SI: Patriots’ reputation of espionage sent opposing NFL teams into state of paranoia
Just when New England Patriots fans thought they had escaped their team’s most recent controversy, another came creeping back from the past.
ESPN’s Outside the Linesreported Tuesday that Spygate went much deeper than originally thought. Also on Tuesday, Sports Illustratedreported the Patriots’ reputation of espionage sent the majority of NFL teams into a paranoia over the course of the last decade.
Nineteen teams took special measures against the Patriots to protect against potential spying, members of those organizations told SI, in the wake of new findings by Outside the Lines regarding the team’s 2007 Spygate scandal
Low-level staffers were sent into opposing teams’ hotels and locker rooms to steal playsheets and gameplans, numerous former Patriots coach and employees told ESPN’s Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham.
Additionally, former St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz said he was pressured by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to say he was “satisfied’’ with the league’s Spygate report exonerating the Patriots — in order to avoid a federal investigation — despite his suspicions New England has filmed his team prior to the Super Bowl in 2002.
Goodell ultimately fined the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick, and docked the team a first-round draft pick, but strangely had all video evidence in the Spygate investigation physically destroyed (via an actual stomping by league executives in a Gillette Stadium office).
The same sort of suspicions held by Martz pushed other teams to take desperate measures, according to SI:
Teams commonly clear out trash cans in their hotel meeting rooms in New England because they believe the Patriots go through them. One longtime head coach said he ran fake plays in his Saturday walkthroughs at Gillette Stadium because he thought the Patriots might be spying on his team. Another team has taken things further: It fled Gillette and found a different place to practice, and on game day it piled trunks of equipment against the double doors in the back of the visitors’ locker room so nobody could get in. That same team kicked the visiting locker room manager out of the office he occupies near the clubhouse.
One team padlocked their locker room doors when visiting Foxborough; five others had their hotels, locker rooms and coaches booths swept for listening devices. None were found.
According to SI, the Patriots actions also toed the line of gamesmanship: one AFC team brought their own sports drinks when visiting New England, because the ones the Patriots provided were “late, warm, or both.’’
The SI article concludes:
Those who say the Patriots are totally innocent ignore the facts. Those who say the Patriots cheat at every turn are likely paranoid. But opponents don’t trust the Patriots to play fair, and they say they have good reasons not to.
Read SI’s report here, and the Outside the Lines’ report here.
Patriots scandals, ranked
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