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Originally Posted by Aaron O
As I understand it that is not true. Other teams watched practices, though I am not aware of them having libraries of those tapes. I freely admit to not having followed every article about it, and I am certain that Boston fans are quite practiced in defending the putz.
I will tell you that NFL player Hollis Thomas has said you called our plays on the field during the bowl in a way he had never seen. He's never called any other coach or team a bunch of cheating scum. Hines ward stated the same. Other players have as well, though I don't recall every time I've heard it.
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Perhaps part of the problem is that there are tons of anecdotal stories floating around and each of us can only hear some fraction of the total. I certainly can't claim to have an exhaustive knowledge here but from what I've heard and read, the practice was widespread among teams. Jimmy Johnson, for example, admitted to having done it too and said every coach pushes the rules in their own ways. It's how you become and stay an NFL coach he said.
I'm not trying to defend everything BB does or how arrogant he can be. But his behavior has become an excuse for other teams not being consistently good. We lost because Bill cheats is easier to live with than we lost because we don't (pick your point) coach as well or draft as well or game plan as well or practice as hard or whatever. As I said earlier, BB can be a real tool but the Pats' record the last almost 15 years isn't due to cheating. And some teams just can't accept that he's been that good that long and they haven't. So they blame him, rather than look at themselves.