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The Walsh Tapes: 2002 AFC Championship game vs. Pittsburgh
It’s now been confirmed, the New England Patriots videotaped the Steelers’ sidelines during the 2002 AFC Championship game.
Now, I could get into a long and substantial diatribe about why the Patriots should be struck off the face of the earth, and all their 2002 earthly glory should be given to the Steelers. But seriously, what’s the point. It’s gone. It’s over and done with, and there’s nothing that the NFL can give the Steelers that will make me feel any better about it.
If you remember the game, New England took a 7-0 lead when Troy Edwards was called for a illegal procedure for stepping out of bounds on a punt that was brought back. Troy Brown returned the next punt back for a touchdown. Pittsburgh’s Kris Brown made the score 7-3, with a 30-yarder early in the second quarter. Tom Brady was knocked out of the game later in the quarter, only to have Drew Bledsoe lead the Patriots to another score, making it 14-3. New England scored first in the second half, on a blocked field goal that Troy Brown recovered, lateraled to Antwan Harris, who returned it for another Patriots TD, making the score 21-3. Pittsburgh scored twice on two runs, a one-yarder by Jerome Bettis, and an 11-yarder by Amos Zereoue, and New England added the final field goal, giving them the 24-17 final score. Kordell Stewart threw two picks in the final three minutes to give the Pats the win.
Sure, the taping may have helped the Patriots in small ways throughout the game, and that pisses me off for sure. At the end of the day though, when you give up two special teams touchdowns, and one based on a dumb penalty by a dumb player, you deserve what you get. Couple that with Kordell’s penchant for throwing interceptions when the game counts, and you have a game we deserved to lose. Listen, there isn’t a video tape on the planet that gives you any more insight to Stewart’s wildness with the game on the line.
Combine that with the NFL not really wanting to do anything, and you have a C-F of monster proportions. The Patriots happened to have two first-round picks this year, so the NFL slapped them with a fine, and took away their worst of two first-round picks. I can still hear Belichick snickering about it even now. The Patriots end up with a top-ten pick, and a black eye. What they gained, was certainly more than that.
So, what can be done? Nothing. We can’t go back and force Edwards to have stayed in bounds. We can’t go back and figure out a way for Chris Gardocki to have transferred his ‘he who shall not be blocked’ mantra over to Kris Brown. And there’s no way we can go back and make Kordell a precision passer. So, here’s a thought:
Let’s go out and beat the hell out of the Patriots this year.
Tape that.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 4:11 pm and is filed under AFC Championship, Kordell Stewart, Steel Tradition, Troy Edwards, Drew Bledsoe, Amos Zereous, Kris Brown, Matt Walsh, Jerome Bettis, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin, Troy Brown, James Pete, New England Patriots.
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17 Responses to “The Walsh Tapes: 2002 AFC Championship game vs. Pittsburgh”
May 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Don’t forget, the Pats traded a pick from last year’s draft for the extra pick they had in the first round this year. It wasn’t free. Then they used it on a second round talent in Jerrod Mayo. Their draft overall this year was mediocre on the surface, and it should have been huge. Mayo is no better a prospect ( I would say less of one) than Lawrence Timmons who the Steelers reached for at #15 overall last season. Timmons is younger than Mayo as well. If you go back to 2006, it looked off the top that the Pats scored big with Laurence Maroney and Chad Jackson, but Maroney has just been average to this point, and Jackson has done nothing. I don’t think they compare with Steeler’s acquisition of Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed this year. Even though the Pat picks in 2006 came earlier in the draft. Kevin Colbert is closing the gap at the draft table, and it is up to Tomlin to take advantage of that. Sadly, I don’t think Mike will ever be in the same league as Belichek as a coach.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Obviously Rob, I knew that the Patriots made a deal to get that pick. At the same time, the NFL could have exercised a bit of judgment and taken away their highest pick, as opposed to their second pick in the first round.
I agree with your sentiments on Mayo, but at the same time, that really shouldn’t play any part in what should have been done on the NFL’s part.
