In fact, many former New England coaches and employees insist that the taping of signals wasn’t even the most effective cheating method the Patriots deployed in that era. Several of them acknowledge that during pregame warm-ups, a low-level Patriots employee would sneak into the visiting locker room and steal the play sheet, listing the first 20 or so scripted calls for the opposing team’s offense. (The practice became so notorious that some coaches put out fake play sheets for the Patriots to swipe.) Numerous former employees say the Patriots would have someone rummage through the visiting team hotel for playbooks or scouting reports. – USA Today

I knew that when Judge Berman reversed Tom Brady’s suspension that it wasn’t the end of deflate gate, but I was hoping that we’d at least be able to put that story on the back burner and focus on the upcoming season, which starts in two days. Of course that didn’t happen, and of course there’s a NEW cheating scandal to come out about the Patriots. According to a couple investigative journalists who totally aren’t trying to start a witch hunt, the Patriots used to send employees into hotel and locker rooms to try and steal the other teams playbook. If this story lived on it’s own, there would probably be a lot more people who cared about it, but after everything that’s been written and talked about in regards to spy gate and deflate gate, I’m just indifferent. Who cares at this point? There’s honestly nothing that could come out about the Patriots that would be make me feel happiness or anger. When reporting on the Patriots, ESPN might as well identify themselves as a gossip website, because that’s what it’s becoming. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if a story came out about a talented Patriot who ended up being a serial killer. Oh wait…

-Ryan