Kansas coach Charlie Weis served as a member of the Patriots’ offensive staff for the team’s three Super Bowl runs. On Friday, Weis was asked to respond to recent comments from Ravens coach John Harbaugh regarding the stain that the Spygate scandal placed on those trophies.
“That’s a joke,” Weis told Evan Cohen and Steve Phillips of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio. “That’s really, that’s a joke. Not even worth commenting on. It’s a joke. When people win championships, people win championships. Every time somebody wins they are looking for a reason why the team won. We won because we were the best team in those years. We might not have had the best players but we always had the best team, including 2001 when we beat the Rams when we weren’t supposed to have a chance.”
As offensive coordinator of the Patriots, Weis would have been in position to realize the benefits of the Pats using videotape of defensive coaching signals to crack the code when playing that team again. Whether it helped win games or not, it’s unlikely Weis would ever admit that.
Though Harbaugh quickly clarified his remarks from Tuesday morning, which given the events of the past few days already feels like a lifetime ago, he had a point. The perception among fans when a championship NFL team is caught becomes that the championship is tainted. But that’s not a sentiment an NFL coach should be articulating.