So fans of the NFL know about a team cheating at one point or another. The most talked about cheating scandal these days is still Deflategate, you can even bring up the Patriots these days without hearing about Deflategate. Well, I’m here to show you how even your precious team has cheated. I’ll be running them down in order of most cheating scandals to least.
I must get this out of the way before we dive into our cheating scandal list, there are leaguewide scandals that the NFL is constantly monitoring as all teams have been guilty of doing them. So let’s jump right in with our number one cheater in the NFL, The Denver Broncos. The Broncos have executed 14 real cheats. First off the Broncos have PEDS gate, which stands for Performance enhancement drugs gate. As we all know PEDS are illegal in any pro-sport. Well, the Broncos have had this problem 12 times since 2003 with at least one member of the team having had use PEDS.
Next on the Broncos shame list is Salary-cap gate this happen 96-98. Basically, Broncos were had worked a deal with two of their top players to take a lower cap and receive it all back plus interest at the in of the season. This still puts the Broncos 3-4 million over the salary cap but had allowed the acquisition of players they otherwise would have had those seasons. Also in 1998, the Broncos were nailed for another cheating scandal Smilegate, this happened in the AFC divisional playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs with the offensive linemen had put Vaseline on their arms so the defense couldn’t get a grip to make plays.
There were three cases of Injury gate 98-99 and 2003. Injury gate is when a player is injured in a way that the player should not be playing in a game, and the team never reports it. The Broncos are guilty of doing this on three separate occasions. That’s just a few of the cheats that the Broncos committed if you with like to see the full list and read up on any of our 32 cheaters go to yourteamcheats.com/cheaters you can go there and read up on all the ways teams have cheated. Moving on to our next big time cheats.
The New York Jets…that’s right the Jets come in 2nd on the list with 13 real cheats executed. Of course, as I said all teams have PEDS gate and the Jets have had it 7 times since 1989. Trippy gate was a big one for the Jets; In 2010 Sal Alosi stuck his left knee out and intentionally tripping Miami Dolphins Cornerback Nolan Carroll as he ran down the sideline on a kickoff return to make a play. Sal was suspended for the rest of the 2010 season and fined $25,000 for his actions. Jets received a fine of $100,000.
In 2014 the Jets were involved in a Tamper gate for pursuing New England Patriots cornerback Darrell Revis before allowing the Patriots to work a contract deal with Revis. This ultimately led to Revis not re-signing with the Patriots and an NFL investigation was launched. The Jets ended up being fined $100,000 for the incident. Jets also have a Deflategate on their cheating record as well. This one goes all the way back to 1992 and ran until 2005. Ex-Jets Quarterback Jeff Blake confessed in an on-air interview that removing air from balls was a common thing when he played from 92-05. I would like to pull an excerpt from yourteamcheats.com here.
“I’m just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played,” the ex-Jets QB said Wednesday in a radio interview on the “Midday 180” show on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone. “Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard.
“Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat. So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.”
Blake admitted he’d order the ball boys to let air out of his balls before every game through his entire career, even while he was with the Jets in 1992.
Next on our long list of cheaters is the Indianapolis Colts at 3rd with 12 real cheats. As far as PEDS gate goes the Colts have had 7 since 2012. Their Suckforluck scandal has to be the funniest of them all. In 2011 the Colts were believed to have been playing poorly on purpose in order to get the first round draft pick so they could get their hands on all-star Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. The team was punished for the action but let’s face it this was more than likely cheating.
The Colt even have their own Deflate-gate, back in 2015. During an investigation done at halftime and end of game of the 2015 AFC Championship game, in trying to implicate the New England Patriots of cheating. The investigation implicated the Colts in this instance as 3 out of 4 of the Colts balls come in under the regulation 12.5 psi mandated by the NFL.
And more recently the Colts have Snow gate. During their game on December 10th, 2017 against the Buffalo Bills the Colts again broke regulation. When the Colts sent out non-players stuff to clear the field of snow for placekicker Adam Vinatieri. Which NFL regulations state that no team should have any non-playing members of the team clear the field and that the kick must do the clearing with either his hands or his feet.
Moving on to 4th place in this cheaters club list we have the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers have 11 real cheats to their name. The Steelers actually have a pretty good track record when it comes to PEDS gate only having 3 since 1991. None of which have happened in the new millennia.
