Tom Brady Can’t Win Without Cheating? Headset Malfunction The Latest Patriot Controversy

Tom Brady’s unstoppable performance in last night’s NFL season opener was overshadowed by yet another New England controversy. This time, the spotlight was stolen by malfunctioning headsets that forced both teams to resort to hand signals for the first half of last night’s Patriots win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

According to CBS Sports, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was borderline irate following the game when he revealed to the press that his headsets were unusable during the first half of his team’s loss to Brady and the Pats. What’s further, he seemed to insinuate that there are always these kinds of malfunctions when playing in Foxboro.

“Always the case,” Tomlin bluntly told reporters when asked about a rumor that his radio went out during the game. When asked to clarify Tomlin simply replied, “I said what I said.”

Despite his curt response, Mike did detail what his Steelers coaching experienced during the first half.

“We were listening to the Patriots radio broadcast for the majority of the first half. On our headsets.”

For Patriot haters everywhere, Tomlin’s admission gave them further ammunition that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots can’t win without cheating. Forget the fact that Bill Belichick’s staff also experienced the same issues, critics of the Patriots can’t help but question the timeliness of these allegations following both the Deflategate controversy and the newly unearthed details surrounding the destruction of evidence in the SpyGate saga, as revealed on ESPN’s Outside The Lines.

According to the ESPN report, Roger Goodell destroyed all evidence of the Patriots’ wrong doing from 2001-2007, including tapes of walk-thrus and the apparent theft of playbooks by Patriots’ low-level staffers. Combine this with last year’s Deflategate, in which Brady himself was accused of knowingly deflating footballs during the AFC Championship game against the Colts, and the Patriots could forever be looked at as cheaters as long as Brady and Belichick are together.

Which is a shame, if you look at the surgical precision in which Tom Brady executed last night’s game plan to lead his team to victory over the Steelers. Brady finished the game 25/32 with four touchdowns and a 143.8 passer rating (Three of those touchdowns found their way into the hands of Rob Gronkowski). At one point Tom even completed 19 passes in a row, an almost perfect performance for any QB.

What do you think? Can the Tom Brady and the Patriots ever be truly vindicated for allegedly cheating? Or will their legacy forever be tarnished?

[Photo by Maddie Meyer / Getty Images]