The Patriots used their big screen to mess with kickers for years
Another aspect of the many ways in which the New England Patriots bent the rules under head coach Bill Belichick has been uncovered. For at least a decade, the Patriots seemingly used the big screen inside Gillette Stadium to mess with opposing teams’ kickers.
Former NFL analytics coach Ryan Paganetti published an analysis this week revealing that Gillette Stadium’s video boards displayed a reversed, offset image of yellow field goal uprights directly behind the real posts whenever opposing kickers lined up for field goal attempts against the New England Patriots.
In windy conditions, the effect was amplified as the streamers on the video board appeared to point in the opposite direction from the physical streamers atop the actual uprights, creating a disorienting visual that could throw off a kicker’s depth perception and aim.
A former NFL analytics coach found evidence the Patriots used the big screen inside Gillette Stadium to disorient opposing kickers
Paganetti said he found “dozens of examples” of the illusion appearing during opposing kickers’ attempts across more than a decade of game broadcasts. He then checked the same games for Patriots field goal attempts.
“In the same games, I reviewed 52 Patriots field goal attempts, the illusion appeared on Patriots kicks exactly zero times,” Paganetti said. “It is the perfect encapsulation of the Patriots dynasty. No detail was too small, and no possible edge was left unexplored.”
Much has been made of the Patriots’ mysterious “Pink Stripes.” How about yellow ones?
I went through more than a decade of TV broadcasts and uncovered a diabolically clever piece of Patriots gamesmanship.
When opposing kickers lined up at Gillette Stadium, the video board… pic.twitter.com/Y5nf0F5vm6
— Ryan Paganetti (@RyanPaganetti) September 2, 2026
Paganetti noted that when he was working in Philadelphia, the Eagles actually attempted to replicate the idea, but the placement of Lincoln Financial Field’s video boards made the effect “nearly useless.”
Like many of the Patriots’ trickery over the years, it did not technically violate any NFL rules, as nothing in the rulebook governs what teams display on their video boards during opposing kicks.