In 2012 the Steelers were hit by the realization that they were the perpetrators of one of the leagues longest running gates. The Steroid gate is one that ran from 1970’s to 2007 when Richard Rydze was the Steelers team doctor from 1985 to 2007. He was found guilty of shooting the players up with Steroids to help cope with pain or he says help speed up the healing process. Rydze was convicted in 2012 for these actions but was released from the Steelers in 2007. Former Saints coach Jim Haslett claimed it all started with the 70’s Steelers.
In 2013 scored themselves an Impede gate, when in their Thanksgiving game head coach Mike Tomlin stepped out onto the field and attempted to trip the return man during a kickoff return that could have gone for a touchdown. That’s down dirty Mike Tomlin and you knew it.
Moving on to the 5th most cheating team is the New York Giants with 10 real cheats recorded. They’ve had 7 PEDS gate since 1993. Their most current cheats happened just a year ago. First, you have the Gauge gate, in their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Eli Apple recovered to Steelers turnovers when he noticed the balls felt a bit deflated. The Giants proceeded to test the balls on the sideline and discovered that the balls were in fact underinflated. But in testing the balls they broke a rule themselves.
Patriots’ rebuttal was “ Once the game starts, neither team is allowed to gauge the football, pump them, or the like. That is solely the province of the referee, who is to be the sole judge as to whether the balls comply.”
Another gate the Giants history happened the same year. The Walkie-Talkie gate, this cheating scandal took place in the week 14 game of the 2016 season. When then giants coach Ben McAdoo illegally used walkie-talkie to communicate with his quarterback. By using the walkie-talkie McAdoo was able to work his way around to league enforced 15-seconds coach to player headset. This was clearly cheating and the Giants got a $200,000 fine for this act of cheating.
Moving to number 6 on the list, the San Francisco 49ers fill this spot with 9 real cheats. PEDS haven’t really been too big of a problem for the Niners only having 3 PEDS gates since 1989. Their most recent scandal happened in 2007, The Briggs Tamper gate. Lance Briggs linebacker for the Bears was targeted before legally allowed costing the 49ers a 5th round pick and had traded the 3rd round pick with the Bears. Otherwise, the 49ers haven’t really committed any scandals since the turn of the century.
The 49ers did have the Stick em’ gate back in the 90’s when wide receiver Jerry Rice was with the team. Jerry Rice admitted in an interview of using Stick em’ on his gloves to have the little extra grip. Although no one was ever punished for it this was definitely cheating.
The Baltimore Ravens land the number 7 spot on this list with 10 real cheats but mostly small infractions. The Ravens come up showing 7 PEDS gate since 2005. Just a year ago the Ravens were hit with a Practice gate scandal As reported by Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun, “ The NFL came down hard on the Ravens on Thursday, ordering them to forfeit three organized team activities and fining the organization and coach John Harbaugh nearly $500,000 for violating the league’s collective bargaining agreement during the team’s rookie minicamp earlier this month.
The league investigated the Raven’s cheating scandal and determined that the team illegally had rookies in full pads despite league rules prohibiting full pad practices until training camp.
It remains unknown if Ravens coach John Harbaugh was bending the rules to give his team an edge or that he’s just ignorant of the rules.
Coming in at number 8 on this list of Cheaters is the Oakland Raiders with 10 real cheats. The Raiders have 9 PEDS gate since 1989. In 2010 the Raider landed a Salary-cap gate. In 2010 four teams were punished for the way they structured contracts during the uncapped season, of which the Raiders were amongst. The punishment was for the four teams signing players and frontloading their contracts during the uncapped year to ease the burden during the following seasons where there was to be a Salary-cap. The Redskins and Cowboys had a total of $46 million taken from them and redistributed to 28 other teams for an added amount of $1.6 million per team. The Raiders and the Saints did not receive money nor lose money as these two got off on what was considered a minor infraction.
Let take a look at the ninth most cheating team in the NFL, The Miami Dolphins take this spot with 10 real cheats. With PEDS gate 5 times since 1990 the Dolphins seem a little more innocent than the others but still, they cheat just like everyone else. They got a Whisper gate on their cheating record in 2011. March 22, 2011, Omar Kelly of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that The Dolphins were one of five teams that had to be penalized for “ having illegal contact with players during a designated dead period.”
The Dolphins were believed to have been in violation of the NFL rule because of their offensive coordinator Brian Daboll reaching out and making contact with quarterback Chad Henne. Because of a lockout in 2011, team officials were not allowed to have contact with members of the then decertified NFLPA.
