Kurt Warner admits to suspicion of Pats cheating in SB XXXVI
At Super Bowl XLIX media day, former St. Louis Rams quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner expressed some slight suspicions towards the New England Patriots cheating in Super Bowl XXXVI.
Like the rest of us, Kurt Warner is skeptical about the testimony given by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and head coach Bill Belichick. He should be. After all, this is a Pats team that has been the subject of controversy before, most infamously with the “Spygate” scandal of 2007. Despite life as a neutral NFL pundit this days, Warner has recently admitted to a “sliver” of suspicion regarding the legitimacy of the team’s prior success; specifically their first Super Bowl victory against his own St. Louis Rams.
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While he tried to remain unbiased about the situation, Warner let a little bit of sourness seep through in his comments.
“I don’t want to believe that there was anything outside of his team beat our team,”the two time NFL MVP said. “That’s what I want to believe. Yeah, there’s a sliver of a doubt… Was there any advantage they gained in any game? Not just our Super Bowl game, but maybe a game before that to get to the Super Bowl. All those things enter your mind. It’s not because I’m bitter. It’s not because I say they cheated, because I have no idea.”
Super Bowl XXXVI was thirteen years ago; seemingly an eternity in the post-merger NFL era. Warner surely has not forgotten about how big of favorites his Rams team was heading into the game, or how the “Greatest Team on Turf” was getting ready to be in the discussion of modern National Football League dynasties. But despite throwing for 365 yards (2nd most in Super Bowl history behind his previous total of 414), Warner also tossed two costly interceptions. A slew of turnovers overall led to a Patriots 17-3 lead. Despite the 14 fourth quarter points put forth by St. Louis, Pats kicker Adam Vinatieri cemented his place in history with a game winning 48 yard field goal as time expired.
But one has to wonder how the Patriots garnered such an early advantage in the game. Fellow Hall of Famer and former Rams teammate Marshall Faulk had some theories of his own in the past.
“I understand Bill is a great coach. But No. 13 [Kurt Warner] will tell you. Mike Martz will tell you. We had some plays in the red zone that we hadn’t ran. And a couple of plays on third down that we walked through also. And they created a check for it,” Faulk said. “It’s just little things like that. It’s either the best coaching in the world when you come up with situations that you had never seen before. Or you’d seen it and knew what to do,” said Faulk.
One thing that remains of note is that the Patriots were alleged to have videotaped signals during a Rams team practice one day prior to Super Bowl XXXVI as part of the aforementioned “Spygate” scandal. The recent investigation regarding under-inflated balls used by the team conjured up memories from seven seasons ago. “Deflate-gate,” though mostly behind us, still seems to make its presence known in the days leading up to the biggest football game of the year. Do not expect that to change anytime soon.
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