Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis say Patriots cheated in 2004 AFC Championship Game
Legendary Pittsburgh Steelers Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis still think about the 2004 AFC Championship Game. That’s partially because they think they should have won, and believe they would have won the Super Bowl, and partially because they think the New England Patriots cheated.
It was on Roethlisberger’s Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast that he and Bettis claimed that the Patriots cheated in the 2004 AFC Championship Game.
“Hey, to be fair, the Patriots cheated,” Roethlisberger said. Bettis then added that there wasn’t a question in his mind that New England cheated.
The 2004 AFC Championship Game was played in Pittsburgh, with New England winning on the road by a score of 41-27.
In particular, Roethlisberger and Bettis took issue with a play in the first quarter. It was a fourth-and-1 at the Patriots’ 39-yard line. The Patriots noticed a hand signal and called timeout. That’s when the Steelers took issue.
“Who normally goes to the sideline on timeouts? The defensive captains, right? They told the nose guard [Ted] Washington, 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. Then, we run the play he loops into the hole, Washington does. They stop us on fourth down.”
Basically, Bettis is saying that the Patriots already knew the Steelers’ signs and called the timeout specifically to stop it once they saw the sign for a counter-run play.
Memory is a fickle thing, though, and there are a few issues with Roethlisberger and Bettis’ claim that the Patriots cheated. The first is that Washington wasn’t on the Patriots at the time. So, at least a part of the story is factually incorrect.
The second major issue is that knowing and reacting to an opponent’s signs isn’t cheating. Still, because of the Spygate scandal, there is an assumption that the Patriots were stealing signs. However, that assumption often comes from misconceptions about Spygate. Filming signs wasn’t illegal. Doing it from the location New England was doing it was illegal.
So, unless Pittsburgh has proof that New England obtained the signs illegally, it’s hard to say the Patriots definitely cheated.
In the end, the New England Patriots won and went on to win its third Super Bowl in four seasons, beating the Philadelphia Eagles.
Pat McAfee calls for Ben Roethlisberger to replace Matt Canada
This season, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has struggled under offensive coordinator Matt Canada. That led Pat McAfee to call for Ben Roethlisberger to replace him.
“Ben Roethlisberger — hey, Ben, we know you’re doing ‘The Footbahlin Podcast,’” McAfee said. “And we think it’s amazing. It’s a great show. Your basement looks awesome. The beers that you have down with the boys, what a moment. You had an incredible career, won multiple Super Bowls, do what you got to do, but why not go put the headset on for the rest of the year, make some content out of it and allow Matt Canada to watch how an NFL offense performs? I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. I think that’s very reasonable.”