Deion Sanders, Tony Dungy engage in strange debate over 'stolen' signals
The New England Patriots’ decade-plus of dominance has befuddled the entire NFL, making even longtime analysts scramble for explanation. On NFL Network shortly after the Super Bowl, Ladainian Tomlinson suggested that some will say the Patriots’ dynasty will have an asterisk attached, but fellow commentator Deion Sanders used that to pivot to a surprising new allegation: that the Indianapolis Colts were a bunch of cheaters, too.
“Those same critics [who say the Patriots dynasty has an asterisk], did they say anything about the wins that the Indianapolis Colts had?” Sanders said. “You want to talk about that too? Because they were getting everybody’s signals. Come on, you don’t walk up to the line and look over here and the man on the sideline giving you the defense that they’ve stolen the plays of. We all knew. L.T. knew. Everybody in the NFL knew. We just didn’t let the fans know. That was real and that was happening in Indy.”
Based on the timeline and the indication of the Colts’ wins, Sanders seemed to be implicating the reign of former head coach Tony Dungy and former quarterback Peyton Manning. Wednesday morning, in a lengthy interview on PFT Live, Dungy delved deep into the very idea of signal-stealing versus straight-out cheating. And signal-stealing, Dungy suggested, is all part of the game:
“I think we have to go back to what is cheating,” Dungy said. “People accusing us of cheating? I don’t think that’s the case. Stealing signals? You can go back to the 1800s in baseball, you can go anywhere there were signals done, and people were looking and watching and trying to get signals. Back in the early days of football the quarterbacks called the plays and the middle linebackers called the defenses and there was no signaling. When coaches decided they wanted to call plays you had to find ways to get the information in, and there were people watching. My coach, Chuck Noll, was a messenger guard for Paul Brown in the ’50s because Paul Brown didn’t want to have to signal because people are going to watch them. So that’s what happens and it’s been done legally for years.”
Dungy noted that stealing signals alone is no guarantee of success. He told a story about how Steve DeBerg, playing for the Chiefs, related every single play the opposing 49ers were going to run … and the 49ers still beat the Chiefs. (It helped that the 49ers had Joe Montana and Bill Walsh.) Dungy also specifically took aim at Sanders himself.
“Deion, I’m sure on every scouting report that he ever got, the first thing that’s on there on the defensive scouting reports, who is the live signal caller, who signals the personnel groups in. And that’s what happened. And you looked over there because you wanted to know as a defensive player: Is it going to be three wide receivers? Is it going to be two tight ends? Who’s in the game? There’s a person over there signaling and Deion Sanders and every other defensive player would look at the offensive sideline to get that signal. So that is football. And I’m not sure what Deion is referring to, really.”
And it’s all a big poker game, bluffs and counterbluffs. Dungy told the story of how the Packers once scored when the Bears misread a play off a Chicago player’s wristband, and the tale of how Peyton Manning outfoxed Bruce Arians with fake hand signals, knowing Arians remembered the correct ones.
“That’s all part of the game, but doing it legally and illegally, that’s the difference,” Dungy said. “I hope Deion is not saying we did something illegally. Of course we got signals when we had an opportunity to do that, and so did Deion.”
____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
