Being accused of cheating is nothing new to the New England Patriots. Since 2007, when Eric Mangini sold the Pats out for filming opponents’ signals, they’ve had fingers pointed at them for everything from toying with opponents’ headsets to filming their Super Bowl walkthroughs. It’s fun to call someone a cheater, especially when they’re good at what they do and actually did cheat.
However, I’m not sure I’d be accusing anyone of anything if my name were Brad Childress. The Pats and Vikings are set to square off on Halloween, which will be the first meeting between the teams since 2006. New England won that game 31-7, and Childress had the stones to pull the spygate card when recalling it.
I’m mindful of the last time we faced [the Patriots] here on Monday Night Football,” Childress told reporters. “It was like a surgical procedure. That’s back when we used to signal [plays] and things like that. I remember having a conversation with [then-defensive coordinator] Mike Tomlin about that. These were some of the all-time great signal stealers. In fact, that’s what was going on. They were holding, holding, holding. We were signaling from the sideline. They were good at it. It’s like stealing signals from a catcher.”
I’d have no problem with these comments if they weren’t coming from a coach who can’t control his players. Shouldn’t Childress be more concerned about whether or not he’s going to have the balls to end Brett Favre’s consecutive games played streak? His Vikings are headed in the wrong direction, and now he has to deal with a quarterback who has fractures in his foot but an ego that’s larger than life. Not that he got along with said quarterback in the first place. Hot seat, anyone?
