Bill Belichick’s secret tactics revealed: Lengthy investigation reveals ‘diabolically clever’ trick NFL icon used with Patriots to fool opposing players
Bill Belichick reportedly used ingenious tactics to ensure his New England Patriots players had an advantage over their rivals, it has been revealed.
The legendary coach, who won six Super Bowls in 24 seasons in New England, is said to have used a ‘diabolically clever’ trick to fool opposing kickers into seeing double.
Belichick reportedly utilized the scoreboard at Gillette Stadium to showcase the yellow uprights to create the optical illusion, according to Ryan Paganetti of the Paganetti and Underhill podcast.
As a result, the opposing team’s kickers were left seeing four different poles in their view before their attempts.
Paganetti, who has worked in the analytics departments for the Eagles, Jaguars and Raiders, shared a lengthy investigation featuring multiple screenshots of kickers lining up their attempts in front of the jumbotron at Gillette Stadium on social media.
‘I went through more than a decade of TV broadcasts and uncovered a diabolically clever piece of Patriots gamesmanship,’ he wrote on X.
Bill Belichick reportedly used ingenius tactics during his New England Patriots tenure
Belichick reportedly utilized the scoreboard at Gillette Stadium to fool opposing kickers
He analyzed decades of Patriots games to provide the photographic evidence of the franchise’s mind games.
‘When opposing kickers lined up at Gillette Stadium, the video board displayed a reverse view of the kick, placing a second, offset set of yellow uprights directly behind the real ones,’ Paganetti tweeted.
‘In windy conditions, even the orange streamers on the video board appeared to point in the opposite direction from those atop the physical uprights, making the illusion even more disorienting. I found dozens of examples.’
One of the screenshots he shared came from the AFC Championship game in 2012 when Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard attempt that sealed the Patriots’ win over the Baltimore Ravens and booked their spot in the Super Bowl.
Paganetti said on the Paganetti and Underhill podcast that he reviewed kicks from roughly 2012-20, and detailed that it was easier to execute on one side of the field since the jumbotron was directly behind the bars.
‘They legitimately did it every single chance that they could,’ he said on the podcast. ‘They consistently did this over and over again. … It legitimately looked like there were four uprights across.
‘If you quickly looked at it as a kicker, it would almost certainly cause some level of hesitation because it looked so weird.’
Of course, Belichick’s tactics never affected his own players. Over the 52 field goal attempts for the Patriots that Paganetti reviewed, he said that the extra bars were never displayed on the screen when the New England kicker lined up.
Rival kickers were left seeing four different poles in their view before their attempts
‘It is the perfect encapsulation of the Patriots dynasty,’ Paganetti posted to X. ‘No detail was too small, and no possible edge was left unexplored.’
However, the Patriots weren’t the only culprits to try to fool their opponents. Paganetti revealed that the Philadelphia Eagles also attempted the trick – but couldn’t execute the same effect.
‘We actually tried copying the idea when I was in Philadelphia, but the location of the video boards at Lincoln Financial Field made it nearly useless,’ he wrote.
He added on the podcast that the tactic ‘perfectly represents how anyone who is playing the Patriots always just had to think about every little nuance.’
Belichick, who is heading into his second season in charge of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, was renowned for trying to give his team any edge.
His ‘win at all costs’ mentality and reputation sparked scrutiny around the league and even triggered multiple official NFL investigations.
Belick led Tom Brady and the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories in 23 seasons with the team
The most infamous tactical scandal occurred when a Patriots video assistant was caught illegally videotaping the defensive signals of the New York Jets coaching staff from the sidelines in 2007.
Belichick was slapped with a $500,000 fine, while the Patriots were also fined $250,000 and stripped the team of their 2008 first-round draft pick.
Several years later, the Patriots were engulfed in yet more controversy when, ahead of the 2014 AFC Championship Game, the Patriots were accused of intentionally under-inflating footballs below the league-mandated minimum to make them easier to grip.
Quarterback Tom Brady found himself at the center of the majority of the scrutiny and was handed a four-game ban, while the franchise was fined $1 million and docked two more draft picks.