And rounding off our top ten on the list the Washington Redskins take this spot. As far a PEDSgate this team has had five since 1994. This team was accused of a Noisegate in 2013 when sports blogger Dan Steinberg reported that multiple fans that were at the 2012 NFC Wild Card game between the Seahawks and the Redskins mentioned hearing crowd coming from the stadium speakers.
Scandal? Possibly, hard to say as many NFL teams get accused of this action all the time. Rather it may have happened, the Redskins lost that game 24-14 so if they did it, it didn’t help their cause.
Ok, so I’ve ran through the top ten most cheating teams in the NFL now I will give a simple rundown of the last 22 teams telling the number of cheats each team has and the amount of PEDS gates the team has against them, as well as an overview of one of there more current Scandals. So let’s dive into our next 22 right now.
At number 11 the Atlanta Falcons grab this spot with 6 real cheats most of which has been executed since 2000. PEDS gate 7 times since 1997. Noise gate 2013-2014: In 2014 Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank admitted that the Falcons feed in fake crowd noise to the Georgia Dome. Blank had seen enough of the NFL’s investigation that he came out and told the associated press, “ It’s not really a fine line, I think what we’ve done in 2013 and 2014 was wrong. Anything that affects the competitive balance and fairness on the field, we’re opposed to, as a league, as a club, and as an owner. It’s obviously embarrassing but beyond embarrassing, it doesn’t represent what we’re about.”
In March 2015 the NFL punished the Falcons, fining them $350,000 and stripping them of their fifth-round pick of the 2016 draft.
The NFL also said Roddy White the team’s former director of event marketing (not to be confused with the wide receiver) was directly responsible for the violation and would have been suspended without pay for the first eight weeks of the 2015 season had the Falcon’s not fired him.
Number 12 goes to Seattle Seahawks with 8 total real cheats most of which have happened since 2000. PEDS gate 8 times since 2001. Concuss gate 2017: On Dec 21, 2017, the Seahawks were fined $100,000 for violation of concussion protocol with quarterback Russell Wilson in their Nov 9, 2017, game against the Cardinals.
Adding insult to injury, the NFL also mandated that the Seahawks’ coaching and medical staff attend remedial training regarding protocol. On the plus side of things, the Seahawks were the first team to receive a monetary fine under the policy, according to NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart.
Number 13 on this long list of cheaters is Green Bay Packers with 7 real cheats under their belt. The Green Bay Packers have 7 PEDS gate since 1989. Inflate gate 2008-2014:
Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston noted that during the Nov 30, 2014, game between the Packers and Patriots on CBS, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms discussed that Aaron Rogers preferring his footballs be overinflated.
“ I like to push the limit to how much air we can put in the football, even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take air out of it,” Simms said Rodgers told them before the game. Rogers believes that “It’s not an advantage when you have a football that’s inflated more than average air pressure, we do not kick these footballs.”
Number 14 in this group of cheaters is the Detroit Lions also having 7 real cheats but the Lions only have 3 PEDS gate since 2001. Suh gate 2011-2014: Ndamukong Suh is a really dirty player who freely uses illegal hits as part of his game to give himself and his team an unfair advantage against opponents.
From his Wikipedia page:
“Suh has been criticized in the media by other players and by the NFL for his aggressive style of play and has been fined a total of $216,875 by the league for four violations in the first four years in his career. In a poll of fellow players conducted by the Sporting News, Suh was named “the dirtiest player” in the NFL. As of December 2011, he had been flagged for nine personal fouls in his first two years, the most of any player in the league in that time frame. He was named the NFL’s “Least-Liked Player” in a Forbes-publicized Nielsen report in October 2012.”
Suh lowlights since 2010 (via spotrac):
· DT Ndamukong Suh (2011: suspended two-games for stomping on Evan Dietrich-Smith)
· DT Ndamukong Suh (2012: $30K for kicking Matt Schaub kicking in the groin)
· DT Ndamukong Suh (2013: $32K for roughing the passer)
· DT Ndamukong Suh (2013: $100K for a low block)
· DT Ndamukong Suh (2014: $70K for stepping on the ankle stepping on of Aaron Rodgers)
Weighing in at Number 15 is the Carolina Panthers with 6 real cheats. PEDS gate 6 times since 2002. Heater gate 2014: In November 2014 the Minnesota Vikings played their coldest game in 38 years when they beat the Panthers in 12-degree temperatures at TCF Bank Stadium.
As both teams dealt with the freezing temperatures, sideline attendants used heaters to warm up game balls which were against NFL rules. NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said the after the game that the officials warned both teams not to heat game balls.
