The Philadelphia Eagles should have won Super Bowl XXXIX against the Patriots. At least, that's what former Eagles defensive tackle Hollis Thomas thinks. And he thinks that because he firmly believes that Bill Belichick and New England cheated during the Super Bowl in 2005—just two years before the "Spygate" scandal—and, in the process, cheated the Eagles out of a win. Thomas explained himself during an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News this week.
"We got cheated!" he said. "It's not sour grapes. We got cheated…I don't bring it up. But when I'm asked about that Super Bowl, I give my opinion. I played in that game and we kicked their ass in the first half, and if the game was played on the up-and-up, we would have kicked their ass the whole game…In those days, the linebackers didn't have a microphone in the helmet. Our defensive signals were pretty basic and came in from the sidelines. New England had a guy filming those signals and then matching them up with the defensive formations on that play. Halftime, they broke it down, and in the second half, they called plays based on knowing whether we were gonna blitz or not."
Thomas also went on to say that there should be asterisks next to two of Belichick's Super Bowl wins and admitted that he is a "decent coach," even though he thinks that Belichick is a cheater.
So did the Patriots actually cheat during Super Bowl XXXIX? Well, it's obviously impossible to know for sure. But it is worth noting that New England only beat Philadelphia by three points. And the Eagles had a chance to win the game at the end. So Thomas should be blaming more than just Belichick for the Eagles' Super Bowl XXXIX loss.
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[via Philly]
