New England, cheat? A walk down memory lane!
Headset gate
SUMMARY: On September 10, 2015, after losing to the New England Patriots in the kickoff to the 2015 NFL season, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin passive-aggressively accused the Patriots of cheating by screwing up his (NFL supplied, managed and operated) coach-to-coach headsets.
Said Tomlin when asked about the malfunction: "That's always the case [when playing in Gillette]."
Deflategate (2015). We all know this story! Brady gone for four game for de-flating footballs!
IR Gate
SUMMARY: Reported Micheal David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: "Two former Patriots say the team put false information about them on official injury reports."
"Brandon Spikes and Aqib Talib have both said since leaving New England in free agency that when they were on the Patriots last year, the team gave them injury designations that weren’t accurate. Spikes ended last season on injured reserve with a knee injury, and there were reports that Patriots coach Bill Belichick actually put Spikes on IR because Spikes had shown up late to practice. Spikes seemed to confirm that in an interview on WGR in Buffalo."
Said Talib: "The Patriots have their way of reporting stuff, but I haven’t had a hip problem since Tampa, the injury I had was actually a quad injury. It was reported as a hip injury, but that’s how they do things."
VICTIM: The entire league
PUNISHED? No
PUNISHMENT: This could just be the bitching of two disgruntled ex-employees or it may really be "how they do things" up in Foxborough. We'll assume that it is somewhere in the middle. The league never investigated the claims and the Patriots were never penalized for the accusations leveled by Talib and Spikes.
Spy Gate:
SUMMARY: The Patriots were disciplined for videotaping their September 9, 2007 regular-season game against the New York Jets from the wrong location. The Patriots filmed from an unapproved sideline location instead of from an approved indoor location, much like the Jets got away with (unpunished) a year earlier in Foxborough.
According to the 2007 NFL Game Operations Manual, legal game videotaping locations "must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead."
VICTIM: New York Jets (META-VICTIM: Goodell's ego; he bristled at the Pats' perceived challenge to his authority!)
PUNISHED? Yes
PUNISHMENT: As punishment for filming the game from the wrong location, NFL commissioner and former Jets public relations intern Roger Goodell fined Patriots head coach Bill Belichick $500,000, fined the Patriots $250,000, and docked the team their original first-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Why was the Spygate penalty so high? Small picture: because Goodell was really pissed-off that he told Belichick to do something and Belichick ignored him. Since it was his first year as commissioner, he really, really wanted people to respect his authority!
Big picture: because parity across all 32 NFL teams is in the best interest of the league. The Patriots dominating the league in the salary-cap era was disruptive to these franchises, a threat to ratings and, ultimately, to league advertising revenues. Docking the Patriots a first-rounder was a concrete way for Goodell and the other 31 owners to try and restore parity. A similar dynamic played out 8-years later with the irrationally large Deflategate penalty.
PED's
SUMMARY: Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) are used by players to illegally improve athletic performance above what legal training and preparation can do.
Players who illegally improve their performance unfairly penalize players who follow the rules. They not only put those players at risk for physical injury, but they also affect their economic livelihood by impacting their perceived value and their ability to secure appropriately-valued playing contracts.
SEVERITY = 0.5 video cameras per punished incident. Includes all documented infractions from 1960 to present with this Wikipedia page as the primary source.
S Rodney Harrison (2007)
LB Brandon Spikes (2010)
DE Jermaine Cunningham (2012)
RB Brandon Boldin (2012)
VICTIM: The entire league
PUNISHED? Yes
PUNISHMENT: Each player was suspended for four games for violating the league's PEDs policy.
Tuckgate (2001)
SUMMARY: The "Tuck Rule" was in place three years before the Raiders vs. Patriots playoff game on January 19, 2002. It was enforced against the Patriots earlier in the same season in a game against the Jets. Other notable instances were in Redskins vs. Broncos (2005) and Chiefs vs. Ravens (2011).
That was a fumble!
Snowplow gate:
SUMMARY: On December 12, 1982, the Dolphins and Patriots played the "Snowplow Game" in the middle of a New England blizzard. Conditions were so bad that the teams combined to attempt just 11 passes, while rushing got them a combined 375 yards and zero touchdowns. Through the first three and a half quarters, the two teams only attempted two field goals: both unsuccessful.
With just over four minutes left in the game and the Patriots about to attempt another field goal, the stadium snowplow operator Mark Henderson -- who by mutual agreement had been clearing off the yard markers throughout the game -- veered from his line cleaning duties and cleared a spot on the field for New England kicker John Smith.
Dolphins coach DD Don Shula* went apeshit on the sidelines, but Smith made the kick and the refs allowed it. The Pats won 3-0.
A little known fact about the game from participant and Patriots Hall of Famer John Hannah: "The Dolphins were also offered the use of the snowplow by the head referee to clear the field for their final kick, but with complete indignation and certainty the game would be nullified for the unfair use of it by the Patriots, Coach Shula* adamantly refused to stoop to such tactics" and chose to play as the field lay.
As the Dolphins drove down the field for a potential game-tying field goal, Henderson drove the snowplow with them, remaining at the ready for the call from the referee to clear a spot for Dolphins kicker Uwe Von Schamann. On fourth down, however, Shula* decided to go for it and failed, effectively securing the game for the Patriots.
The act wasn't a breach of NFL rules as there was no rule in place forbidding it. A year later, however, the NFL banned the use of snowplows on the field during games. In a 2007 interview for an NFL Network segment about the game, Shula* recalled protesting what he perceived as an "unfair" act, to which Commissioner Pete Rozelle responded that without a rule explicitly barring such use of the plow, the act wasn't illegal.
VICTIM: Miami Dolphins (Only because they refused the same snow-clearing for their own field goal attempt)
PUNISHED? No
PUNISHMENT: The head referee offered the exact snow-clearing advantage to Shula* and the Dolphins on their final field goal attempt. Commissioner Pete Rozelle also confirmed that there was no rule broken.