ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham released a damning report on Tuesday detailing how the New England Patriots reportedly illegally recorded plays and elicited help from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in covering it all up.
Interviews of over 90 sources and numerous uncovered documents led the authors to conclude that - over the last 15 years - Patriots head coach Bill Belichick knowingly spied on opposing team, many instances coming during Super Bowl appearances. Goodell, a commissioner elected upon heavy support from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, destroyed evidence of spying before the public realized it existed.
The lengthy investigation starts begins with an August 2000 request to videotape practice plays and ends with the summer's Deflategate scandal where Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady was acquitted of deflating footballs during last January's AFC title game.
Below is a timeline of Wickersham and Natta Jr.'s reported findings, beginning with an innocuous preseason game against Tampa Bay.
August 2000 - Jimmy Dee, the head of New England's video department, is asked by coaches to record Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offensive and defensive plays during a preseason game. Two teams would meet in the season opener days later.
Dee gave lifelong Patriots fan Matt Walsh the task of filming the Bucs' signals, though neither knew what the reasoning was. Walsh later testified that he wasn't aware taping signals was forbidden.
Jan. 27, 2002 - New England defeats Pittsburgh 24-17 in the AFC Championship Game, sending the Patriots to their first Super Bowl since 1997.
When Spygate - a term dubbed for the first into New England's alleged recording of plays - broke out a few years later, Steelers' wide receiver Hines Ward told reporters he believed the Patriots had inside information. "They were calling our stuff out. They knew a lot of our calls. There's no question some of their players were calling out some of our stuff," Ward said.
Feb. 3, 2002 - The Patriots narrowly defeat St. Louis 20-14 in Super Bowl XXXVI. Allegation that Belichick taped the Rams' walk-through practice resonated through the Spygate scandal.
Three videographers, sporting Patriots' gear, stood on the sidelines unquestioned while St. Louis practiced.
One instance of alleged misconduct during the game came when the Patriots sniffed out plays directed at running back Marshall Faulk. They knew quarterback Kurt Warner would "rolled to his right and turned to throw to Faulk in the flat," and also predicted Faulk would line up for a kickoff return; something he seldom did.
Faulk would later say he would "never be over being cheated out of a Super Bowl."
Former Rams head coach Mike Martz would later say Goodell insisted he sign a letter implying New England did not cheat.
Feb. 1, 2004 - Belichick leads the Patriots to their second Super Bowl win in three years, defeating Carolina 20-17.
According to Natta Jr. and Wickersham, The Panthers believed their practices were recorded.
"Our players came in after that first half and said it was like [the Patriots] were in our huddle," a Panthers source said, adding "Do I have any tape to prove they cheated? No. But I'm convinced they did it."
Jan. 23, 2005 - "They knew the signals, so they knew when it went in what the coverage was and how to attack it," says a former Steelers coach, referring to a touchdown Brady threw during the AFC title game. "I've had a couple of guys on my teams from New England, and they've told me those things."
New England won 41-27 and advance to their second straight Super Bowl.
Feb. 6, 2005 - The Philadelphia Eagles had similar concerns ahead of Super Bowl XXXIX, questioning how New England seemed "completely prepared for the rarely used dime defense the Eagles deployed in the second quarter, scoring touchdowns on three of four drives?," the authors wrote.
Philadelphia suspected that either practices were filmed or a playbook was stolen. "To this day, some believe that we were robbed by the Patriots not playing by the rules ... and knowing our game plan," a former Eagles football operations staffer said.
Nov. 19, 2006 - Green Bay Packers security boots cameraman Matt Estrella from Lambeau Field. Notes taken from the U.S. Senate's Spygate investigation revealed that Estrella claimed he was taking panoramic shots for "Kraft Productions."
Sept. 9, 2007 - New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini orchestrates a sting of Patriots' cameraman. Mangini, who worked under Belichick between 1995 and 2005, had security monitor Estrella throughout the first half of a 38-14 Patriots win.
