Every year that the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl, you can almost guarantee that someone will come out of the woodwork and accuse them of cheating in a prior Super Bowl.
A few examples this year include Steve Spagnuolo and several former Rams players.
Spagnuolo was a linebackers coach for the Eagles during their 24-21 loss to New England in Super Bowl XXXIX, and one week before this year's game, he said it was pretty obvious that the Patriots had been stealing their signals back in February 2005.
On the Rams' end, Orlando Pace and Isaac Bruce are still convinced that the Patriots cheated during their 20-17 upset win over the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. Although it's never been proven that the Patriots cheated, it appears that Eagles coach Doug Pederson didn't want to take any chances this year.
According to long snapper Rick Lovato, the Eagles held a FAKE WALKTHROUGH PRACTICE just in case the Patriots were watching. Lovato revealed the wild details during an interview with WDAE-AM in Tampa this week.
"I believe our whole walkthrough was just a complete fake walkthrough," Lovato said, via Pro Football Talk. "We did it at the stadium. There were certain people walking around. ... I believe I overheard someone say a lot of the plays we were running weren't even in the playbook for the Super Bowl."
Either Pederson is paranoid or brilliant, or both. Whatever the answer, the Eagles ended up winning the game 41-33. The best part is that the Eagles didn't even bother running their trick play, "Philly Special," during their walkthrough because they didn't want anyone to see it.
"We had run that play during a walkthrough like two weeks ago," Lovato said.
Some teams take advantage of the Saturday walkthrough so that they can get used to playing in the Super Bowl stadium, but the Eagles apparently decided they didn't need that.
"We already had our game plan set all week for the last two weeks," Lovato said. "We had two weeks to prepare for that game. A measly walkthrough the day before the game, we weren't going to show anything to anyone, especially being at the stadium."
This is some next level thinking, and the next time the Patriots are in the Super Bowl, don't be surprised if someone pulls a fake-fake walkthrough to make the Patriots think they're faking the walkthrough, but they're actually not. OK, no one will ever do that, but the fact that Eagles held a fake walkthrough tells you everything you need to know about how other teams in the NFL feel about the Patriots.
