An interesting New York Times story surfaced nine years after original publication that some in the sports gossip world found searching for topics regarding the Spygate controversy that's questioning the legitimacy of the Patriots success this decade. Since the sports community continues an affliction of paranoia with the assistance of bored Congressional Committees and Senators, more stories are, and will, spin-off, their originals. And pieces that were once back-page stories that didn't, at the time, cause people to even react, are finding homes in the modern world of controversial sports stories.
That's expected.
In 1999, Gene Upshaw believed that a quarter of the NFL had secret cameras and/or listening devices in lockerrooms to increase player security. Upshaw even specifically brought up Cincinnati.
''When I'm in Cincinnati, I know Owner Mike Brown is listening. I don't want to say how I know, but I know. But when it comes to this issue of cameras around the players, it's not a big deal to me, because they are there for the security of our players, and obviously the safety of the players is a primary concern for me.''
It's really a non-issue that was brought up by a certain insider site that's looking for more and more degrading information against the Patriots -- or the league as a whole -- in the attempt to single-handily improve the image and integrity of the NFL.
The Bengals denied eavesdropping. I'm not sure if the issue was really dealt with after this piece went into the archives since the article's focus was mostly an issue of privacy and not a competitive advantage. I'm sure devices were -- and perhaps still are -- installed the visitor's lockerroom that would, like general Spygate, cause an uproar that the team is cheating if the piece was originally published today. I doubt that very much and the issue of security, with the age of lawsuit happy folks, isn't just valid, but a practice that many use today. And I'd actually be shocked if all NFL teams didn't install security devices in lockerrooms since this story surfaced nine years ago.
Hell, all you have to do is look at the Bengals track record to know they're not cheating. If they were, then, like many front office choices, they bombed at that too.