December 18, 2011; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams player and Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk speaks to the crowd as he is honored with a hall of fame ring and his name is added to the wall of fame during half time of a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at the Edward Jones Dome. Cincinnati defeated St. Louis Rams 20-13. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

The last time the Super Bowl was in New Orleans was 11 years ago at Super Bowl XXXVI and it had the St. Louis Rams taking on the New England Patriots. The Patriots eventually went on to win their first of 3 Super Bowls behind some kid named Tom Brady and a leg belonging to Adam Vinatieri, who put a game winning field goal through the uprights.

But later in time we found out that the New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick videotaped opposing teams practices and walk throughs. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell punished the Patriots for that incident, involving the New York Jets, and has maintained that there is no evidence they did this before the Super Bowl.

Marshall Faulk thinks they cheated and stole a ring from him and his Rams teammates.

“All of my memories about playing the game is all good feelings,” Faulk said in an interview with Tom Curran. “I only remember the Super Bowl I won in Atlanta (after the 1999 season). I couldn’t even conjure up the feelings of what I felt after the game (against the Patriots). I’m sure I was heartbroken and maybe a little upset but when you talk Super Bowl, all of my feelings go directly to winning.”

It was brought up that he has an “anti-Patriots” reuptation in his role on NFL Network as an analyst, some call it bitterness.

“They misunderstand,” Faulk corrected. “Am I over the loss? Yeah, I’m over the loss. But I’ll never be over being cheated out of the Super Bowl. That’s a different story. I can understand losing a Super Bowl, that’s fine . . . But how things happened and what took place. Obviously, the commissioner gets to handle things how he wants to handle them but if they wanted us to shut up about what happened, show us the tapes. Don’t burn ‘em.”

Goodell destroyed the tapes after reviewing them and passing down sanctions on the Patriots organization.

“Obviously, the commissioner gets to handle things how he wants to handle them but if they wanted us to shut up about what happened, show us the tapes. Don’t burn ‘em,” Faulk said.

Seems fair enough, and certainly if it were true he wouldn’t want to deal with an NCAA like situation where you vacate bowl wins. If the Rams were cheated what would Goodell do? Revoke a Super Bowl win? What a mess that’d be, I’d burn the tapes punish them for regular season games they taped and maintain that they didn’t do it before that Super Bowl as well.

Faulk though says the proof is in pudding or the game tape.

“I know, in that game, in the red zone, the plays we ran, most of them we hadn’t ran most of those plays that year,” Faulk noted. “And a couple of plays on third down that we walked through also . . .  Any time that I was offset, I was always stationary. And we had creating motioning in the backfield at the same depth on the other side of the field. And they created a check for it. It’s just little things like that. It’s either the best coaching in the world when you come up with situations that you had never seen before. Or you’d seen it and knew what to do.”

Dec 16, 2012; Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick on the side line during the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Gillette Stadium. The San Francisco 49ers won 41-34. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Many fans of sports teams look to their record against previous opponents as a sort of comfort of false confidence when facing that same opponent in the playoffs. The reality is that might almost hurt your chances of beating a team you’ve already played in the regular season.

Bill Belichick is echoing that sentiment in a quote provided by the Boston Herald, calling their previous victory over the Houston Texans meaningless essentially.

“I think when you play a team twice during the season, the games are totally different,” Belichick said. “They never go the same way. We’ll be able to certainly look at some of the matchups individually, guys that faced each [other] in the game. As far as plays and calls and things like that matching up, I’m sure they’ll have some new wrinkles. I’m sure we’ll have some, too.”

When the Texans made their first trip to New England they were a hot 11-1 and favored to finish with the top seed in the AFC. New England handed them an embarrassing 42-14 loss that was the beginning of a 1-3 skid to finish the season. That skid cost the Texans a first round bye and had them playing in the Wild Card round this past weekend against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I think there’s certainly a lesson there about the game that we play now doesn’t have much to do with the game we played before,” Belichick said. “It’s another example of that. We’ve talked about that many, many times here, before and after the 2010 season. I don’t think it’s anything that wasn’t mentioned until that situation occurred, but it’s an example we can point out.”

