Within an hour of kick-off Thursday night, Twitter users and NFL fans keen to accuse the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots of cheating had found their next ‘gate’: headset-gate.
For a portion of the first half, a radio broadcast of the game was leaking into the headsets used by the Pittsburgh Steelers to communicate plays.
But while Steelers’ Coach Mike Tomlin admitted in his post-game interview that the Patriots “were better than we were,” he also suggested this type of thing happens in New England.
“That’s always the case,” Tomlin said. “We were listening to the Patriots radio broadcast for the majority of the first half on our headsets.”
And a post on the Steelers’ website Friday said “this is the kind of stuff that happens to the visiting team in Gillette Stadium all the time.”
New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said after the game that he “had a lot of problems” with the headsets too.
“We had to switch headphones a couple times,” he said according to NBC sports. “The communication system wasn’t very good. We deal with that it seems like weekly. Yeah, they told us they were on the verge of shutting it off, but then they I guess they got it working. I don’t know, but it was a problem the whole game. We almost had to switch helmets with Brady there at the end – couldn’t get the plays into him. It was a problem all night.”
The league did investigate and the issue was resolved before the first quarter ended and the score was tied at zero.
While many people on Twitter were quick to accuse the Patriots of tampering with the headsets, a statement from the league confirmed the “communication equipment, including the headsets, is provided by the NFL for both clubs use on game day” and said the problems were a result of a “stadium power infrastructure issue” made worse by bad weather – not tampering.
The Patriots went on to win 28-21.
But fresh on the heels of deflategate, accusations of cheating were at the top of mind for many people watching and when the headset problems were announced, they were quick to hypothesize and joke about the Patriots’ latest scandal.
Though some commentators, including Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur joked about it:
Some people did come to the defence of the Patriots.
Journalist and outspoken Patriots fan Bill Simmons referenced Steelers Coach Tomlin’s blatant bending of the rules during a game last season when joking about the headset controversy.
And some others were just upset with one more scandal being suffixed with “gate.”
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