At his press conference on the day after the Patriots’ season-ending loss to the Jets, Bill Belichick scoffed at a question about whether his status as coach of the AFC Pro Bowl team could give him any opportunities to scout players during Pro Bowl practices.
But it turns out that Belichick did, in fact, try to gather a little intelligence from an opposing player during a Pro Bowl practice.
Our friend Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com passes along this tidbit from “Patriots All-Access,” which featured footage of Belichick mic’d up at the Pro Bowl: At one point during a Pro Bowl practice, Belichick approached Colts receiver Reggie Wayne to ask what happened on the regular-season play when New England safety James Sanders intercepted Colts quarterback Peyton Manning to seal a 31-28 Patriots win.
“On that play at the end of our game, did his arm get hit, or did we make it?” Belichick asked Wayne.
Apparently Belichick had spent the previous couple of months wondering whether rookie outside linebacker Jermaine Cunningham deserved credit for hitting Manning’s arm on the pass, and the all-22 film that Belichick watched didn’t show that definitively.
It’s interesting that Belichick asked Wayne, not Manning, that question. I guess that’s just the sneaky way Belichick does things.
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Haha cheater!! Not surprising to hear at all
The sneaky way Belichick does things? Slow day today? What a complete non story.
once a fraud always a fraud
What was Wayne’s answer?
Who cares if he asked Wayne, Manning, Polian, the fan with seats on the 30 yard line, the referee, or anybody else that saw it? What difference does it make?
Sensationalized misleading headline. He asked an opinion on a play where both people where there when it happened, so you see it as an opportunity to stir the pot.
I guess football people are only supposed to talk about off season plans at the pro bowl.
This is the trash that soils a lot of your good reporting.
Who cares!
Pathetic….Maybe he was trying to update his hurries, hits stats??? When are you people going to learn? Belichick is detail oriented.
How this translates to being sneaky (cheating) is a very long stretch…
the only thing worse than this non-story is now we’ll be forced to listen to all the haters crawl from the woodwork. OMG he actually asked a player his opinion on a play ooooooooooooo this will most asuredly cause the end of the nfl as we know it. The media and it’s constant use of non story no use material is a joke
I think he knew that, no matter what the truth, Manning would take the blame himself.
p.s., yeah, you *really* are reaching for a story here.
Belicheat bein Belicheat !!
Dudes…
The story is being ironic in a sarcastic way.
PT Barnum was correct.
Another reason why this guy belongs on the ‘most hated men in sports’ list. What a puke.
Belichick has never asked a question that he didn’t know the answer to. What profession does that?
And he never answered a question without putting a little question in your mind…if you got one.
He should have went and asked the jets on the team what they did to shut down Brady and the rest of his team in the playoff game..
How do you turn a non-story into a story? Put it on PFT. I’m really surprised at Michael Smith. He was a decent sports writer in Boston previously…..You say sneaky. I say smart.
Gee, usually your anti-Patriot bias is a little more thinly veiled than this. Not much, but a little…
Trying to cause trouble, huh? So he asked a question about a play, so what?
And in another news report of even greater importance: “WORKMEN SCRAPE RUST FROM SHIP’S HULL”
So what? What’s the big deal?
Just sounds like two football guys talking football to me.
Your headline implied espionage.
Big surprise.
If there are Belichick haters out there, being as big a Jets fan as I am I would be president of that group, but….
this really is a non-story
It’s not like he tried to get inside information. He asked the guy’s opinion about a play.
I hate Belichick and always will, but this is even less of a story that Sanchez and the 17 year old.
This clearly, was Belichick’s prime mission from the start… pry strategic information from Reggie Wayne behind Manning’s back so they can use it against the Colts in the future
Either that or the question just spur of the moment popped into Belichick’s mind and he asked Wayne the question since he was right there and probably jogged Belichick’s memory about the play in the first place
Slow news day?
This is a ridiculous story with a very misleading headline. What was so terrible about Belichick’s question? You guys in the media love to stir the pot and create controversy where there isn’t any.
“In a stunning example of coaching, Belichick uses Pro Bowl to gain information from Reggie Wayne.” I would be surprised if an NFL head coach did NOT do the same thing.
wow. most misleading headline i’ve ever seen.
he asked him whether a play was caused by an arm getting hit or not. he didn’t ask him what the routes were supposed to be, what the protection scheme was, or anything else related to the inside workings of an offense. he asked him if his linebacker hit manning’s arm……
“seeking information” implies information about the inner-workings of a team. can’t believe i wasted 20 seconds typing this.
Who cares? Really reaching for a story here. Must be running thin on Favre stories.
Congratulations on a new low for this site. You’ve established yourself as the sports version of “The National Star.”
It was a casual sideline conversation. No matter what Wayne’s answer, it would not have helped the Patriots.
“It’s interesting that Belichick asked Wayne, not Manning, that question. I guess that’s just the sneaky way Belichick does things.”
Maybe it was because Wayne was the one standing next to him?
WHOA everyone on here! The guy asked Reggie Wayne a question at the Pro Bowl. Not a big deal at all. I am not a Pats fan but I am not one of those sissy people that hates them just because they are awesome…every year. Honestly, why is this a news story???
what are they supposed to discuss? Restaurant reservations? Location of their second homes?
Thanks for wasting two minutes of my life MDS.
winning at all cost
Belicheat: Did your mom have any other kids that lived Reggie ??
Reggie: You obviously were aborted but somehow lived, you evil soul you.