The Texans just squeaked by and are looking to build upon that victory by having a more successful trip to New England. The Patriots are aware that they are facing a different team. Like Ray Lewis said in his speech to the Stanford men’s basketball team in the NIT tournament last year, “I’m a different creature then I was yesterday.”

Belichick echoes that sentiment.

“We talked about that many times before, how other games don’t have anything to do with this game,” Belichick said. “It stands on its own. That is and always will be the case.”

Aug 20, 2012; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick (left) argues with a referee during the first half of a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-US PRESSWIRE

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will be fined for making contact with a referee this weekend. The NFL has a strict “hands off” rule when it comes to the officials and it almost always results in a fine.

After Baltimore kicked a field goal to win the game against the Patriots Belichick wanted to know why exactly the play wasn’t being reviewed by the officials. The referee who most likely didn’t want to make eye contact with an angry Belichick, and who would, gave him the cold shoulder. So Belichick grabbed the officials elbow in an effort to get his attention and confront him.

“I’m trying to get an explanation for obviously an important call, play, in that game,” Belichick claims.  “That’s the number one thing between coaches and officials.  It’s always at the forefront.  It’s just communication of what’s going on, of what’s happening.”

There is a precedent for this, in 2009 Brandon Stokley was ejected and fined $25,000 for unintentionally touching a referee while disputing a call. That same season Tony Stewart was also ejected and fined $25,000 for touching an official.

So given the league wide warnings regarding how to handle and criticize the replacement referees you can expect the minimum Belichick would be fined to be that $25,000 figure. But if Kyle Shannahan gets a $25,000 fine for berating a ref in the tunnel, you’d have to think Belichick’s fine would be higher for actually making contact.

“I have never meant any disrespect or in any way tried to abuse or be disrespectful to the officials and the job that they do,” Belichick said.

Feb 1, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Dallas Cowboys former receiver Michael Irvin is interviewed on radio row prior to Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin has always been outspoken. He is a three-time Super Bowl champion and knows what it takes to be at the top of the NFL world. Because Irvin knows of the struggles, he has been very impressed with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

Irvin has been so impressed with Belichick that he believes the NFL should add “The Hoody’s” name to the Lombardi Trophy.

“I think the world of Belichick,” Irvin told the Boston Herald. “I told him this, ‘Man, if it was up to me, that trophy would be called the Lombardi/Belichick.’ I don’t care what they think. It would be called the Lombardi/Belichick. That’s how good he is to do what he’s doing in this day and age, what the league is now. I would call it the Lombardi/Belichick.”

Perhaps Irvin was just praising Belichick because he was speaking with the Boston Herald. There are many coaches in NFL history that have won as many, if not more, Super Bowls than Belichick and you don’t want to add all of their names to the trophy. As ProFootballTalk.com pointed out, we don’t want to have a “Lombardi/Belichick/ Noll/Walsh/ Gibbs/Johnson/ Coughlin/Shanahan/ Landry/Shula Trophy.”

It’s just safe to stick with tradition and let the Lombardi Trophy remain.

October 9, 2011; Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA; New England Patriots linebacker Jermaine Cunningham (96) during warm-ups before the game against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

Today, Mike Rodak wrote the “Bubble Watch” article on New England Patriots outside linebacker Jermaine Cunningham, who is coming off of a disappointing year and is a former second round selection in the 2010 NFL Draft. He recorded just one tackle this past season before being put on the injured reserve, and Rodak gave Cunningham just a 35% chance of making the roster.

Jermaine Cunningham may have been poor last season, but he deserved a roster spot based on what he did in his rookie year when he had sufficient snaps. Cunningham was one of the best outside linebackers in the 2010 draft class, with he and Koa Misi being in that argument. He did not finish mini camp due to an injury, but head coach Bill Belichick really liked what he saw from Cunningham during the offseason.

