[TekeRam]

Good memory and find Ferter, though that's a whole lot different than what the Pats did. Assuming Saban was telling the truth, the Phins used a tape that was broadcast to the world and then they eliminated background noise to hear the audibles and line calls by Brady. I wouldn't call that cheating as it's a public domain(yeah yeah yeah prior written consent by the NFL, blah blah blah) video, and does not go against the rule that prohibits a team from making their own tape of opposing teams signals, mainly to the defense, which was the ONLY way to signal what the defensive play was, which is what the Pats did.

Yes I realize that the Pats never used the videos in game, but it's still an issue because they then cataloged the signals and used them later that year or even in another year, using their "hurry up" offense which would give the coaches plenty of time to call in a new play to Brady before the 15 second cutoff if the defense was going to run a play that would stop the Pats. That's where the cheating comes in, at least in my mind. If you get your offensive team up the the line of scrimmage quickly, then the defense has to call it's play, your guy with binoculars(legal) takes the signal, references his "cheat sheet", and then tells Belichick what the defense will be doing. If the defense is good, then Belichick will tell Brady to audible into something else that'll beat the called defense.

Back in the fall there were multiple defensive coaches that said that Spygate all made sense because there were games in which whole drives the offense "guessed right every time. No one guesses right every time." Not to mention the various times that the offensive radio for visiting teams magically goes out in Foxboro.