Isn’t Reggie Wayne now an unrestricted free agent? Maybe Bellicheck is scouting Wayne instead of looking to the draft for another WR…
ny82jy asks,
why Belichick didn’t ask how the jets defense shut down the Patriots?
Answer, he would have except Revis was on the phone with Mark Sanchez while Sanchez was sitting in his car waiting for his 17 year old girlfriend to get out of class at Greenwich High School at the time.
We can tell from the comment ratings how many no-real-life Patriot fans live on the internet.
I’d hope my coach would do the exact same thing. It’s not cheating! It’s gathering information. If Wayne refused to answer (and I don’t know what he said??), that in itself is good info.
Sheesh. I’m done getting my “news” from PFT.
“It’s interesting that Belichick asked Wayne, not Manning, that question. I guess that’s just the sneaky way Belichick does things.”
To arrive at this conclusion just shows the reporter is one of the dumbest on the planet.
How does he know that Belichek didn’t ask Manning? Or perhaps Manning didn’t make himself available for Belichek to ask. Or maybe Belichek knows Manning wouldn’t answer the question or if he did ask not to trust Mannings answer and followed up with Wayne?
Maybe if he found out Jermaine Cunningham hit Peyton’s arm which cause an INT, he’d tell his players to do that on every play.
Yes he’s extremely sneaky;) If you knew the back ground you’d see that BB knew ahead of time that he would be mic’d up for the show. It wasn’t a lucky shot by NFL films he knew that he’d be mic’d up for the show so there was nothing sneaky about it. Check out http://www.patriots.com for the entire clip and background story.
The headline should read:
BELICHICK ASKS WAYNE A QUESTION AT THE PRO BOWL
WOW must be really slow on the news huh..
Most useless story I have seen on this site in months, almost makes me miss the Favre retirement drama, I said ALMOST.
Not like he was tryin gto find out who was wanting to be traded or anything like that. Just on the last play did Manning’s arm get hit BIG FRIGGIN DEAL!!!!!!!!
Please report on something that matters or dont put anything up.
“It’s interesting that Belichick asked Wayne, not Manning, that question. I guess that’s just the sneaky way Belichick does things.”
Yeah that’s real sneaky. This is just another lowly MDS post. Garbage.
I read this site all the time and there is always great information. However, this is the most misleading headline I’ve seen on this site. And to call Belichick “sneaky” for this is comical. I feel like you should change this headline to make it reflect the story. And thanks to all the non Pats fans for calling the auhor out on this. Belichick has done some “sneaky” things in the past and has deserved to get called out on them. But this was not one of them.
Can’t stand Belichick, can’t stand the Pats, can’t understand why this is story? I wish he was cheating again, so he’d lose some of his draft picks, but how does he gain a competitive advantage by knowing the answer?
PFT, its the stories like this one that make me wonder why I continue to follow.
MDS is a putz.
And now this story from “The View”…..
NY82JY sets the bar even lower…hey dude, if you wanna talk about who has been “Caught actually cheating” more recently it’s YOUR coaching staff.
The fact you are still taunting after the beatdown your team administered to the Pats in the playoffs shows you still fear ‘em though….good on ya!
Why not just ask Jermaine Cunningham?
You can watch this clip over at Patriots.com … it’s pretty interesting, and there’s not the least bit furtive.
This “story” is borderline libel.
PFT needs to to include a rating mechanism for each article…would prove much more valuable than the rating for each comment.
D’OH!!!….dat Bill Belicheat a bad man, very,very bad man…He try to get top secret information from Reggie Wayne…..D’OH! what will NFL do to Belicheat?…I say fine him 2 billion dollar and forfeit all draft pick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Matt Walsh is Jealous
Its like the old saying… “If you can’t beat the Jets, CHEAT!”
Sneaky way?
How about he asked the player that was involved with the play the entire way…
Manning made several reads before he threw the ball. Just because he has the ball the whole time doesn’t mean he knows whats going on the entire play at each position.
Belichick approached Wayne because Wayne is a good player, a smart player, who could inform him of what happened on the play.
I ran my route. I was knocked off my route. I made a route-read. We were looking for a soft spot, but missed a zone-read.
Manning couldn’t tell you all that, but Wayne could, because Wayne was involved with the play the entire play.
Funny how the pattsies had the mvp, coach of the year, offense line of the year and it took them until 18 seconds to go in the 3rd quarter to get into the end zone against the Jets. Fraud!
The reason he asked is because he is a dope..and i guess he wasnt paying attention to what was going on ,on the field…
Hmm, I thought MDS was a better journalist than this. I guess not, seeing as he used a completely misleading title to twist a non-story. What a clear anti-Belichick bias in this entire article, didn’t even try to hide it.
y82jy says: Feb 19, 2011 7:58 AM
Haha cheater!! Not surprising to hear at all
________________
Are you too young or too stupid to remember the following:
November 12, 2006
A New York Jets cameraman is caught taping by the Patriots in Gillette Stadium. When the story comes to light almost a year later, Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum tells the New York Daily News the story is “completely false.” In December 2007, Jets Head Coach Eric Mangini characterizes the story as true. Mangini calls permission for such taping a “common courtesy” which NFL clubs extend to one another – despite the fact that the Jets’ employee was apprehended by Patriots’ staff and told to leave. No documents have come to light specifying that “otherwise illegal taping with permission” enjoys any special category of immunity from league action.
Idiot.