I also, unfortunately, agree with your sentiments about Tomlin up to this point.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Coach Tomlin came into a situation where 2 Super Bowl Champions preceded him.In his first year,he took an 8-8 team and helped make them a division champion(5-1 in the AFC North),sweeping their HATED rivals and much improved Browns,coming back down 10 on the road at CLE in the 4th,and guiding he Steelers to a miraculous 18 point comeback vs the tough Jags.The Jags game was a W if we had a Mendenhall type back then.Remeber,Belichick was mediocre in Cleveland and a cheater in NE so his genius isn’t so impressive anymore.Tomlin has a lot to learn so reserve judgement till after this year.So far,so good.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Sorry,the comeback was in Pittsburgh,my mistake-2006 was the one I referred to,nonetheless…
May 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
What Tomlin is, and what he becomes are two different things. I think coach Tomlin would be the first one to tell you that there were things he could have done better this past season.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I’m not justifying the Patriots tapping games but I wouldn’t be surprised if half the league didn’t do something similar. Multiple talking heads, ex-player types, have said that they know it happens all over the league. That doesn’t make it right at all. You said it yourself, that game was lost by the special teams.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Upshoot of Patriots draft dealing in 2007 is that they ended up with a very contoversial first round pick in Brandon Meriwether, who a lot of teams wouldn’t even consider in the 7th round. After that, nothing. A bunch of mid to late round non entities who are with other teams or out of the league already. That catches up to you. Particularly in light of the fact that Chad Jackson from the 2006 draft has yet to contribute anything meaningful, and their 2008 picks look to be reaches where they were taken. Belichik’s smoke and mirror act will start to fail if the talent pool via the college draft gets too shallow.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I don’t think it is fair to say Tomlin’s not in same league as Belicheat. This was Tomlins first year and a good one. If it weren’t for the tuck rule,cheating ,and Brady, we might not be talking about this,and what did Belicheat do for Ceveland ?
May 11th, 2008 at 7:08 am
In my opinion, once someone has been caught cheating you can never trust them again. Whatever comes out of Belicheat’s mouth from this day forward can not possibly be believed. He can TELL us just about anything to cover himself and I believe that he would do so. If you believe him, then you are dumber than a bag of rocks. Mr. Kraft needs to be challenged more about what he knew. If he really knew nothing about this, then he should fire Belicheat. The fact that he has not, tells me that he knew it all along.
Being a Steelers diehard since 1972, I can only imagine the fallout in Steeler nation if this had happened to them. I believe that the Rooneys would have fired Cowher or anyone else that was involved.
That’s because the Steelers are a very honorably historical franchise. The Pats are obviously not.
Just my opinion here, but I think that everything that the Pats have accomplished up to now should be somewhat tainted because of this. The FAN may never know the extent to what the Pats did to gain a competetive edge.
Way to go Belicheat!!!!! You have placed a dark cloud over the Patriot franchise that may never go away…….NEVER!!!!
May 11th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Belicheat is a liar. Kraft is a liar , but a friend of the commissioner, so he gets a free ride. The fact that Kraft didn’t fire Belicheat tells me that he knew about it all along.
Anything less than a NFL ban of Belicheat is less than satisfactory punishment. He knowingly broke the rules.
Maybe a “so many” year ban from post season play……..like what takes place when a college team breaks the rules…….
All of their accomplishments to date should be flagged with a question mark…………and if someday some of them are in the HOF, including Belicheat, there should be a flag by everyone’s name that won SBs with those teams.
JMO
Jim
May 11th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Let get to the point, yell I think he cheated the whole time as New England coach, let not forget the time he spent as the Cleveland Browns coach he was awful, this is the same guy that basically told everybody in the league that he was going to draft Kayl Brady and when a another team drafted him he then junk the rest of the draft picks for Cleveland Browns, don’t get me wrong he was a good def. cord, but I never seen anybody turn it around like he did, I don’t care what you say, he cheated, I’m steeler fan but they had there chances, the only smart thing that Bill Belichick did is the whole time this was going on he never pissed off the media, I know somebody going say well he did take Cleveland to the playoff but that all you can say, when he left Cleveland it was in bad shape,until the rumor came that he was cheating everybody was about to make this guy one of the best coaches ever, now he is a good coach only because he pulled the wool over the eyes of 31 other teams, it took a past employee to tell everybody else what was going on,
May 11th, 2008 at 9:50 am
the spygate to me is a dead issue, there were plenty of factors that can set up a win as well as a loss. granted, rules are rules, and in my eyes bellicheat should be dealt with no differently then a player who just failed his second drug test.and or ricky williams type discipline. suspend the coach from nfl sidelines and boxes, and have him submitt a letter of reinstatement one year later. you deal with things like this in a blunt brutal way to deter any more actions like this from coach cheater or any other nfl coach like him, whats to say the new york jets coach won’t do the same if he knows all thats gonna happen is get his wrist slapped!
