Miami linebacker Joey Porter said in an “NFL Live” interview this week, “They [the Patriots] cheated, there should be an asterisk. They cheated and they got caught.” He continued by noting, “Why, if you have nothing to hide, would you destroy [the evidence]? That’s how I’ve looked at it from the beginning. Why destroy something that doesn’t have to be destroyed? Let everyone know what was on the tapes. Why would you destroy them so fast?”
The NFL had confiscated New England tapes from the Patriot’s first game of the 2007 season, which was against the New York Jets. In the tapes, the Pats were stealing sideline signals from the Jets’ defensive coaches.
Porter, an All-Pro linebacker who spent eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers before signing with the Dolphins last year, was certainly upset, observing that the fine that Pats’ coach Bill Belichick was given was just a “slap on the wrist didn’t fit the crime.”
Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team was levied a $250,000 fine and had to forfeit their 2008 first-round draft slot.
Porter claimed that anyone who lost to the team over the past few seasons in big games feels the same way that he does.