The New England Patriots were up to their old tricks again on Sunday, this time sabotaging their own headset communications during their game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com reports that the Patriots had to resort to “old school” play-calling methods after they had some technical difficulties with their electronic equipment. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia both had to call plays using hand signals when their headsets were not working properly, and the Patriots also had issues with their Microsoft Surface tablets.
Of course, this would be a major outrage if Bengals were the ones experiencing problems. Some folks believe the Patriots have found a way to jam signals at Gillette Stadium and have intentionally interfered with their opponents’ electronic communications in the past. Not surprisingly, we hear very little about it when it happens to Bill Belichick’s team.
Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers made some major accusations last year when their headsets were not functioning properly during a trip to Foxboro. The Miami Dolphins had similar issues earlier this season, but the problem there turned out to be their own fault.
In reality, this type of stuff happens all the time in every NFL stadium. It’s just more fun when it can be spun into some sort of Belichickian cheating scheme.
