The New England Patriots may have broken NFL rules by filming opposing coaches on the sidelines during games several years back, but they weren’t the only team that worked diligently in an attempt to steal signals. Mike Shanahan is one of a number of former NFL players and coaches who have confirmed that.
During an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” Wednesday, Shanahan said teams would go to some extreme measures to steal signs.
“Back then, everybody was trying to steal signals,” the former Broncos and Redskins coach explained. “Some of the best quarterbacks in the league had different cue cards from the sideline, depending what defense or blitz, and tried to do everything they could. They looked at (videotaping) for a lot of years and came up with a final verdict. I could go back and tell you a hundred different stories.”
Shanahan went on to explain that any NFL coach would agree that knowing what a defense is going to do is a huge advantage, though he questioned how much information you could gather from lip-reading and other tactics.
Another interesting point Shanahan made was that NFL teams — his in particular — sweep for listening devices quite often, and not just when they’re playing the Patriots.
“We’d have people sweep the locker room for devices,” he said. “It was with a number of teams, same thing on the sideline.”
In fact, Shanahan even admitted that he falls into that category we discussed on Tuesday of teams that have gone to extreme measures to check for spying devices.
Believe it or not, the Patriots aren’t the only team that bends the rules or tries to steal information from opponents. While that doesn’t excuse cheating, it also doesn’t mean we have to be naive about it. Just ask John Madden:
The biggest difference with the Patriots, so it seems, is that they continued to film signals after teams were warned not to. They also may have employed some other sneaky tactics that sound borderline illegal. But, again, this stuff isn’t 100 percent exclusive to New England.
