Bill Cowher Admits to Knowing the Patriots Cheated?

[Steeler Nation]

On January 27, 2002, the Pittsburgh Steelers faced off in the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots. The Steelers entered the game as 10-point favorites as the #1 seed in the AFC and it appeared to be a mismatch, but nothing seemed to go right for the Steelers in a 24-17 loss.

It was one of the most frustrating losses in franchise history. But to many Steelers players who participated in that game, they felt something was not right that went beyond just bad luck.

When the teams opened the next season on Monday Night Football, late in the first half of a 7-7 game, Patriots fullback Marc Edwards later admitted that Tom Brady told the offensive huddle “We have their signs.” The Patriots scored on five of their next seven possessions to turn a competitive game into a 30-14 rout at Gillette Stadium.

The next time the two teams faced off in 2004, the defending champion Patriots were riding an NFL record 21-consecutive game winning streak. But it was a different Steelers team featuring Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu and Dick LeBeau that cruised to a 34-20 win to put an convincing end to their streak. However, it enabled the Patriots to illegally tape the Steelers from the sideline and armed with that advantage, leveraged it to steal a second AFC Championship later that season.

Then, when the news of “Spygate” broke in 2007, it confirmed the suspicions that many Steelers players held and were very bitter about.

Hines Ward, per CBS Sports:

“They were calling our stuff out. They knew, especially that first championship game here at Heinz Field [in 2002]. They knew a lot of our calls. There’s no question some of their players were calling out some of our stuff.”

Kordell Stewart, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“For some reason, they knew every single thing we were doing. They had the perfect defense from a blitz standpoint, everything we were trying to do.”

Joey Porter, per NFL Live:

“I got cheated. You cannot sit up there and honestly tell me if it wasn’t working, why was he doing it so much? I could be sitting up here with three rings. They cheated, there should be an asterisk.”

From a September 2015 Outside the Lines report via ESPN:

“Inside a room accessible only to Belichick and a few others, they found a library of scouting material containing videotapes of opponents’ signals, with detailed notes matching signals to plays for many teams going back seven seasons. Among them were handwritten diagrams of the defensive signals of the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the notes used in the January 2002 AFC Championship Game won by the Patriots 24-17.”

There was one person on the Steelers above all who downplayed the Patriots cheating practices; former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher. Despite overwhelming evidence showing the Patriots an unfair advantage in both AFC Championship Games, Cowher would not pin those losses on his rival and friend Bill Belichick obtaining an illegal advantage.

Bill Cowher, per The Athletic via Ed Bouchette:

“I always thought we never lost the games to New England because of Spygate. If he got the calls because we didn’t do a very good job of making sure we signaled those in, that’s on us, it’s not on him.”

Bill Cowher, per Polamalu: The Inspirational Story of Pittsburgh Steelers Safety Troy Polamalu by Jim Wexell:

“Our guys will never accept it but listen. They may have known the signs, but we also had a system in place to not have to use signs, to use wrist bands. Unfortunately, Coach LeBeau, after the first couple series, he hated the wrist bands, and in the middle of a series he’d go back to the signs. It wasn’t too hard to know our signs. Circling your finger, you know it’s man free, OK, so, like, “OK, Dick, we’ve got to come up with at least a different sign.”

So, effectively Cowher knew the Patriots were cheating and thus robbing his teams and players of championship opportunities, but blamed himself?

How do you respond to that, SteelerNation? Leave a comment below.

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[Djfan]

This was the nail in the coffin for the nfl for me. No one cared. "Screw you Steelers. Screw you Steelers fans. We have to manufacture a GOAT, and you're in the way."

Hillary Clinton level stuff.

 

[paperclip]

maybe the steelers coaching staff should have been better prepared

 

[Drink IRON City]

This was the nail in the coffin for the nfl for me. No one cared. "Screw you Steelers. Screw you Steelers fans. We have to manufacture a GOAT, and you're in the way."

Hillary Clinton level stuff.

A-N-D

yet

Many dismiss it as if you ain't cheatiN you ain't tryiN

The mentality of they did nothing wrong is BS and has been ever since they were caught. They continue to do it even to current yet nothing from our spineless ******** commissioner.

We can discuss until we are blue in the face and nothing will change.

I just hope one day in my lifetime a tell all book comes out or t*mmyb*y breaks down in a blizzard and has to catch a ride with me for about 100 miles. He'd have to listen to me preach about cheating and his scoundrel ways or get out and walk.........................................


No worries because either way he will get

****** with a red hot poker



Salute the nation

 

[Drink IRON City]

maybe the steelers coaching staff should have been better prepared

Maybe but don't blame their cheating on our staff. The fact they cheated should be enough to condemn them and not our staff.

Had they not had all the tape / signals / all synced up to real time why would we have to worry. Why didn't the commissioner ban the head coach for lifetime? Why was the owner let off the hook ? Why were the tapes / evidence destroyed ? Way to many things to lay it on our staff's shoulders.




Salute the nation

 

[stillwright]

**** the Patriots.......**** Goodell.......and **** the Rooney's for letting it all get swept under the rug.

 

[stillwright]

I guess some words are now censored. When did that start?

 

[Djfan]

Had they not had all the tape / signals / all synced up to real time why would we have to worry. Why didn't the commissioner ban the head coach for lifetime? Why was the owner let off the hook ? Why were the tapes / evidence destroyed ? Way to many things to lay it on our staff's shoulders.

Right, so even though bellycheat was the cheater, he didn't commit the most egregious sins here.

 

[Steelr4evr]

Really appreciate this write up. It needs to never be forgotten the horseshit they pulled,not only on us,but all of the other opponents, for YEARS.


