Bill Belichick catches strays as Michael Irvin, Richard Sherman take aim at NFL refs: "Trying to mess with the rules"
Bill Belichick is well-known for his expertise in exploiting legal loopholes to obtain a competitive advantage. He has utilized unique clock management techniques and unprecedented pre-play substitutions, among other things, that have sometimes resulted in NFL rule changes.
His questionable reputation was recently used as an example during an episode of Undisputed when the panel was discussing the controversial ending to a Week 17 game between the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys.
The Lions had a potentially game-winning two-point conversion called back when the refs determined they failed to properly report an eligible offensive tackle for a trick play.
Richard Sherman explained:
"In reality, the Detroit Lions were trying to throw up smoke screens, which I mean, there's no way to do in that situation, because he's gonna go to the defense and say, 'Hey, 58-68, they reporting eligible.' So no matter how much you hide it, no matter how much you sugarcoat it or disguise it, he's going to announce it to the defense."
Michael Irvin responded:
"It's like Bill Belichick. You know when you're trying to mess with the rules just a little bit and trying to mess with people."
The Lions scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys to trim their deficit to just one point. Rather than kick the extra point to likely force overtime, head coach Dan Campbell decided to attempt a potentially game-winning two-point conversion. Jared Goff completed a pass to offensive tackle Taylor Decker, but a flag was thrown on the play.
Any offensive lineman who intends to run a route on a passing play must first report to the officials as an eligible receiver before the play. The referees ruled that he never did, despite their decision being controversial and widely debated.
Richard Sherman and Michael Irvin suggested that he never reported being eligible and that the Lions were instead trying to be deceptive.
This is where the Bill Belichick reference came in, as Irvin suggested that this is something that he would do to try to bend the rules and gain an unexpected advantage.
The bigger issue with what the Lions did is that even if Decker did report as eligible, like he claims that he did, they were lined up in an illegal formation anyway, according to referee Brad Allen.
Any route runner on a passing play needs to either be at the end of a formation or off-line. Dan Skipper, who reported being eligible, was covered up by a wide receiver on the line scrimmage. According to Allen, when Skipper ran his route, he was an ineligible man downfield, regardless of whether Decker reported as eligible or not.
Whether or not the play was legal will likely be debated for a long time, but either way, it seems that the Lions didn't quite execute it properly. If this was something that Bill Belichick would do, as suggested by Irvin, execution is unlikely to be something that affected the play, as this has always been a strong suit for his teams.
Does Bill Belichick cheat?
While labeling Bill Belichick a "cheater" can certainly be debated, plenty of evidence exists that the New England Patriots have illegally broken rules during his time as their head coach.
Spygate and Deflategate are the two biggest examples of them gaining an unfair competitive advantage, which resulted in the franchise being penalized.
Deflategate refers to when they allegedly asked an equipment manager to let the air out of the football so that Tom Brady could grip them better.
Spygate, which happened twice, was when the Patriots illegally filmed opposing teams in order to decode their in-game calls and audibles. These are some of the biggest scandals that have been linked to Belichick.