Three of the five biggest on-field controversies in NFL history belong to one franchise. That is the real takeaway from PFSN’s Hot List, as analyst Jacob Infante ranked the moments that bent games, seasons and dynasties, and it is not close.
How the Patriots Dynasty Turned Controversy Into a Pattern
Infante saw it coming. “You’re gonna see a lot of the Patriots on here,” he said early in the countdown. “Sorry to all the Patriots fans out there.” New England shows up at No. 4, No. 2 and No. 1, and the throughline is a dynasty that kept winning while the asterisks piled up.
Start where the run started. Infante’s No. 4 is the Tuck Rule game, the snowy January 2002 divisional-round meeting with the Raiders. Oakland led 13-10 late when Charles Woodson knocked the ball loose from Tom Brady, and the recovered fumble that should have ended the game was reversed into an incomplete pass. The Patriots tied it, won in overtime and marched to the first Super Bowl of the Brady-Belichick era.
“It’s crazy to think that dynasty started on such a controversial play,” Infante said.
The middle of the list is where intent gets harder to explain away. Infante’s No. 2 is Spygate. In Week 1 of 2007, the Patriots were caught videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals from an unauthorized spot, and the league stripped their 2008 first-round pick. What makes it sting is the team doing the filming.
That 2007 offense scored 36.8 points per game, allowed the fourth-fewest points in the league, and produced Brady’s 50-touchdown MVP season. PFSN’s metrics grade its offensive impact at 99.5, the highest mark in the database. A team that good did not need the edge, which is exactly why the scandal lingers. “They caught them for their act,” Infante said. “It’s just unfortunate the way it all went down.”
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Then there is No. 1. Deflategate.
Why Deflategate Still Sits at the Top of the List
The setup is familiar by now. In the January 2015 AFC Championship game, the Patriots blew out the Colts 45-7. D’Qwell Jackson intercepted Brady and noticed the footballs New England used on offense came in underinflated.
The league suspended Brady four games, a penalty he finally served to open the 2016 season after the appeals ran out, and took a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 fourth-rounder along with a $1 million fine. New England won the Super Bowl anyway. “Another asterisk,” Infante said, “going into that incredible dynasty that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick had.”
The two non-Patriots entries round out the picture, and both cut deeper than air pressure. Infante’s No. 3 is Bountygate, the Saints’ pay-for-injury program under coordinator Gregg Williams that put a target on Brett Favre in the 2009 NFC title game and cost Sean Payton the entire 2012 season.
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At No. 5 sit the 2012 replacement referees, whose brief run ended with the Fail Mary, Golden Tate’s uncalled shove and a touchdown that turned a Packers win into a Seahawks one. The regulars were back by Week 4.
Put the five together and a bigger argument surfaces. The controversies did not slow the defining dynasty of the century. They grew up right beside it. Infante’s list does not accuse anyone of anything. It counts. And the count keeps coming back to New England.
