Thursday night’s season-opener against the Steelers presented an interesting problem for both teams, as there was issue with their equipment for most of the evening when it came to communication.
According to reports, the teams were having issues with their headsets as they pertained to trying to communicate between the coaches and getting the plays relayed into the players. It was a frustrating issue and Bill Belichick talked about it after the game and apparently this has been an ongoing problem.
“It did, yeah,” when asked if the issue caused problems for them. “We had a lot of problems. We had to switch headphones a couple times, the communication system wasn’t, you know, very good. I mean, we deal with that, seems like, weekly.”
Apparently things got so bad at one point that they were even thinking of forcing both teams to potentially live without them.
“They told us they were on the verge of shutting it off but then I guess they got it working,” said Belichick. “So I don’t know, but it was a problem the whole game. We almost had to switch helmets with [Tom] Brady there at the end, couldn’t get the plays into him. So it was a problem all night.”
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said after the game they had the local Patriots broadcast in their headset overtaking the coach-to-coach communciation, and insinuated that this is a problem every time they come here.
“We were listening to the Patriots’ radio broadcast for the majority of the first half on our headsets,” said Tomlin. When asked, if he was saying it’s a problem every time they play there, Tomlin replied, “I said what I said.”
However, the league issued a statement after the game regarding the problem and said an electrical issue and weather were the issue, not any type of controversy.
“In the first quarter of tonight’s game, the Pittsburgh coaches experienced interference in their headsets caused by a stadium power infrastructure issue, which was exacerbated by the inclement weather. The coaches’ communications equipment, including the headsets, is provided by the NFL for both clubs use on game day. Once the power issue was addressed, the equipment functioned properly with no additional issues.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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