Story by
Patriots Dynasty Found a Clever Way to Steal Some Victories
- Story by
- Patriots Dynasty Found a Clever Way to Steal Some Victories
For 20 years the New England Patriots were the class of the NFL.
The tandem of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady won an NFL record six Super Bowls together, an NFL record 11 consecutive division titles and went to an NFL record eight consecutive AFC Championship games with the Patriots.
Advertisement
But their championship run wasn't without controversy.
From the tuck rule to Spygate, the Pats have always had a funny relationship with ¨the rules.¨ Most of the time, the hard-nosed ¨Patriot Way¨ under Belichick landed on the right side of the NFL rule book. But then again, every once in a while, it didn't as well.
This week, Ryan Paganetti , an analytics researcher who worked in the NFL for a decade, exposed a trick the Patriots used to utilize while playing at home that took points off the board for visiting teams, and tipped the scales in the Patriots favor dozens of times.
Patriots ice the kicker
At some point, either Bill Belichick or one of his lieutenants realized that the video boards at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough line up directly behind the field goal posts at the back of the end zone.
Advertisement
So someone had the bright idea to play a reverse image of the field on the board when opposing kickers are setting up for a field goal attempt.
Ryan Paganetti explains, ¨When opposing kickers lined up at Gillette Stadium, the video board displayed a reverse view of the kick, placing a second, offset set of yellow uprights directly behind the real ones.¨
This visual trick was quite effective, especially in windy conditions where the orange streamers at the top of the uprights that indicate wind direction would appear to point in the opposite direction on the board.
Paganetti said he found dozens of examples of the Patriots using this trick.
Kathryn Riley / Getty Images
Did it work?
The Ravens were on the cusp of the Super Bowl in 2012. After a hard fought four quarters, Baltimore had driven all the way down the field to the 14 yard line, to set up a 32 yard field goal to tie the AFC Championship game at 23.
Advertisement
Pro Bowl kicker Billy Cundiff lines up the kick from the right hash and pushes the kick, a chip shot in the NFL, so far left you'd think he did it on purpose. Jim Nantz and the CBS announcers on the call fall totally silent as the camera catches stunned Ravens players as shocked as anyone.
The clip that Paganetti posted catches a glimpse of the video board on the replay, and sure enough its there, the mirror image of the field goal post.
But karma is a funny thing because the Patriots ended up losing Super Bowl XLVI to the New York Giants two weeks later.
But what about Patriot kickers?
Now if this was a uniform practice, then one could argue that the video board locations were just an unfortunate design flaw that made it tough for all kickers, home or visiting, to operate at Gillette Stadium.
Advertisement
But Paganetti reviewed 52 Patriots field goal attempts and ¨the illusion appeared on Patriots kicks exactly zero times.¨
¨We actually tried copying the idea when I was in Philadelphia , but the location of the video boards at Lincoln Financial Field made it nearly useless,¨Paganetti said. ¨It is the perfect encapsulation of the Patriots dynasty. No detail was too small, and no possible edge was left unexplored.¨
Is this practice rooted in fairness and the spirit of the game? No. Does it violate the Zeus' Law from The Odyssey? Absolutely. Is it against the letter of the NFL law? No.
So technically it's not cheating. But of course leave it to the Pats to push the rules to their absolute limits in order to win games. It's the Patriot way.
Advertisement
Related: Patriots Worst Training Camp Disasters Since 2005
This story was originally published by Lindys Sports on Sep 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
