Danny Playoffs Explains How Belichick Prevented a SodGate Situation from Costing the Patriots Their Greatest Super Bowl Triumph, in the SAME Stadium

David J Phillip. Shutterstock Images.

It's been a week and a half since the Super Bowl. And while even those of us who are not Eagles fans can sympathize with how they feel they were robbed of victory by bad officiating:

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… and unsafe playing conditions:

Jordie - Anybody who watched even a minute of Super Bowl LVII knows that the field was a complete and total failure on the NFL's behalf. The biggest game of the year and players were slipping and sliding all over the place out there. They equated it trying to play a football game in a waterpark. …

So we have a grounds keeper who is a die-hard Chiefs fan, has openly come out to say that he's pulling for them, and then it just so happens that Chiefs players only slipped on 14% of Jalen Hurts' dropbacks as compared to the 38% that Eagles slipped when Patrick Mahomes dropped back?

… it's important we put aside our own biases and take a fair, balanced, and completely objective look at whether SodGate, if true, could have been prevented. 

And for that, we look no further than one of the heroes of Super Bowl XLIX, which was played on the same surface in the same stadium as the Chiefs-Eagles. The man whose touchdown reception:

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… made it a one score game halfway through the 4th quarter. Danny Playoffs Amendola. 

Amendola was on Chris Long's podcast this week. And lest Eagles fans continue to go through life convinced the  slick field conditions were something no one could've possibly seen coming or prepared for, he's here to tell you otherwise. Bill Belichick was all over the situation eight years earlier.

Source - Arizona’s State Farm Stadium … has been notorious for having poor traction. According to Amendola, that reputation prompted a pregame mandate from Bill Belichick. …

“When you play a night game in AZ, for some reason the grass always gets a little dewy at night, and it’s so slick. … I’ve worn seven-studs (cleats) on that field numerous times. One Super Bowl we played in, Bill made it a mandatory seven-stud game. We were all bitching and moaning, but we didn’t have too many slips.”

Football cleats come in two general varieties: detachable (aka seven-stud) and molded. The former typically provide better grip on grass fields, but some players prefer the latter, which tend to be lighter.

“On that surface, you’ve got to switch the tires out and put the seven-studs in,” Amendola explained. “I feel like you get a lot better traction. You don’t feel like you can play as fast in them, but at the same time, you’re chopping it up, you’re gripping the turf. I would have worn seven-studs, and I’m curious to know anybody that slipped (in Super Bowl LVII), look at the cleats they were wearing. They were probably wearing the wrong tires. …

“We watched the film after we played Seattle in that stadium for the Super Bowl, and they had guys on the ground all night,” Amendola said. “And the fact that we (all had seven-stud cleats), I felt better, and I kind of switched my routes up knowing that they were going to slip. I switched my releases up a little bit and have them kind of get on skates a little bit more, and I felt very comfortable that game with seven-studs. 

And you could look on film, and Seattle Seahawks that night were all over the ground.”

Well what do you know about that? Does Danny P. mean to tell us that in February of 2015 Belichick had his players thoroughly prepared for conditions that Nick Sirianni's staff was totally unaware of in February, 2023? In other words, Belichick put his team in the best position to win, while Philly failed to put in the time and do the research he did? Despite the EIGHT intervening years?

Surely this cannot be. I mean, it's not like The Hooded One has a history of displaying an attention to detail lesser mortals miss (cued to the 34:11 mark):

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We know that's not the case. In Super Bowl XLIX, his team dropped 28 points on the same Seahawks defense that held the most prolific offense in NFL history (the '13 Broncos), to 8 points, not because he understood the surface conditions better than Seattle did, or even better than his own players did, but for some other reason. Luck. Tom Brady. Spy cameras. Deflated footballs. Illegal formations. Whatever. Just not because he's spent 50 years being the best prepared person on Earth. 

Though now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't even be bringing any of this up because if history is any indication, the NFL will outlaw seven studs, switching your cleats, or maybe ban footwear altogether as an unfair advantage that benefits New England alone. Believe me, it's happened before. Still, with all due sympathy to all of Philadelphia, Jordie especially. Thoughts and prayers for your loss. Buy a shirt.