I liked what I saw from the DE/LB, but it was more of a potential based thing. He wasn’t as good as Misi in his rookie year, and, to be blunt, it was a weak OLB class overall. But still, Jermaine Cunningham did an excellent job getting pressure and pressured the quarterback just over 10% of every pass rush, which is a very high rate.

The 24-year-old former Florida Gators star is heading into his crucial third year in th league, and this is when players make that jump; it’s true. Just look at guys like Josh Freeman and countless other examples in the league. Jermaine Cunningham has shown a great amount of potential as a potential two-way OLB with his promising pass rushing ability and solid run defense. He solidifies the Patriots in the 3-4 by controlling the gaps.

It is true that Cunningham is an inconsistent pass rusher, but the Patriots haven’t exactly given him enough chances to prove himself and develop. Last season is a poor indicator of his ability, because he rarely played and didn’t have a chance to build on what he did as a rookie. One problem is that he played worse towards the end of the 2010 season, but Belichick and others have noticed an improvement in the offseason before he got injured.

At this point, Cunningham looks like a young hybrid DE/OLB who has talent and potential that can be untapped if given the right amount of playing time next season. The question shouldn’t be whether or not he makes the roster, it should be whether or not he starts. While that isn’t likely, Jermaine Cunningham deserves a significant role as a backup on a defense that likes to switch it’s packages in major and minor ways; there is no true base package. That’s not a bad thing for Cunningham, because he is a versatile defensive player, which can be seen in his pass rushing and run stopping ability as well as his ability to play at end in a 4-3 and OLB in a 3-4.

He’s had to learn one of the most complex defenses in the NFL on the fly, and it changed again last season after his rookie year. It was in a lockout shortened year, no less.

The bottom line is that Jermaine Cunningham has the upside to be a successful starting 3-4 OLB (or 4-3 DE) in the NFL, and keeping him is the obvious decision. It’s time to see what he can do in his third year, and the Patriots need to keep him to find out if Cunningham can make the jump. It would be a shame to drop a second-rounder who had one bad season after a quality rookie year, because you don’t want to release a solid player after bringing him on board and missing out.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.

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For more on Jermaine Cunningham and the New England Patriots, check out Musket Fire.

Before the days of the raggedy hoody and headset, Bill Belichick was a Starter jacket model. Yes, you read that correctly.

When he was coaching the Cleveland Browns, Belichick was the pitchman for Starter and those oh-so-popular jackets in the 90′s. Move over Tom Brady and UGGs, Belichick is back with this blast from the past. You have to see Belichick in his Cleveland Browns/Starter jacket glory. This is too good to miss.

Kaufmann's Starter jacket ad. (HT: Deadspin.com)

What do you think of the young Belichick showing off his modeling skills? Does Tom Brady have something to be worried about? Leave some feedback in the comments section. At the very least, make fun of Belichick and those god-awful Starter jackets.

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Current New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is no stranger to controversy, so he is perhaps better equipped to deal with this new distraction than any other head coach in the NFL. Belichick is now facing claims that when he was with the Cleveland Browns he payed players to start fights.

One player in particular, former practice squad defensive lineman Chad Eaton, explains that Belichick would give him extra money to start fights during practice.

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Mark Sanchez and the Jets had a rought Monday night.

Well, that’s certainly not what anyone expected.

As I sat down to enjoy what I thought was going to be a very good game, I found myself rather bored after the first quarter. I assume the game was much more enjoyable for the people of New England, but for those of us looking for a good game, we were left looking forward to Thursday and Week 14.

New England flew out to a 17-0 lead and never looked back. When all was said and done, they had shellacked the Jets 45-3 and turned talks of AFC East superiority on its head.

Despite a young and mostly unimpressive defense for most of the year, and an offense lacking any real weapons outside of the quarterback, the Patriots continue to get it done and are playing like one of the best teams in the league.

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