Shady Pats still cause for alarm
FOXBOROUGH — Bill Belichick is not to blame for Alarmgate. Apparently. The first thought that had to pop into anybody’s mind when the alarm went off at the Steelers’ hotel near the Boston airport at 3:40 a.m. Sunday, 15 hours before kickoff of the AFC Championship Game: Where was Belichick and is there proof?
Police arrested a 25-year-old man from East Boston who decided to give the Steelers a wakeup call. It’s too bad Antonio Brown did not go on Facebook Live to chronicle Mike Tomlin’s reaction. Tomlin made his feelings about the Patriots known last week when he was heard calling the Patriots “them a-holes,” on Brown’s social media post.
Last year, when the Steelers lost, 28-21, in the season opener at Gillette, their sideline headsets went out and Patriots’ radio broadcast was piped in to the coaches instead. The Steelers coaches used hand signals and sideline communication for parts of the first quarter. Belichick claimed the New England headsets were also malfunctioning.
The NFL cleared the Patriots of any wrongdoing, blaming it on a “stadium power infrastructure issue.” Tomlin was not pleased about losing the signal, saying “that’s always the case” at Gillette.
File this under the category: It’s always something with the Patriots.
When the Jets played at Foxborough in 2009, the alarm went off at their hotel in Providence at 1 a.m.
Safety Kerry Rhodes tweeted, “you know we are playing new england when in the middle of the night when u r sleep somebody pulls a fire alarm to wake us up!! wow!!” The Jets lost, 31-14. Earlier in the 2009 season, the alarm went off at an inconvenient time at the Bills’ hotel before they played the Patriots in a Monday night game. The Bills lost, 25-24.
Alan Faneca, who played for the Jets in 2009 and previously played for the Steelers, tweeted on Sunday after this latest alarm fiasco, “Never played a game in NE where that did not happen. Every single time”
The Patriots lost their benefit of the doubt a long time ago. Belichick embarrassed the Patriots with Spygate and was fined by Roger Goodell. Although the NFL never had any concrete proof that Tom Brady had anything to do with the footballs being below the required PSI in the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Colts, he was hit with a four-game suspension.
The Patriots are the most disliked team in the league. In fact, outside of New England, they are despised. There are a lot of Cowboys haters, but the difference is there are plenty of Cowboys fans outside of Dallas. When the Patriots played at MetLife Stadium against the Jets in November, it seemed as if half the fans were rooting for the Patriots. But they were likely from New England.
When the Cowboys played the Giants at MetLife two weeks later, there was a large contingent of Cowboys fans, but it’s likely many were from the metropolitan area. The Cowboys have fans all over the country.
Goodell has not been at Gillette Stadium since the 2014 AFC title game against the Colts that sparked Deflategate. The previous evening, he attended a party at the home of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. But now Goodell’s relationship with Kraft is fractured and he refuses to return to Gillette.
It’s hard to blame him. Why would he attend a game when he knows in advance the reception will be hostile? Goodell elected to be at the PackersFalcons NFC Championship Game in Atlanta. The optics are bad that Goodell is avoiding Patriots games, but it really doesn’t matter.
Even so, with the Patriots advancing to the seventh Super Bowl of the Belichick-Brady era after trouncing the Steelers, Goodell will not be able to avoid photo ops with Brady, Belichick and Kraft. He would have to hand the Lombardi Trophy to Kraft and if Brady is the MVP, he would then have to give Brady that trophy.
It would be the most anticipated trophy presentation since Pete Rozelle had to stand there with his nemesis Al Davis after three Super Bowls. oodell being around the Patriots in Houston will provide lots of drama. Of course, the alarm will go off in the Falcons’ hotel the morning of the game. Belichick already has an alibi.
GGETTY COLUMBUS, Ohio — Quarterback J.T. Barrett said coaching changes were needed at Ohio State and getting new offensive coordinators played into his decision to return for his final year of eligibility.
During the Ohio State basketball game on Sunday, Barrett accepted the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award as the Big Ten’s best player. He said bringing in new offensive coaches was a positive move because “sometimes we get set in our ways.”
After passing-game struggles culminated in a 31-0 rout by Clemson in the College Football Playoff, coach Urban Meyer ushered out Ed Warinner and Tim Beck, replacing them with former Indiana coach Kevin Wilson and NFL assistant Ryan Day. —AP