Jets security finds Estrella along the sidelines wearing a red media vest that reads "NFL PHOTOGRAPHER 138." They confront him at Jets owner Woody Johnson's request, to which Estrella again says he is working for "Kraft Productions."
"He's pissing in my face," Mangini would later say about Belichick's alleged involvement. Estrella's camera was taken to the NFL's New York City headquarters.
Sept. 12, 2007 - Goodell has half-hour phone conversation with Belichick in which the coach say he misinterpreted rules about taping signals, though he didn't voluntarily say how long the Patriots had been recording opponents.
Sept. 18, 2007 - Despite the Jets' request to preserve evidence because of a grievance they filed against New England, Goodell ordered all tapes destroyed. He, nor any other league officials, ever ask how many games Belichick's coaching staff taped. League executives "stomped" whatever tapes the Patriots handed over into pieces.
"The way the Patriots tried to approach it, they tried to cover up everything," one high-level Patriots employee told ESPN.
Feb. 1, 2008 - Two days before Super Bowl XLII, Goodell insists the Spygate scandal was overblown and didn't think "it taints their accomplishments." He estimates the league destroyed six tapes during the initial investigation.
At this point, Belichick and the team have been fined a combined $750,000 and had a first-round draft pick taken away.
Feb. 13, 2008 - Goodell assured U.S. Senator Arlen Specter that New England's illegal tapes - those which were destroyed - went back to the 2000 season.
But, according to the report, Goodell then confessed that the Patriots began their taping operation in 2000 and destroyed notes were for games as early as 2002, "contradicting an assertion he made just two weeks earlier in public."
Some of the notes included diagrams of defensive signals Pittsburgh used in the 2002 AFC Championship Game, the one Ward grew skeptical about.
Pressed by Specter, Goodell apparently became "defensive" and contradictory. "Even if Belichick figured out the signals," Goodell insisted, "there is not sufficient time to call in the play."
Goodell downplayed the belief that spying led to at least two Patriots' Super Bowl wins, saying he spoked with Eagles' owner Jeffery Lurie. He also said an internal investigation found no hard evidence that New England taped the Rams' Super Bowl walk-through.
April, 8 2008 - Goodell tells a room of the NFL's 32 owners that they must be held to the same high standards as players. Cheaters, he said, must be dealt with forcefully.
May 13, 2008 - Walsh, the whistleblower who taped Tampa Bay's practice, signed an indemnity agreement protecting him from any blowback. He told Specter that Patriots' employees were taught how to cover their tracks, including any work done during the Rams' walk-through.
"The three videographers, in full Patriots apparel, hung around, on the field and in the stands, for 30 minutes. Nobody said anything," the story reads. "Walsh said he observed star Rams running back Marshall Faulk line up in an unusual position: as a kickoff returner."
"That night, Walsh reported what he had seen to Patriots assistant coach Brian Daboll, who asked an array of questions about the Rams' formations. Walsh said that Daboll, who declined through the Patriots to comment for this story, drew a series of diagrams -- an account Daboll later denied to league investigators."
June 5, 2008 - Specter lambasts the NFL's investigation for a lack of transparency. "The overwhelming evidence flatly contradicts Commissioner Goodell's assertion that there was little or no effect on the outcome of the game," Specter said in a report entitled "Senate Floor Statement on the New England Patriots Videotaping."
The extensive investigation Specter called for never happened.
Jan. 17, 2015 - A league official got word from the Indianapolis Colts that the Patriots may have used deflated balls during playoffs, thus beginning the Deflategate scandal.
The Patriots, for their part, denying any wrongdoing and called on ESPN to apologize.
"For the past 16 years, the Patriots have been led by one of the league's all-time greatest coaches and one of its alltime greatest quarterbacks," read a statement released Tuesday afternoon. "It is disappointing that some choose to believe in myths, conjecture and rumors rather than giving credit for the team's successes to Coach Belichick, his staff and the players for their hard work, attention to detail, methodical weekly preparation, diligence and overall performance."
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