A former four-time Pro Bowler decided to reminisce about the scandal that made the Patriots cautious in the early 2000s. Julian Edelman was not going to let that slide. The three-time Super Bowl winner had something to say, and it was not a quiet response.
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“He (Richie Incognito) was saying some s***about cheating. Oh, the Patriots are cheaters,” Edelman said on The Gronk & Jules Show. “And I just put on I commented on his little thing like 45 minutes ago. I go, you know, losers make excuses. You know that, Richie. And then I just put three Super Bowl rings. Drop the mic, baby. Let’s go.”
Edelman fired back at an earlier video that was posted by Initial Contact, a podcast of Incognito and two-time Super Bowl winner Christian Fauria, where Incognito told about a rather intriguing incident when he was with the Buffalo Bills (2015-17).
“Another fun story is when I went up there with the Buffalo Bills with Rex Ryan; Greg Roman was our offensive coordinator. They thought the hotel room was bugged, or they thought the conference room at the hotel was bugged. So when we go over the first 15 script on Saturday night, we had the first 15 up, and Greg Roman wouldn’t say the play out loud,” Incognito said.
Incognito continued, saying that Roman had an “old school projector” due to his trust issues with the electronics provided in the hotel, and didn’t even call the play properly, instead pointing to the next plays the team had to execute.
“So you cheaters up there. It’s, I love it. I love it. You know why? The Patriots way, the Belichick era, cheaters.com,” Incognito said.
He even replied back to Edelman’s tweet.
“Spygate twice and Deflategate!” his response read.
On April 1, 2008, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell held an emergency session of the league’s spring meeting to discuss a case of “Spygate.” The term started to gain popularity when a Patriots video assistant named Matt Estrella was caught videotaping the New York Jets coaches’ defensive signals.
Then Patriots coach Bill Belichick later said that he misinterpreted the rule and thought it was legal to record as long as the tape wasn’t used to the team’s advantage of knowing the schemes beforehand.
While Belichick accepted his mistake, more investigation was on the way, but Goodell gave the punishment even before the investigators brought the full report, imposing a $500,000 fine on Belichick, a $250,000 fine on the team, and the loss of a first-round draft pick.
This rapid decision was heavily criticized, with one of the senior executives whose team lost to the Patriots in a Super Bowl saying, “Goodell didn’t want anybody to know that his gold franchise had won Super Bowls by cheating,” according to ESPN.
But the scandals didn’t end here, as the Patriots were once again scrutinized for using underinflated footballs during their 45–7 victory against the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015. This came to be known as “Deflategate.”
However, Edelman was among the former Patriots who dismissed the idea, which also involved seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, with reports saying he was “at least generally aware” of the ball’s misuse.
“I mean, that’s some bull. When you look into the facts of this whole thing, both teams’ balls were deflated. I think there was a witch hunt, a full witch hunt. That was ridiculous,” Edelman said on the All The Smoke podcast in May 2022.
Since these two incidents, the terms “Spygate” and “Deflategate” have often hit the nerves of the Patriots and their fans, with Incognito being the latest to pull Edelman’s leg about it.