Bill Belichick began his conference call with reporters on Friday morning by addressing some of the cheating accusations that have been directed toward his team over the past week, and really the last decade-plus.
Belichick stepped out of character a bit when he admitted that he is aware of some of the things that were said in ESPN’s bombshell Outside the Lines report from earlier this week. He called some of the allegations from anonymous players, coaches and former employees “sad.”
“I think overall it’s kind of sad, really, to see some stories written that obviously have an agenda to them with misinformation, anonymous comments,” Belichick said, per Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal. “Writing about warm drinks and trash cans, stuff like that. I think it’s sad commentary and really gone to a pretty low level, sunk pretty deep.”
The Patriots coach was referring to reports that opposing teams have been provided with warm Gatorade when visiting Gillette Stadium. There are also rumors that the Patriots have team employees sneak into the opposing locker room to steal play sheets and check trash cans for clues about game plans.
“First of all, I would say I think our program here is built on competition and trying to improve every day. It’s not built on excuses,” Belichick continued. “We just try to go to work and improve and find a way to get better. This organization has won a lot of games. Particularly in reference to the great teams of ’01, ’03 and ’04, all of the great players that have played on those teams. To take away what those teams accomplished, it’s just not right.”
Belichick rattled off about 15 names of players who were part of the pre-Spygate championship games.
The Patriots have been accused of sabotaging headsets in the past. The Steelers’ official website straight up accused them of an elaborate cheating scheme on Thursday night, even though Belichick claims the Patriots were having similar communication issues.
You can understand why no one is giving New England the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they cut Pittsburgh’s communications.
