The Patriots “tricked” the Pittsburgh Steelers into a false start on the goal line in a critical series in the NFL season opener. The Steelers quarterback cried foul, but it was all legal. The Pats performed a shift of their defensive line during Ben Roethlisberger’s count, and left tackle Kelvin Beachum jumped. The duped Steelers QB sounded angry afterward, but also sounded petulant. USA Today quotes Ben Roethlisberger:
“I thought that there was a rule against that. Maybe there’s not. Maybe it’s just an unwritten rule. We saw it on film, that the Patriots do that. They shift and slide and do stuff on the goal line.” So they saw it and still thought it was against the rules? With 22 men on the field at once and a rule book that’s 79 pages long, NFL football is a complex system. (Note to Big Ben: unwritten rules don’t apply.) Every coach in the league is trying to find ways to take advantage. Patriots Bill Belichick found this one. To his credit, Steelers guard Ramon Foster said “kudos to them…I can be mad. That’s on us.”
