Despite their dynastic run for the better part of the last two decades, the New England Patriots have still not been able to shake the specter of cheating allegations. As the Patriots prepare for another Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles, former Eagles coach Steve Spagnuolo opened up some old wounds by claiming the Pats cheated during the first Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl in 2005.
And as Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk notes, Hall of Fame left tackle Orlando Pace has also come out and voiced the 2001 St. Louis Rams team’s suspicions about whether the Patriots did some cheating to win Super Bowl XXXVI.
“There’s a little bit of suspicion there. I think guys all feel that way,” Pace said. “They had a pretty solid game plan for us, so I don’t know. . . . They knew exactly what we were going to do down there.”
The Patriots were accused of taping the Rams’ walk-through practice by the Boston Herald 10 years ago, but they eventually apologized for what turned out to be a false report. No concrete evidence of those allegations has ever been found.
Pace thinks a possible reason for Rams continuing to believe the Pats had actually done what they were falsely accused of doing was because they couldn’t get over the fact that they failed to win more than one title.
“You look at all those Hall of Famers and you just saw missed opportunities, and that was one of them because we should have had multiple championships,” Pace said.
While Pace and the Rams were left to rue their missed opportunities, the Patriots went on from that shock victory to establish one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history. Whether or not you believe they needed some extracurricular activities to achieve their success is for you to decide.
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