“ You can’t do anything with the footballs in terms of any artificial, whether you’re heating them up or it’s a regular game or kicking ball, you can’t do anything to the football,” Blandino said. “ So that was noticed during the game, both teams were made aware of it during the game and we will certainly remind the clubs as we get into more cold weather games that you can’t do anything with the football in terms of heating them up with those sideline heaters.”
Number 16 falls to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers having only 5 real cheats. PEDS gate total of 9 times since 1990. Tank gate: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took steps to intentionally tank their week 17 game in 2014 against the New Orleans Saints in order to secure the top pick in the 2015 draft.
Number 17 goes to the New England Patriots with 8 real cheats. A total of 5 PEDS gate since 2007. Deflate-gate 2015: Immediately after the Indianapolis Colts were blown out by the New England Patriots in the 2015 AFC Championship game, Colts reporter Bob Kravitz broke a story that the NFL was investigating the Patriots for using under-inflated footballs in the game.
Soon afterward, Chris Mortensen hastily reported on a now discredited leak from within the NFL, that 11 of the 12 game balls the Patriots used in that game were deflated 2 PSI below the 12.5 PSI legal requirement.
Two weeks later, on the morning of the Super Bowl, NFL network’s Ian Rapoport corrected that information, reporting that just one of the eleven balls tested was under-inflated by 2 PSI the rest were just a few clicks under the required limit.
According to Pro football talk, the one football that was 2 PSI under the limit was the ball intercepted by D’Qwell Jackson and taken to the Colts sideline and ultimately submitted to the NFL, which in turn launch an investigation. The League chose not to investigate whether the Colt had tampered with the ball before submitting it.
107 days later NFL special prosecutor Ted Wells gave up his search for concrete evidence and figured there was a 51% chance that the Patriots had been involved in the deflation of the balls.
Number 18 is held by the New Orleans Saints with 7 real cheats. With only 3 PEDS gate since 2006, this team is keeping their players in check for the most part.
Whistle gate 2011: The Titans claimed the Saints blew whistles on the sidelines during their 22-17 victory over the Titans in 2011. Some of the players say they heard unauthorized whistles’ on the Saints sideline.
Dean McCondichie, a Titans’ television show producer had offensive tackle Michael Roos equipped with a microphone during the game. He had this to say, “ During the game, we heard this whistle blowing, but they weren’t stopping the game, they just kept playing.” He said. “ They were loud enough for me to it on the microphone on him. They were all trying to figure out why play continued. I asked them if they knew where it came from and they said New Orleans bench. Nobody saw it, but it was pretty loud and it was definitely a whistle.”
Titan lineman Jake Scott had this to say “ Dean’s got it on tape. Somebody was blowing a whistle on the sideline. There is audio of it, so we’ll let it go from there.
Number 19 belongs to Buffalo Bills with 6 real cheats in the books. Having 7 PEDS gate since 1979. Noise gate 2015: In the Bills September 20, 2015, home game against the Patriots; the Bills illegally used artificial noise to attempt to slow the Patriots offense.
According to the NFL rules on crowd noise: “ Noise of any kind (music, horns, gongs, drums, etc.) that is under club control must cease when the play clock is running and the visiting team is in possession of the ball. The NFL sent out a memo in August of 2015 clarifying and reminding teams of the rule.
The memo read: “ The home team is permitted to play audio while visiting team is on offense and the play clock is running. The audio must cease by the time the play clock reaches 20 seconds, or when the visiting team’s offense reaches the line of scrimmage, whichever occurs first. Pursuant to this policy, the visiting team’s offense is considered being at the line of scrimmage when the center touches the ball.
Number 20 is Minnesota Vikings with 5 real cheats. They have 8 PEDS gate since 1997. Heater gate 2014: see number 15 Carolina Panthers for details if you don’t remember this one.
Number 21 goes to San Diego Chargers also with 5 real cheats. The Chargers have 7 PEDS gate since 2007. Towel gate 2012: Oct 15, 2012, in a game against the Broncos, officials questioned a towel, which a member of Chargers equipment stuff carried onto the field during a timeout.
While the San Diego wasn’t penalized for their alleged use of stickum’ they had to pay $20,000 fine for not immediately following directions of the game officials.
Unfortunately, because the Colts threw a fit after the 2015 AFC Championship we now care more about the integrity of the game. In particular, we now care about the legality of every single football used in a game. San Diego’s soulless attack on the fundamentally competitive nature of the game must be reassessed in relation to all of the other football manipulation cheats across NFL history.