Most people nowadays think it was a couple deflated ******* footballs.

**** changed how I view the NFL forever.


BTW...Jesse James caught that ball.

 

[FSF]

I guess some words are now censored. When did that start?

What ******* words are censored?

 

[MT~Forged]

I would always use armbands, and change them every series or two. Easy enough to do. Play “X” is #3 this time #16 the next, then #8. Only a couple need to be changed each time.

 

[MTC]

A-N-D

yet

Many dismiss it as if you ain't cheatiN you ain't tryiN

The mentality of they did nothing wrong is BS and has been ever since they were caught. They continue to do it even to current yet nothing from our spineless ******** commissioner.

We can discuss until we are blue in the face and nothing will change.

I just hope one day in my lifetime a tell all book comes out or t*mmyb*y breaks down in a blizzard and has to catch a ride with me for about 100 miles. He'd have to listen to me preach about cheating and his scoundrel ways or get out and walk.........................................


No worries because either way he will get

****** with a red hot poker



Salute the nation

This sounds kinky

 

[MTC]

I would always use armbands, and change them every series or two. Easy enough to do. Play “X” is #3 this time #16 the next, then #8. Only a couple need to be changed each time.

I would just play dirty. Cleat stomping. Kick in the nuts type of stuff

 

[JMM]

I agree with Cowher, if they stole the signs, that's on us....I hate to say it but that's another facet of the game, just like Special Teams. We obviously should have worked on that especially after they knew what was going down.

 

[MT~Forged]

When other teams started reading lips, coaches started covering up their faces when calling plays.

I do believe that other teams have cheated for years, but BB was/is much more methodical about it.

 

[mightyguru]

Bill was caught a few times before he got to ruin some AFC Championship games and Super Bowls...he just never stopped and the league looked the other way.

 

[jitter77]

Our players said other teams knew what we were doing at various times as well. Hell we as fans can see some plays coming from a mile away. It doesn't make what the Pats did right, but I feel our staff could have countered it multiple ways. when the staff knew what was going on and just continued to stay status quo that is just dumb on the Steelers coaches.

 

[Badcat]

What ******* words are censored?

****, piss, ****, ****, **********, and ****

 

[Drink IRON City]

At the time of this spygate the league had several coaches come out and give a statement of they don't feel there was cheating involved, Bill Cowher was one of those coaches. You could tell by his demeanor and body language he was lying through his teeth as he knew they were cheating ******** but couldn't do anything about it.

I thin Andy Reid was another, I can't remeber the others but there were several. It was like a PBS (public service announceent) or it reminded me of one.




Salute the nation

 

[diver]

Cowher's response is why he is a man, not some little complaining *****. When coaching, you cannot let your team fall into self pity or it is over. I always thought one of his best coaching moments was in that time after TPs pick against the Colts, he gathered the team together and prepared them for it being overturned. He didn't allow them to wallow in self pity when it did get overturned.

I always wondered why7 more teams, instead of crying about the Pats, didn't employ their own cheating against the Pats.

 

[Djfan]

Really appreciate this write up. It needs to never be forgotten the horseshit they pulled,not only on us,but all of the other opponents, for YEARS.


Most people nowadays think it was a couple deflated ******* footballs.

**** changed how I view the NFL forever.


BTW...Jesse James caught that ball.

I was there. They owe me a refund for tricking me into thinking that there was an actual football competition happening that night, not a gift to a metro dude who gets all the favors.

 

[Superman]

*****, moan and cry all you want.

the moment that Robert Kraft began negotiating and securing NFL Direct Ticket for the league and the league brought in untold millions, his team could do whatever they ******* wanted. While Mike Brown might be the cheapest owner in the league, he's smart for going with the flow and collecting the influx of funds, despite having a **** team for most of the time the Pats* were good.

 

[diver]

*****, moan and cry all you want.

the moment that Robert Kraft began negotiating and securing NFL Direct Ticket for the league and the league brought in untold millions, his team could do whatever they ******* wanted. While Mike Brown might be the cheapest owner in the league, he's smart for going with the flow and collecting the influx of funds, despite having a **** team for most of the time the Pats* were good.

Maybe. And we can cry and moan all we want. We are not coaching. My point was Cowher couldn't let his teams wallow in that, and to his credit, he didn't.

 

[stuntmanmike]

I agree with Cowher, if they stole the signs, that's on us....I hate to say it but that's another facet of the game, just like Special Teams. We obviously should have worked on that especially after they knew what was going down.

it wasn't just signs... they correlated the signs with plays, players, they had a system that worked off the other teams system. its hard to change that system every game that's why there are agreed upon rules, that's why they aren't suppose to be stealing them. watch giants game made famous by "the HIT" where gary reasons (a guy who should have been a steeler) jumps the line and hits the running back they knew the signal, the call, the play, the player. it didn't just start with the pats... billicheat always cheated! and for NFL to just destroy evidence and the cheatroits to get away with it, is a real will smith, no repercussions, slap in the face to the fans, real fans, that give a **** about the game.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

maybe the steelers coaching staff should have been better prepared

Tom Coughlin did. For the Super Bowl. Twice.
In case anyone has forgotten or doesn't know, both times the Giants played the Cheating Bastiges in the Super Bowl Tom Coughlin changed his play signals thus rendering Belicheat's videotapes useless. Br*dy gets beaten twice by Eli Freaking Manning.
I just get pissed that Cowher and Tomlin both refuse to acknowledge what Belicheat was doing AND refused to do anything about it like Coughlin did.