Getty Image / Rick Stewart
Pittsburgh Steelers legends Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome ‘The Bus’ Bettis sat down to discuss their successful past together. The two won Super Bowl XL together, a 21-10 win over Seattle Seahawks, but believed they were robbed of another Super Bowl appearance due to the Patriots cheating.
In the latest episode of Ben Roethlisberger‘s Footbahlin podcast, these two Pittsburgh legends lay it all out there. They discuss going back to school, the college football portal, the origin of ‘The Bus’ nickname, how Roethlisberger got nicknamed ‘Big Ben’, and eventually, they talked about the Patriots cheating.
Approximately 1 hour and 17 minutes into, Bettis was joking with Roethlisberger about throwing interceptions in the 2005 AFC Championship game. Ben told Bettis he was “going to get him to a Super Bowl” and Jerome was like ‘what do you mean you’re going to get me there, if you hadn’t thrown 2 interceptions we’d be there!’
That’s when Ben Roethlisberger chimes in with “to be fair, the Patriots cheated.” Jerome Bettis immediately stopped laughing and got serious, saying “for sure they did, there’s not even a question mark. There’s not even a question in my mind.”
He goes on to say “it was 4th-and-1 (and) they called time out. First of all, coach did this (gestures) back in the day and (this gesture) meant ‘counter.’ They (the Patriots) saw this, (as) the offensive line coach did that on the sidelines. They called a timeout.”
Jerome continues “Who normally goes to the sidelines on a timeout? The defensive captains, right? They told the nose guard, Washington, they pulled him to the sideline. A big 400 pound guy, he doesn’t want to go to the sideline and come all the way back. What does he want to go to the sideline for? They’re yelling and they made him go to the sideline and I always thought ‘why’s he going to the sideline?'”
This is where Jerome Betts really lays out how he believes the Patriots were cheating. Bettis says “He went all the way to the sideline and came back. Then, we run the play and he loops into the hole. Washington does. They stop us on fourth down. That’s a critical play in the game and they had our signs and they called a timeout to get them ready for that play because they knew it was coming.”
Bettis adds there was “no question in my mind” the Patriots were cheating. Saying “I remember vividly because I thought ‘why is this big dude going to the sideline?'”
Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger Believe The Patriots Cheated In 2005
In this particular instance, Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger are discussing the 2005 AFC Championship Game. The New England Patriots won that game 41-27 in Pittsburgh. It was the Steelers‘ only home loss of the season as they were a perfect 8-0 at home and 7-1 on the road in the regular season that year.
Tom Brady threw for 207 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 226 yards and 2 touchdowns but unlike Tom, Ben threw 3 interceptions. The Steelers coughed up 4 turnovers and you don’t win that game against Tom Brady and the Patriots turning the ball over four times.
Of course, the Patriots would be caught be the league in 2007 for an incident later dubbed as ‘Spygate’. It’s hard to recall if that was the event that led to everything in the news having ‘-gate’ attached to the name or if we were already in the -gate frenzy by then.
But the Pats were caught videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive coaches’ signals on September 9, 2007. Years later came ‘deflategate’. So there is quite a bit of historical precedent to back up Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis’ claims the Patriots cheated agains them. That said, there’s no proof.