Number 22 is the Chicago Bears with 6 real cheats. In the PEDS gate area, they’ve had 9 since 1989. Cramp gate 2000-2012: Former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher admitted the Bears faked some injuries by using a dive guy.
“We had a guy who was the designated dive guy.” Said Urlacher according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Urlacher went on to say that one of the Bears coaches would simulate the diving motion a swimmer makes with his arms, and the player designated as the dive guy “would get hurt”
Urlacher said the team wasn’t coached on how to fake injuries but said the practice was part of the Bears regiment. Urlacher played for the Bears from 2000-2012; he was selected to eight Pro Bowls and was a 5-time All-Pro.
Number 23 belongs to the Dallas Cowboys with 8 real cheats, I know how does a team with 8 cheats land this far down on the list. Well seems their cheats were never that bad so they didn’t score as high in cheat points, but with only 3 PEDS gate since 1990 the Cowboys have kept their players in check. Salary-cap gate 2010: The NFL took away millions of dollars of salary-cap space from the Dallas Cowboys for unfairly front-loading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season, according to NFL sources.
At that time, the 2012 salary-cap was estimated to be $120.6 million. Dallas was penalized $10 million in cap.
Number 24 goes to the Philadelphia Eagles with 6 real cheats and having 6 PEDS gate since 1989. Bounty-gate 1989: On Nov 23, 1989, The Eagles defeated the Cowboys 27-0. Following the game, which was broadcast on CBS and was later daubed the Bounty Bowl, Dallas head coach Jimmy Johnson alleged the Philadelphia’s head coach Buddy Ryan had taken out a bounty on two former players, kicker Luis Zendejas and QB Troy Aikman.
Johnson said “ I have absolutely no respect for the way they played the game, I would have said something to Buddy, but he wouldn’t stand on the field long enough. He put his big, fat rear end into the dressing room.” Ryan denied the bounty accusation, saying that film of the game “ show that Small had no intention of hunting Zendejas.” The Eagles coach asserted it would have been in Philadelphia’s best interests to keep Zendejas in the game because he was in a slump. Ryan also joked about Johnson’s accusations.
Cleveland Browns take Number 25 with only 5 real cheats. This team only has 4 PEDS gates since 2007. Text gate 2014: Cleveland Browns general manager Ray Farmer was suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season for sending text messages about play selection and personnel usage to their sideline during games last in the 2014 season. He was also fined $250,000 but the Browns didn’t lose any draft picks.
According to the NFL’s statement “ There was no evidence in the NFL’s review that Browns ownership or any other team executives had knowledge of the prohibited conduct. Once the violation was discovered, Brown management implemented new processes to ensure future compliance.”
Cleveland’s website reported the text had been sent during games, citing the texts as a factor in former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s decision to leave the team. He perceived it as interference from the front office regarding coaching decisions.
Texting is a violation of league rules prohibiting electronic communication during games. In February 2015 Cleveland’s GM Ray Framer admitted to the rule-breaking and apologized for it.
Number 26 goes to the Kansas City Chiefs with 4 real cheats. Chiefs have 5 PEDS gates since 2002. Tamper gate (Maclin) 2015: Reported by Terez Paylor of The Kansas City Star, the Chiefs were found to have illegally tampered during the recruitment of wide receiver Jeremy Maclin before he officially became a free agent. The Chiefs lost their third-round draft pick in 2016 and their sixth-round draft pick in 2017 as well as being fined $200,000. Head coach Andy Reid was fined $60,000 and general manager John Dorsey was fined $25,000.
The NFL sent a memo to a set of teams in 2015 regarding several agreements between high profile free agents and teams, including Ndamukong Suh with the Dolphins, Byron Maxwell with the Eagles and Jeremy Maclin with the Chiefs.
The legal tampering period began on March 7 that year, but teams weren’t allowed to agree to contracts with players on other teams during the negotiating period, which ended on March 10th.
Taking Number 27 is the Tennessee Titans with 5 real cheats. Titans have had 5 PEDS gates since 2000. Face stomp gate 2006: After the Dallas Cowboys scored a 5-yard touchdown on a running play in the third quarter of their 2006 regular season game against the Titans of Tennessee, Dallas offensive lineman Andre Gurode was on the ground helmet-less. Titans tackle Albert Haynesworth with all 6’6” 320 pounds of him came over and stomped his right foot directly on Andre’s face as though he was in a Tapout MMA match.
