First Quarter, First Game Of The New Season And The Patriots Are Cheating Again?

[Tugg Speedman]

I'm watching the game and their is 13 minutes until halftime and we already have a new cheating scandal.  Hacking into the Steelers headsets?

Unbelievable!


http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/10/steelers-coaches-say-they-were-hearing-patriots-radio-in-headsets/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Steelers coaches say they were hearing Patriots radio in headsets
Posted by Darin Gantt on September 10, 2015, 9:13 PM EDT

It never ends, does it?

Just as the season kicked off and we thought all the gates were behind us, another one just swung right open.

Al Michaels just casually mentioned during the NBC broadcast that Steelers coaches were getting the Patriots radio network broadcast in their headsets.

Whether it’s an innocent mistake or an attempt to push buttons (or worse), it’s something the league is clearly going to have to look into, as dangerous as the prospect of that might be.

League security chief Jeff Miller was shown on the sidelines asking questions, and it didn’t look like they were about the Ideal Gas Law.

[Tugg Speedman]

Steelers encounter headset problems vs. Patriots
Posted: Thu Sep. 10, 2015

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/10/pittsburgh-steelers-headset-problems-patriots

The Pittsburgh Steelers encountered problems with their headsets during the first half of Thursday night’s NFL season opener against the New England Patriots at Gillette Field.

NBC’s Al Michaels reported on the broadcast that Steelers coaches were receiving the Patriots’ radio broadcast in their headsets.

“It was with the coach-to-coach headsets,” NBC’s Michele Tafoya added. “Word is that they were getting some kind of Patriots radio broadcast bleeding into those headsets. While that was going on, the Patriots’ coach-to-coach headsets were shut off so that things were leveled.”

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Comcast SportsNet’s Tom E.Curran reported additional details, saying the problems were due to a “grounding issue” that caused the Patriots’ radio broadcast to bleed into the Steelers’ headsets. The issue did not cause communication to be lost, just “impaired,” Curran added.

Technical difficulties with headsets are not uncommon on gamedays, but Thursday night’s problems piqued interest considering the Patriots’ alleged reputation for having problems occur at Gillette Field. Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bishop, Michael Rosenberg and Thayer Evans published a lengthy look into such problems and the Patriots perception among team and league officials.

Incidents that might be considered innocent snafus elsewhere are viewed more skeptically in Foxborough. Headset failures are not uncommon around the league—Sun Life Stadium in Miami, for instance, is notorious for frequency issues. But representatives from several teams told SI they have experienced problems with the coaches’ equipment at Gillette—echoing a complaint from the Jaguars after their 2006 playoff loss there, when coach Jack Del Rio said his team’s headsets “mysteriously malfunctioned” for most of the first half. In May, Browns linebacker Karlos Dansby told ProFootballTalk.com that his on-field headset stopped working when his Cardinals played the Patriots in 2008, and he does not think it was an accident: “They gonna do what they gotta do to win. It’s just how they operate.”

Home teams are supposed to provide certain communications equipment, but opponents often don’t trust the Patriots to do it. One team griped to SI that New England supplied a corroded battery pack. Another current head coach brings his own equipment because he doesn’t trust the Patriots to supply anything of quality. A representative of a third team says the Pats provided headset gear that looked “like it had been run over by a lawn mower. Frayed wires, the speaker is all chopped up. . . .” James says that it is league policy for all headset batteries to be changed 30 minutes before a game, and that the team has “always complied with that.” He adds, “We’ve never been cited by the league for doing anything wrong as it pertains to communication device violations.”

Another team executive says, “Anybody who has gone in there in the last five years will tell you some sort of problem or snag they never hit any other place. They are the worst hosts in football.”

- Mike Fiammetta

[brandx]

Simple fix.

If a visiting team's headset goes out, they get a 30 second timeout for the QB to manually get the call.  At the timeout, the radio for the home team is turned off and stays off until the visitors get their communication back.

[g0lden3agle]

Simple fix.

If a visiting team's headset goes out, they get a 30 second timeout for the QB to manually get the call.  At the timeout, the radio for the home team is turned off and stays off until the visitors get their communication back.

I believe the mutual turning off of radios is already implemented.  Granting a 30 second timeout is a solid idea, but did this outage happen in the middle of a drive or was it present at the beginning of the game?

[GooooMarquette]

If the Steelers coaches were hearing what the Patriots coaches were saying, doesn't that even things out?

[Benny B]

If the Steelers coaches were hearing what the Patriots coaches were saying, doesn't that even things out?

Right?  I saw this and though, if anybody, the Steelers are the ones cheating here... they were the ones picking up something they weren't supposed to.

[Tugg Speedman]

Right?  I saw this and though, if anybody, the Steelers are the ones cheating here... they were the ones picking up something they weren't supposed to.

They were hearing the Patriots radio broadcast, as in the AM radio broadcast available to all.

The Patriots radio booth is next to the coaches' booth. 

The Patriots did a bad job of hacking into the Steelers headsets as they crossed lines with the radio booth.

[Tugg Speedman]

ESPN said the Steelers will not file a formal complaint about the headsets.  But it does not matter, the NFL said they are already investigating.  Ted Wells ... Roger Goodell is on line 1, again!

Additionally, the Steelers, to me, are one of the class organization in the NFL (like the Packers).  For them to post this on their official website speaks volumes about what they think really happened.

Tom Brady ... the Lance Armstrong of the NFL.

[#UnleashSean]

Tom Brady ... the Lance Armstrong of the NFL.

I'm sure Tom Brady is the mastermind behind a radio broadcast bleed.