Bill Cowher Nobly Becomes the First Man in Steelers History to Not Use Spygate as an Excuse for Losing

Jerry Thornton6/01/2021 6:40 PM

STAN HONDA. Getty Images.

If we are ever going to make the world a better place (and don't put that pressure on me; I didn't sign up for that duty), we are going to all have to learn not to treat people as individuals. To not hold everyone in a group responsible for the actions of the group as a whole. I'm sure there were Imperial Stormtroopers who would've preferred not to be blowing up planets or setting fire to humble moisture farmers and their wives. In the armies of Mordor, there had to be at least one Conscientious Objector Orc who'd rather have stayed home wallowing in filth than attacking Gondor. If TV has taught us anything in the past couple of years, even Johnny Lawrence was conflicted about the way Kreese ran the Cobra Kai dojo.

And while we're talking about evil entities that have never been up to any good, consider the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 2000s. To a person - and that includes every man, woman and child in their fanbase, as well as a conniving, grandstanding, career opportunist like the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Hell) - they've all spent the last 13 years insisting that the only reason they lost two AFC championship games at home to New England was that the Patriots cheated. Those would be the 2001 and 2004 conference title games.

Their evidence? The fact that the Pats were caught pointing a camera at the Jets sideline in Week 1 of the 2007 season. That would be the season after the NFL famously issued a memo saying any camera not in the area designated for pointing cameras at opposing sidelines would be punished. So an entire region decided to retroactively apply that offense back six and three years, respectively. And became convinced that what transpired in '07 cost the Steelers rings.

Make that almost an entire region. The one person who would know better than anyone else refuses to buy into those monkeyshines:

Source - [Bill] Cowher’s new autobiography, written with Michael Holley, debuts today. The book contains no mention of Spygate, the cheating scandal that became an asterisk to the first three Super Bowls won by New England under Bill Belichick.
Cowher explained his reasoning in an interview with Ed Bouchette of TheAthletic.com. Put simply, Cowher accepts the fact that rules get bent and broken all the time in football.
“It’s only cheating if you get caught,” Cowher told Bouchette. “Like any player, if you’re going to hold him, don’t get caught. If you get caught you’re wrong, if you don’t you’re right. I always thought we never lost the games to New England because of Spygate. If [Belichick] got the [defensive] calls because we didn’t do a very good job of making sure we signaled those in, that’s on us, it’s not on him. Because we’re always looking for competitive edges. I think as any coach whether it’s someone’s stance, someone’s split, someone’s formation [that tips off a play]. You’re looking at someone’s eyes, how are they coming out of a huddle? You’re always looking for those little things that give you a competitive edge and that to me is what that was. …
“We didn’t lose the game because of that,” Cowher said. “We lost the game because they executed better than we did.”

Bravo, Coach Cowher (as he's referred to on the panel shows while Jimmy Johnson just gets called "Jimmy," like he's unworthy of a formal title). Bravo indeed. It's refreshing and rewarding to find someone in that organization with the integrity to not take the low-hanging fruit the others have. To admit that he and his team were bested. Twice. In their own building. As heavy favorites. To wit:

--In the 2001 title game, the Steelers went in as 10-point favorites. The Patriots were a week removed from winning the Snow Bowl (The Tuck Rule Game to those of you in the western 44 states) and were universally considered lucky just to be there instead of the Raiders, whom the whole country wanted to see. Pittsburgh was 13-3, 7-2 at home, led the NFL in rushing and gave up the fewest yards in the league by a margin of more than 300 over the No. 2 defense. There was only clear edge the Patriots went into Heinz with. If you did one of those Tale of the Tape things, they would only get the check next to special teams. Troy Brown was already established as one of the best Core-4 weapons in the league. And Adam Vinatieri had just become a legend and Pittsburgh's Kris Brown was notoriously unreliable. Reports said the Steelers punt unit needed to force Brown's returns toward the sideline. So naturally he scored the first points of the game with a 55-yard run right between the hash marks, like Mad Max driving right up the double yellows of an abandoned highway. Then Brown had one blocked, which Brown scooped up and lateralled to Antwan "Who the Hell is Antwan Harris?" Harris for another score. Even knocking Tom Brady out of the game for the entire second half couldn't stop New England, as Drew Bledsoe came off the bench for the first time since Mo Lewis ripped him in two and threw the games only touchdown. The only legitimate beef anyone on the Steelers could possibly have is that Brown's touchdown came on a rekick after a penalty. And the officials spotted the second kick on the wrong hashmark. Cowher did rain a shower of spittle down on the official with "You were wrong! How could you screw that up?!?" But to his credit, refused to use that as an excuse. And for sure didn't blame a future camera future pointed at a future sideline.

--In the 2004 game, the Pats were actually road favorites a -3.0. But still, the Steelers were 16-1 coming in. Rookie QB Ben Roethlisberger was 15-0 as a starter. And Tom Brady spent the flight to Pittsburgh sprawled across three seats with a 103 degree fever and was put immediately to bed with god-knows-what sorts of fluids coming out of both ends of his otherwise pristine body. That didn't prevent him from attending a walk through in a ballroom at the team hotel where, in a place that had probably just hosted a wedding or a bat mitzvah, Charlie Weis drew up an end around to Deion Branch to be the game's opening play. It would end up going for 14 yards. Later he went back to it. It went for 23 yards and a touchdown. In between, a play action fake and Brady looking off rookie Troy Polamalu left Branch open for a 60 yard TD strike. Add three interceptions of Roethlisberger, one returned 87 yards by Rodney Harrison, Corey Dillon's running and Troy Brown playing offense, special teams and defense, and you got a 41-27 New England victory. No part of which was affected by that game against the Jets three years down the road. No matter how much you believe in the retrocausality theory of quantum mechanics.

It takes a big man to admit he was bested and not fall back on easy excuses like everyone around him. Especially with the pressure of selling books. If Cowher had played the victim card with some Spygate talk, the whole country would be talking about it today. It would be tons of free publicity and moved a lot of copies. Particularly among Cowher's base, it would've been red meat for the masses. Instead he chose to be a grown up about it, and deserves to be commended. Because that is also how we make the world a better place.

Bravo again to you, good sir.