It was a sunny day in mid-September of 1987 when a small plane circled over the UBC football practice field adjacent to Thunderbird Stadium.

The UBC Thunderbirds and the Simon Fraser Clansmen were a few days away from reviving the Shrum Bowl which hadn鈥檛 been played since 1981.

It would be a battle for college football supremacy in B.C. but it was more than that.

It was the CIS versus the NAIA. It was Canadian football versus the U.S. version of it. It felt like we were playing the Soviet Union with the two programs being on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their approach.

So when that plane flew overhead, head coach Frank Smith stopped practice and mentioned that it could be SFU head coach Chris Beaton watching down on us.

We never really knew if he was kidding or if he was serious but it was something that resonated with me and would be reinforced during my short stint being an assistant coach with the UBC football program.

It also reminded me why the Canadian Women鈥檚 National Soccer Team has been in the news the last few days.

There have been many that have used the word 鈥榓rrogance鈥� to describe why disgraced CWNST Bev Priestman and her associates did what they did but that isn鈥檛 the way these actions should be defined.

They weren鈥檛 arrogant.

They were consumed.

Coaches are consumed by winning.

The vast majority of coaches at the highest levels are thinking of ways to win 24/7/365.

It explains the paranoia they have about information being given up about their team (player breaks his leg and an NHL coach will refer to it as a 鈥榣ower body injury鈥�) while it also explains how they are looking for whatever competitive edge they can find to help them win.

Sometimes gaining that edge is legal, other times it鈥檚 not.

I鈥檓 not proclaiming to be a soccer expert but most of the comments I have read have downplayed the impact of what information the CNWST could have gleamed from their drone missions.

"I mean, it doesn't really affect the result of the game. It affects some situations, I believe, of the game. But the end result, when you go down, you know what you've prepared. You know how to win; you know how to play and how to win. And for me, I mean, they just caught them. That's it," responded Chelsea legend Didier Drogba when asked about the situation from CBC鈥檚 Ariel Helwani.

So if the information obtained by videoing a closed practice is so trivial, why do it?

Again, maybe, just maybe, the CNWST staff could get a small piece of information that they thought could help them win.

It鈥檚 the reason why the New England Patriots got caught up in the whole 鈥楽pygate鈥� affair in 2007.

Members of the Patriots organization videotaped opposing coaches' signals during games and got caught. The subsequent investigation by the NFL resulted in Patriots head coach Bill Belichick being fined $500,000 for his role, the Patriots being fined $250,000 and the team forfeiting their first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft.

If you think a team is gaining a serious competitive advantage on this one, I beg to differ.

By the time you decipher the opposing team鈥檚 signal and relay it to your quarterback or linebacker and then get them to relay it to the rest of the players on offense or defense, it鈥檚 too late.

If by chance, you get that information to them on time, you still have to execute.

Speaking of the Patriots, 鈥淒eflategate鈥� was another example of someone trying to gain a small advantage in order to win.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, if you recall, was found guilty of ordering the deliberate deflation of footballs that were used in the 2014 AFC Championship Game versus the Indianapolis Colts on January 18, 2015. Brady was suspended for four games, the Patriots fined $1 million and forced two give up two picks in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Somehow I think Brady and the Patriots would have won the game even if the footballs were measured to be two pounds per square inch below the minimum amount.

Now that I have made my point, I know what you鈥檙e thinking.

If these infractions were so trivial, why were the penalties in all these cases so stiff?

Why did FIFA deduct six points from Canada in the Olympic tournament with Priestman and two others being banned for one year?

To prevent it from getting to the next level.

If you can get away with that? What鈥檚 next?

Sign-stealing has always been a thing in baseball but when the Houston Astros used a camera in center field to steal the sign for the next pitch and then relay that information by banging on a garbage can, well let鈥檚 just say that it had a direct impact on the integrity of the game.

That affair resulted in some of the stiffest penalties doled out by Major League Baseball with the Astros being fined $5 million and having to forfeit their first-and second-round picks in the next two MLB Drafts. Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A. J. Hinch were suspended for a year but the Astros terminated both when the sanctions were announced.

Despite all of these examples, we will continue to see situations like all of the aforementioned ones.

Not because someone is arrogant and believes they are above the rules but because they鈥檙e consumed with winning.

Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob 鈥渢he Moj鈥� Marjanovich writes twice weekly for Black Press Media.