Steelers have mixed emotions amid new Spygate revelations

The Steelers and the Patriots, two of the most successful NFL franchises of the past two decades, renew an NFL series Thursday that has not been very competitive in recent years. The Patriots have won seven of the past 10 meetings, including two AFC championship games at Heinz Field after the 2001 and 2004 seasons.

Current and former Steelers who played in the 2004 championship game always felt cheated out of a Super Bowl after New England came into Heinz Field and won, 41-27. They believe, to a man, that the Patriots used illegal tactics to help them win that game.

Now, with new revelations about the Patriots coming to light after ESPN Magazine and “Outside the Lines” detailed more espionage by the franchise, the 2001 AFC championship game and others against the Steelers are now in question.

According to the report based on interviews with more than 90 league officials, owners, team executives and coaches and current and former players the Patriots spied on opponents for at least seven years before the 2007 Spygate scandal broke. The Patriots began taping other team’s signals in 2000, Bill Belichick’s first year as head coach in New England, the report said.

The report states that handwritten notes from the 2001 championship game that detailed Steelers signals and other scouting information were part of the evidence NFL employees destroyed in 2007.

The report suggests Belichick illegally taped opponents as far back as 1991, when he became head coach of the Browns and competed against the Steelers twice a year in the AFC Central division.

“It’s like scratching off an old scab,” said former Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke, who was a member of both the 2001 and 2004 teams. “It’s just bringing up some old, bad memories.”

Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher read the ESPN story, but he declined Wednesday to talk about the new accusations. Cowher believes the Steelers lost both championship games because the Steelers gave up too many big plays.

The Steelers lost the 2001 AFC championship game, 24-17. The Patriots scored twice on special teams, once on a punt return and again on a blocked field goal. The Steelers gave up a 60-yard touchdown pass and an 87-yard interception return in the 2004 championship game. Interestingly, the 60-yard touchdown in the first quarter is one of the plays former Steelers cite as an example of the Patriots’ tactics because they believe it was the perfect call against the coverage the Steelers were playing.

“They knew which blitzes were coming,” Hoke said. “They knew how to call plays that would best beat a coverage we were in. I can remember walking off the field that day saying ‘What just happened?’ ”

The Steelers finished 15-1 during the regular season. The only loss came in the second game of the season at Baltimore when quarterback Tommy Maddox was injured. With rookie Ben Roethlisberger behind center, the Steelers had 15 consecutive victories entering the AFC title game, including a 34-20 pasting of the Patriots at Heinz Field on Halloween two-and-a-half months earlier. The Steelers outgained the Patriots, 417-248, and won the turnover battle, 4-0, in that game. In the postseason rematch in late January, the Patriots won the turnover battle, 4-0.

“I have two observations from the 2004 game,” said former Steelers center Jeff Hartings, who played for the team from 2001-07. “At the beginning of the game, in the first quarter or at halftime, I can remember thinking it seems like they made remarkable adjustments from the regular-season game. I just considered it great scouting, great coaching, great execution. Maybe there was something more to it.

“The other observation I have from that game is walking off the field and knowing everyone made mistakes in that game except for Tom Brady. He played the perfect game. He knew exactly what we were doing. If you rewatch that game, he knew exactly when we were blitzing.”

Brady was 14-for-21 for 207 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. In the regular-season contest, Brady was 25-for-43 for 271 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Steelers linebacker James Harrison said the Patriots knew almost all of the defensive plays the Steelers were calling that day. Hoke said the Steelers never took special precautions against the Patriots. It is standard for coaches to remind players not to leave behind play sheets or playbooks in locker rooms.

The Patriots, according to the ESPN report, had low-level employees venture into opposing locker rooms in search of play sheets discarded in garbage cans.

In other games, when the Steelers played an opponent with a former Steelers coach on staff, the team would change signals or have dummy signals in place to throw off any would-be espionage. But never specifically for the Patriots, Hoke said.

“What bothers you the most is not knowing if they were the better team,” Hoke said. “You just wish there was a level playing field in those games.”

Hartings said he doesn’t feel cheated out of another Super Bowl in the wake of the new accusations about the 2001 championship game, but the ESPN report did cement his feelings about the New England organization.

“I just feel like where there is smoke there is fire,” Hartings said. “It’s like if you’re caught speeding. It’s not the first time you’ve sped. They were (spying) for a long time and I believe they were deflating footballs for a long time.

“With this Outside the Lines report, I think more and more will come out over time. It kind of makes sense that it is coming out now. When players and coaches are no longer with the team, there isn’t the need to feel loyal. That will happen with Deflategate, too. We’ll find out more. People won’t want to go to their grave with those secrets. We want to bare our souls. As time goes on we’ll know more.

“Maybe if we didn’t win a Super Bowl I’d feel cheated. I think, for me, more than anything, I have a lack of respect for the Patriots organization. I just have no respect for that organization.”

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