May 11th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Yes our not so “special teams” stunk in the 02 afc championship game, but do you rememeber before the troy brown punt return for a td. The penalty on Troy Edwards was for going out of bounds untouched and not coming back in within 5 yards. First of all he was forced out of bounds, and second how does anyone running full speed get back onto the playing field in 5 yards while running full speed? It is physically impossibly.(just another idiotic rule such as the Tuck rule that enabled the NFL to had over their hallowed Lombardi trophy to the most nondeserving team ever!) And to top it all off Belishit(head) was the one who advised the refs to watch Troy Edwards for this infraction, as if he had the flag in his pocket and threw it himself! If not the punt went out of bounds on their 25 yrd line and the had not done anything offensively all day. That is the play that lost the game. And Belishit (head) had a hand in that one too.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:43 am
he can say he’s SORRY all he wants or admit to doing whatever……………..the fact is that if he never got caught, he would still be doing it and probably have won the SB last season…………funny thing is, the only SB he played in after he got caught, he lost!!!!!!
Nuff said………….
May 12th, 2008 at 7:12 am
It’s always Kordell’s fault. If the special teams would not have surrendered 14 points–the Stelers win the game point blank. Remember we trailed 21-3, Kordell helped to make it 21-17. The team was not built for playing catch-up especially from 21-3. Stop using Kordell as a scapegoat. Special teams blew that game–who gives up 14 special teams points in an AFC championship game no less. If it wasn’t for Kordell we would not have made the AFC championship!! And if you fair-weather, Pittsburgher fans would not have turn coat on Kordell he would have been much better. You were all on his @^&$@#% during the first two years then you went all Benedict Arnold on him.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Belicheck will always be synonymous with cheating and I agree that he should be given a year off. If I am a guy like “Pacman” Jones, I would be making a call to the League offices asking why a guy who commits the “ultimate” crime in the NFL(cheating), gets to stay on the sidelines while he(Pacman) was barred from all NFL activities for a year. Sounds like a little bit of a double standard. This situation resembles Bonds and his HR chase. Although you cannot take away the feat, there will always be speculation. Much like Bonds, the Patriots did win games with the talent they had already, but the cheating gave them more of an edge and probably was what got them “over the top.” Bonds similiarly had the talent, had the ultimate skills, but the steriods gave him that added boost.
I will have to apologize to Cowher because I thought he was a terrible coach after watching him get his butt handed to him in Patriots games. Now I realize that Belicheat probably knew every defense the Steelers were calling. Sad.
As far as Kordell goes… the guy was never that good. Regardless if we as fans went “Benedict Arnold” on him or not, Kordell was never going to be a franchise QB. He wasn’t even a good one in college. It was HIS fault(and Cowher’s) for thinking he was actually an NFL QB, had he embraced the “Slash: role, the Steelers might have won a bunch more games. Sure Kordell had some success, but anyone that knows the Steelers well, knows that in the offense being run at the time, Steelers QB’s were figureheads at best, guys that were not needed to “win games” only manage them. That gives creedence to BlakSteels reference to the Steelers not being built to come back from 21-3.
Moral of the story, I don’t blame Kordell for the games but I blame Kordell and Cowher for not realizing his talent as a “Slash” type player. Pittsburgh could have very well created a phenomenon, something all teams would have eventually copied, but Kordell thought himself an NFL QB and so did Cowher, a big mistake on both of their parts.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I saw somewhere that someone took note of Bill Belichick ’s sudden rise from good coach to great coach. I’d like to see that analyzed a bit. Generally coaches just don’t have a mid-career epiphany.
People had their doubts about the 2002 Steelers but I don’t remember anyone thinking they’d lose to the Pats.
Beldsoe, for all the hype, wasn’t that good of a quarterback. Bledsoe was a choker, was he aided by information obtained unethically? Most certainly he could have been.
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