So with the Super Bowl XLII rematch looming for this weekend it was really oddly coincidental that I would end up having a very interesting conversation last night. What started as a discussion on parabolic microphones turned into a very curious piece of news. It started out of nowhere with the line:
“Belichick blames me for losing Super Bowl XLII, and that’s not an exaggeration.”
The individual I was speaking with was an audio engineer working for FOX during Super Bowl XLII in Pheonix. And from hearing the friendly tone of his voice dip to a deep rooted irritation (like recalling a spelling bee you lost in 5th grade because your teacher insisted “chrysanthemum” was spelled with a “k”) I could tell he wasn’t joking. At all. It had come up in a discussion about not pointing the mic at coaches on the sidelines. He had obviously had to touch on this issue many times before, and still it grazed a nerve. “Whatever, cheaters are always going to be cheaters,” he gruffed abruptly, having to take a breath for a second afterwards to return to his normal friendly professional demeanor.
The issue with Belichick, apparently, stemmed from a floating mechanically controlled parabolic mic used to record pre-play audio over the huddles for the broadcast. Parabolic mics, also known in layman’s terms as “that flyin saucer thing, khed” are the mics you see on the sidelines of football games. You usually only notice them then the mic op gets run over. The overhead mics are nothing new even for the 07-08 Super Bowl. Networks had been using them during regular season games. Following the season however Belichick, along with several other coaches, complained heavily to the league about the floating parabolics. So heavily in fact that the mic was actually banned for several games at the start of the 2008 season. The networks eventually won back the rights to use the mics, but with some restrictions.
But there was still that whole “costing Belichick the Super Bowl” business issue. And that was the real eye opener here. The rumor, as I understand it, was that Belichick claimed the chatter from the huddle was being monitored, possibly by Giants personnel, possibly by others, for the purpose of figuring out the Patriots playcalling in Super Bowl XLII. Let that one sink in for a second.
