl Sunday commands by far the largest single-event audience of the year nationwide (not to mention the most expensive broadcast advertising time), the juxtaposition of the come-from-behind win for the New England Patriots and the heartbreaking, last-minute loss by last year’s champion Seattle Seahawks with the ugly squabble was striking to a large swath of the country.

It may have been the last display of bad behavior in professional football for the 2014 season, but it was hardly the first – or anywhere near the most disturbing – of arguably the NFL’s worst season in its history.

It seemed to be one thing after another for the beleaguered sport last year, the most popular in America, notes a recent article from the Daily Beast. Allegations of sexual misconduct and child abuse by star players; a class-action lawsuit filed by several teams’ cheerleading squads alleging labor law violations; an ongoing controversy over changing the name of the Washington Redskins (thought by many to be racist and offensive to Native Americans); increasing numbers of incidents of debilitating brain injury to present and former players, many of whom have developed early-onset dementia and other ailments; and, in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, allegations that the Patriots had deflated the team’s dozen footballs during their conference-championship romp over the Indianapolis Colts the prior week.

Not Just on the Playing Field

While cheating and bad behavior are not unique to professional sports, there has been no shortage of scandals in sports in recent years. Prior to the recent scandals, professional baseball’s most infamous scandal took place in the aftermath of the 1919 season, when the Chicago “Black Sox” allegedly threw the World Series they were heavily favored to win, aided and abetted by organized-crime gamblers.

Anytime betting or gambling enters the arena, the sports world seems vulnerable to corruption. What’s changed in sports since the 1919 scandal is the influx of big money into all aspects of a profession whose employees once chose to be athletes for the sheer joy and thrill of the game.

Today, there are multi-million-dollar contracts for players, coaches, managers, team owners, TV networks – seemingly all parties connected with sports. The money syndrome has infected the world of college sports as well – an ongoing saga that also pervaded the media in 2014.  

The Largest Casino of All

Speaking of big money, to be reminded of bad behavior and cheating that nearly brought the nation’s economy to its knees, we need look no further than Wall Street and the banking industry, which indisputably brought about the worst economic recession since the Great Depression – from which the country is only now starting to get back on its feet.

In an attempt to prevent a similar calamity from ever happening again, the Dodd-Frank regulations were drafted by a Congressional committee and signed into law by President Obama in 2010. Many industry analysts and observers feel the law was significantly watered down from what it might have been.

Indeed, the financial industry is fighting its implementation tooth and nail, and will likely continue to do so.

Why Do People Cheat at Work?

Clearly, big money is a common denominator in the worlds of high finance and professional sports. But on a more granular, everyday level, HR professionals are well-acquainted with incidents of cheating and bad behavior in companies and industries across the board. It can be as petty as pilfering office supplies to bring home to a staffer’s children; or calling in sick or taking a “mental health” day when an employee is perfectly able to work.

Crossing the proverbial line or boundary a little further are sales people who pad expense reports; or managers who take credit for their team members’ accomplishments without acknowledging individual contributions. This trend or mindset can go all the way up the corporate ladder to members of senior management who lie about their credentials, or CEOs who mislead shareholders about company performance.

Top NBC TV journalist and news icon Brian Williams made headlines recently when it was divulged that he had lied about being in a helicopter that was shot by enemy gunfire in Iraq some 12 years ago. Now Williams’ veracity is being questioned by the network in relation to other stories he’s reported on as well.

An interesting article posted on Fast Company’s website discusses the mindset of individuals who cheat in the workplace on different levels, and factors that may result in bad behavior at work. The piece cites research done at Harvard Business School, as well as Duke University, which point to individual characteristics like creativity or to a corporate mindset that encourages an atmosphere of relative “casualness,” made famous by Silicon Valley and start-ups in recent years.

In other words, the researchers seem to be saying that bad behavior can be caused by positive attributes – and maybe cheating isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as it can be reined in, and if it leads to corporate success.

Sounds a bit like Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady affirming that he prefers his footballs to be under-inflated rather than overly so. Does that justify the team’s tampering with the balls at half-time during the AFC game – if that’s what took place? The Patriots were heavily favored to win that game anyway, which is beside the point. The team has an acknowledged history of alleged cheating and bending the rules to its advantage.  

Is It Ever OK to Break the Rules?

At least one career coach and author quoted in the Fast Company piece feels it is: “Rules can be broken as long as you work for a company that is comfortable with disruption as a defining theme for growth.”

As possible explanations for cheating behavior at work, the article points out personal traits like narcissism, curiosity, creativity, impulsiveness and a desire to bond with co-workers.

So if staffers want to take home some Post-It notes or peruse social-networking websites on company time, it’s OK as long as they’re overall doing a good job and not hurting the firm’s bottom line? Most HR professionals who are forced to confront lying or cheating employees would likely not agree with that theory of rationalizing. But then again, if everyone watches bad behavior on live TV on Super Bowl Sunday, what’s to stop them from engaging in some form of cheating at work the following Monday? It can be a slippery slope indeed.