After the news of Spygate flooded the media, Eagles fans across the globe felt something. Something that was never set in stone but could well have happened. Now, numerous reports have broken focusing on the New England Patriots tactics during that era and may well put an end to the ongoing enigma: Were the Eagles cheated out of Superbowl 39?
The ESPN report comes with evidence from a total of 90 sources from the NFL and aims to solidify that Belichick did indeed video tape signals from different teams during the 2000-2007 era. It’s reported that 40 different games were taped and that when the scandal came to fruition, Goodell did all he could to keep the spotlight off of Robert Kraft. Kraft was a key piece in getting Goodell to the commissioner position and if this report is genuine, it could be the most shocking cover up in football history.
So how does this relate to the Eagles? Well according to the report an unknown member of staff would walk into the opposing teams changing rooms before the game to try and source plays for perhaps the first 20 minutes of the game, giving the Patriots a “Madden” advantage. You know when you play a friend who ALWAYS looks over your shoulder and seemingly knows every play you run, no matter what you call? Well, that’s essentially what is being said of the New England Patriots here.
The tweet below shows a paragraph stripped from a recent ESPN report, detailing the methods that the Patriots exploited to gain an advantage over their opponents.
https://twitter.com/CharlesRobinson/status/641267584340525056
Even more stunning is the following passage from the same article which is a MUST read if you haven’t already clicked it. You can read the full report here. http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart
The quote basically says that the head coach at the time and owner Jeff Lurie were both content that the result was legitimate..
….The senator seethed that Goodell seemed completely uninterested in whether a single game had been compromised. He asked Goodell whether the spying might have tipped the Patriots’ Super Bowl win against the senator’s favorite team, the Eagles. Goodell said that he had spoken with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and then-head coach Andy Reid and that “both said the outcome of the [February] 2005 Super Bowl was legitimate,” an assertion contradicted by the private feelings of many senior members of the team.
It’s unproven if the report is 100% legitimate or if the findings would have impacted the Superbowl so it’s important not to let personal bias change our views, but it’s believable. The Eagles rarely ran the Defense that they did in the Superbowl of 2005, but the Patriots seemed to know every play, how to deal with it and how it was going to work..only time will tell if anything comes of this or if any further investigations will be undertook, but as an Eagles fan it’s hard to judge our emotions.
Are we happy that we have some proof? That the Patriots might have actually cheated? Or are we bitter that we potentially lost a Superbowl because of such despicable tactics? Does it put the matter to rest? Or does it raise a new one entirely? I highly recommend reading the article and making your own assumptions, ours is this. There was something fishy about that Superbowl and we may be coming to an answer as to what it was after ten years.
