It's been a decade since the Philadelphia Eagles played in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. An ESPN report today notes some of the illegal actions by the Patriots and claims that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell covered it up. From the years 2000 through 2007, the Patriots illegally videotaped other teams and even took play sheets from opposing locker rooms.
Here's what one former Eagles executive had to say:
When Spygate broke, some of the Eagles now believed they had an answer for a question that had vexed them since they lost to the Patriots 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX: How did New England seem completely prepared for the rarely used dime defense the Eagles deployed in the second quarter, scoring touchdowns on three of four drives? The Eagles suspected that either practices were filmed or a playbook was stolen. "To this day, some believe that we were robbed by the Patriots not playing by the rules … and knowing our game plan," a former Eagles football operations staffer says.
In 2008 after "Spygate" news broke, former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter met with Goodell to see if Spygate had anything to do with the outcome of Super Bowl XXXIX. The commissioner indicated that he spoke to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and head coach Andy Reid and both said that the Patriots actions did not comprise the result of the game. However, there are plenty of other Eagles staff members and players that believed otherwise.
The report indicates that Goodell advised former St. Louis Rams head coach Mike Martz to say the same thing about their Super Bowl loss to the Patriots in 2002.
"He told me, 'The league doesn't need this. We're asking you to come out with a couple of lines exonerating us and saying we did our due diligence,' " Martz said.
Martz claims that the league edited much of his official statement.
All of this comes in the wake of the "Deflategate" investigation. Many people around the NFL think that Goodell came down with such a harsh punishment on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots because the rest of the owners were sick and tired of the Patriots shady behavior over the past 15 years. One NFL owner declares Goodell's suspension of Brady as a "make-up call".
The Eagles will have a chance to get some revenge on the Patriots when the team travels to Foxborough in week 13 of the regular season.
Here is the Patriots response to the allegations made in the ESPN report:
Here is the statement the #Patriots issued in response to today's ESPN report. Strong stuff pic.twitter.com/NPAAAmcz2M
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) September 8, 2015
Michael Malia is a contributing intern for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Facebook (Michael Malia) or Twitter @Michael_Malia.
