Ravens coach John Harbaugh, speaking on a Baltimore-area radio show Tuesday morning, said the Patriots’ three Super Bowl-winning seasons under coach Bill Belichick have “got asterisks now,” in reference to the Spygate scandal that surfaced in 2007.
“What happens, even the thing in New England, no matter whether those things had any impact on whether they won their championships or not, they got asterisks now. It's been stained,” Harbaugh said on 98 Rock in Baltimore when asked about the recent Saints scandal.
Spygate, which plagued the Patriots’ 2007 season after a staffer was caught illegally videotaping the New York Jets sideline during a game, had heavy consequences for the Patriots. The team was fined $250,000, forfeited a first-round draft pick and Belichick was fined $500,000.“To me, it's never worth it,” Harbaugh said. “You have to figure out ways to use the rules to your advantage. You have to figure out ways to make the most of everything. We have new work rules here as far as what we can do and what we can't do with our players, and we're going to make the most of it.
“What we're finding is: ‘Man, maybe we can do some things even better than we did before, because these rules make us focus more on some things that we didn't focus on before.’
