Stop me if you heard this before but the New England Patriots have been accused of cheating, this time by former Pittsburgh Steelers players Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger.
The pair accused the Patriots of cheating in the 2004 AFC Championship game in which the Patriots won, 41-27.
They both discussed it on Roethlisberger’s podcast.
“Hey, to be fair, the Patriots cheated,” Roethlisberger said.
Bettis replied: “For sure, they did. It’s not even a question in my mind.”
Bettis says he believes the Pats were stealing signs during the game.
“Who normally goes to the sideline on timeouts? The defensive captains, right? They told the nose guard … they pulled him to the sideline. Big 400-pound guy, he don’t want to go to the sideline and come all the way back,” Betts said. “What he want to go to the sideline for? They yelling, made him go to the sideline and I always thought ‘What he going…’ He went all the way to the sideline and back.”
Bettis continued on his rant.
“They stopped us on fourth down. That’s a critical play in the game,” Bettis said. “They had our signs and they called a timeout to get them ready for that play because they knew it was coming. No questions in my mind. I remember vividly because I thought, ‘Why is this big dude going to the sideline?’”
The Steelers aren’t the first team to accuse the Patriots of stealing, just the latest yet despite that, other than Deflategate, it’s never really been proven.