jimmypasta wrote:
I agree but why do they have to cheat ALL THE TIME?
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been accused of cheating again. Quick, someone get Don Shula's reaction.
Wait, we know what it'll be.
Something like this: Yawn.
Just a few days after Shula, the legendary Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Colts head coach, referred to Belichick as "Beli-cheat," Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said the Patriots used illegal plays in their 35-31 victory in the divisional playoff game on Saturday night.
With the Ravens bringing a dominating pass rush, the Patriots countered by taking an offensive lineman off the field and replacing him with another position player. But the Patriots, by rule, must declare which player is ineligible — and they were waiting until the last second to do that, preventing the Ravens from making adjustments, Harbaugh said.
He insisted the Patriots should have been penalized for their "deceptive" formations and substitutions.
"It's not something that anybody has ever done before," Harbaugh said. "They're an illegal type of a thing and I'm sure that [the NFL will] make some adjustments and things like that.
"We wanted an opportunity to be able to identify who the eligible players were because what they were doing was they would announce the eligible player and [Patriots quarterback] Tom [Brady] would take it to the line right away and snap the ball before [we] even figured out who was lined up where. And that was the deception part of it. It was clearly deception."
On one play, back Shane Vereen was on the line but ineligible and Michael Hoomanawanui — lined up at left tackle spot — caught a pass. Harbaugh was so uset he ran onto the field and was slapped with a 15-yard penalty.
"The officials told me after that they would give us the opportunity to do that, which they probably should have done during that series, but they really didn't understand what was happening," Harbaugh said. "I had to go take the penalty to get their attention so they can understand what was going on."
The drive ended in a Patriots touchdown, but the Patriots — convicted by the NFL in the Spygate video scandal involving the Jets in 2007 — aren't likely to face discipline.
After the victory, quarterback Tom Brady fired back at the Ravens.
"Maybe those guys got to study the rule book and figure it out," Brady said. "We obviously knew what we were doing and we made some pretty important plays. It was a real good weapon for us. Maybe we'll have something in store next week."
"It's not something that anybody has ever done before,"