The New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers met in both the 2006 and 2007 playoffs. The Patriots won both of those contests, but one San Diego columnist wonders if cheating was the reason why.
You know the story by now. The Patriots lost their first-round draft pick and were fined $250,000 back in 2007 for what we now know as Spygate. Coach Bill Belichick also was fined for his role in the scandal. But a new ESPN report Tuesday brought Spygate back to the forefront.
That controversy, coupled with Deflategate, left San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa wondering what role this all played in the Chargers losing to the Patriots back then.
“Did the Patriots’ cheat? We’ll probably never know,” Canepa wrote of the Patriots’ 21-12 win over the Chargers in the 2007 AFC Championship Game. “Possible? Absolutely. You have to be incredibly naïve or blinded by the Patriots’ light to believe they didn’t.”
But Canepa didn’t stop there.
The Chargers are one of three teams rumored to be interested in a move to Los Angeles, along with the Oakland Raiders and the St. Louis Rams. In his column, Canepa wonders if a Super Bowl win in one of those seasons could have helped San Diego build a new stadium, and therefore stay in the city.
“If they had won one or two, would we even be talking about L.A. or Carson today? I think we’d already have a new stadium,” Canepa wrote. “I don’t know if Tomlinson realized the depth of his statement at the time when he said: ‘If the Patriots ain’t cheatin’, they ain’t tryin’.’ It appears certain they’ve tried. And this town may have been cheated because of it.”
Thumbnail photo via Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports Images
