This is a surprise?
Let’s see here…
It’s 2003. The Patriots are visiting the Colts and up by 4 with few precious seconds remaining. Pats have no timeouts remaining. Manning is marching his team down the field at will. Suddenly, Willie McGinest goes down with an ‘injury.’ The clock stops. The Colts’ momentum is lost. The Pats get to take a moment to catch their breath. Two plays later, the same ‘injured’ McGinest stuffs James at the goal line. Pretty convenient, huh?
Playoffs. 2005. Colts v. Pats at Gillette Stadium. It’s cold. It’s snowing and nasty. The Patriots refuse to drain the field, making it a mess because they like it like that. I think that was also the game where the Pats defenders continued to mug the Colts receivers with no penalty, leading to a new interpretation of the rules.
And now the Pats have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Now there’s hard evidence that they’ve been cheating. Many people are expressing their shock and disappointment. The Patriots cheat? Colts fans have known that for a long time now. Nothing new here.
I love what Coach Dungy had to say yesterday about this. Here’s a paraphrase: “I haven’t heard anything from the NFL Office yet regarding them getting caught. I should just say ‘No comment’ right now. When it becomes official…if it becomes official, I’ll comment then. And I hope you come back and talk to me because I have some pretty good comments to say.” I’ll bet you do, Tony!