Haynesworth was ejected from the game and suspended for five games, at that point the longest suspension in the league’s history for an on-field infraction. To his credit, Haynesworth apologized for the act calling it “disgusting.” Gurode ended up with 30 stitches and years later the pair made peace and ended up becoming friends.
Coming in at Number 28 is the Houston Texans with 4 real cheats. The Texans have had 6 PEDS gates since 2002.Deflate-gate 2006: In a Nov 3rd, 2006 article in the New York Times, former Texans quarterback David Carr, like several other quarterbacks, said Denver was one of the hardest places to play. He said he thought the ball expanded slightly at the altitude and felt slick because of the lower humidity.
Before the Texans August 27th, 2006 preseason game at Denver, as Carr proudly admitted to a reporter he instructed the Texans ball boys to let a little air out of the Texans footballs.
Oh No, good thing Carr is no longer with the Texans or he’d be facing a four-game suspension. Got to believe the NFL commissioner and former Jets public relations intern Roger Goodell will be issuing a 1 million dollar fine and taking the Texans 1st round and 4th round draft picks…waiting…waiting… hello Roger, you there?
In the Number 29 slot, we have the Cincinnati Bengals with 5 real cheats. Having a total of 3 PEDS gate since 2012.Challenge gate 2014: The Cincinnati Bengals had the lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14-13, with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter of the 2014 regular season game. The Buccaneers were driving down the field with a completed pass for 21 yards putting them in field goal range when Marvin Lewis threw the challenge flag.
The only problem with this, Lewis wasn’t technically allowed to throw a challenge inside the two-minute warning.
NFL rules state that all reviews have to come from the booth in the final two minutes before halftime and before end of game. The result of Lewis’ action was a charged timeout, which then gave the booth time to review the play. What they found was that Tampa Bay did indeed run the prior play with 12 men on the field, thus resulting in a penalty.
So instead of a 21-yard gain, the Buccaneers had to move back 10 yards to make it Second and 20 on the 46-yard line. Tampa Bay failed to pick up the first down from there on out, thus the Cincinnati Bengals would win the game.
At Number 30 we have the Los Angeles Rams with 3 real cheats, but the Rams do have a good amount of PEDS gate 7 since 1989 most of which came after 2003. The only one before 2003 and that one came in 1989. Walkthrough gate 2002: Some saltier members of the 2001 Rams like to blame the phantom Patriots spy as the reason they lost the 2001 Super Bowl, but the New York Times had reported on February 2nd, 2002 that the Rams may have spied on the Patriots as well.
Accord to the article in the Times: “ Halfway through practice, Patriots’ linebacker coach Pepper Johnson noticed something in the third-floor window of a house next to the field. Club and NFL officials said a telescope was clearly visible in the window according to the pool report, and that 15 minutes later a person appeared at the window, and then vanished. Officials scanned the window with binoculars but the person never returned.”
Number 31 is the Jacksonville Jaguars with 3 real cheats. The Jaguars do have 4 PEDS gate since 2002. Arrow gate 2011: Before the Jaguars 2011 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jacksonville Jaguars painted their field incorrectly. The arrows that usually point toward the end zone were pointing away from the end zone on one of the end zones.
Noted Dan Hanzus of the NFL website had this to say: “ Call us cynics, but we don’t believe this was some accident by a bumbling grounds crew inter. something deceptive was at play in Jacksonville.”
And the least cheating team in the NFL is the Arizona Cardinals with 3 real cheats and only 2 PEDS gate since 2010. I guess the Cardinals are pretty good at keeping their players in line. Deflate-gate 2003: Ex-Cardinal and retired Pro Bowl quarterback Jeff Blake confessed in an interview that removing air from balls was a common thing when he played from 92-05. I would like to pull an excerpt from yourteamcheats.com here.
“I’m just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played,” the ex-Jets QB said Wednesday in a radio interview on the “Midday 180” show on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone. “Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard.
“Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat. So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.”
I know I had to repeat that part as Jeff Blake played for them during their deflate gate. Seems wherever this guy was there was a deflate-gate to follow. Blake said that he’d order the ball boys to let air out his footballs just before all of his game throughout his career, which included his time with the Arizona Cardinals in 2003.
So there you have it all 32 teams have cheated at some point or another, sorry if I ruined your image of your team for you. But teams aren’t the only ones cheating these days even the referees are getting in one the cheating game, and fans have been taking notice of all the missed calls and how they pertain to cheating. Hope you enjoy this journey through the cheating world of the NFL. Good day.