Even Before Deflategate, Peyton Manning Didn’t Trust New England’s Cheating Ass

I’m sure everyone is fed up with the whole Deflategate bullshit that has been going on since January, but I promise that this is only partially related to it, as it involves the New England Patriots and cheating—shocker, right?

Peyton Manning, who has had a longtime rivalry on-the-field with the Pats, seems to have never trusted the opposing franchise or their head coach Bill Belichick, actually believing that the visitor’s locker room was bugged to give insider tips to New England.

So, how do we know this? Because Manning’s former Indianapolis Colts’ head coach, Tony Dungy, said so during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show today.

Per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk:

“I know that that is very true, and, you know, as Peyton talked to guys who played for the Patriots, some of the guys who came over—whether it’s true or not he treated it as true. We didn’t have a lot of strategy discussions inside the locker room there.”

I mean, damn, former Pats players were even, allegedly, selling out ol’ Billy Boy to tip off Manning that something funky might be going on? Interesting shit.

Dungy’s response came after an initial report from Peter King in 2010, where the longtime NFL writer reporter, via Yahoo! Sports:

“I’ve always heard, reliably, that the Colts never trusted that they were totally alone in the Colts’ locker room in Foxboro, and that when Manning had something of strategic significance to say to offensive coordinator Tom Moore, they both stepped outside into the concourse outside the locker room. So if you’re outside the locker room Sunday, don’t be surprised to see Manning and his first-year coordinator, Christensen, huddling for a few minutes.”

Manning, whose career record against the Pats is 6-13, is either a genius who predicted the future or absolutely paranoid, and, seeing as how he’s still seven games under .500 against New England, the hallway meetings didn’t exactly work.

Still, this shows that opponents are a little bit more on edge when facing the Pats in their home building, unsure of what types of cheating those fuckers might do next.

[H/T Bleacher Report]

Nick Dimengo avatar
Nick's a Sr. Editor for BroBible, mainly relying on his Sports Encyclopedia-like mind to write about things. He's also the co-host of the BroBible podcast "We Run This," and can be seen sweating his ass off while frequently running 10+ miles around Seattle.