John Harbaugh has never been one to mince words, but his latest statement is harsh even by a straight shooter’s standards. In an interview with 97.9 FM, a Baltimore area radio station, Harbaugh was asked about Bountygate and the Saints. To answer the question, Harbaugh quickly answered by addressing the Patriots previous scandal, Spygate, saying,
“In the end, everything is brought before the light of day. Even the thing in New England, no matter whether those things had any impact on whether they won their championships or not, they got asterisks now, it’s been stained. So to me, it’s never worth it. You’ve got to figure out ways to use the rules to your advantage.
If you’re cheating, in the end, you’re going to get discredited. It’s just not worth it.”
Harbaugh wasn’t completely done at that point. He indicated that the Ravens have likely been the victims of other cheating teams, but he wouldn’t talk about which specific teams may have cheated. Why wouldn’t he say? He says that Pro Football Talk would run with it. Let’s be perfectly honest here Coach. Pro Football Talk, SBNation, Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, and This Given Sunday would all run with that kind of accusation.
As for the Patriots’ titles having asterisks, maybe they do, and maybe they don’t. Personally, I very rarely think about spygate. Frankly, I don’t believe that filming walkthroughs would give the Patriots much of a competitive advantage, and that’s not my own opinion only. When spygate broke, I had the opportunity to talk to a former two-time Indiana state champion high school coach, and he didn’t think filming a walkthrough would give the Patriots much of an edge, but I can understand where some people, especially other head coaches, may think there’s an asterisk attached to the Patriots’ Super Bowls. For me, it’s a dead issue. Let’s just let it go.
