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http://the-x-factor.website/tyoka-jacksons-six-year-burn-ignites/
“I’m angry. I’ve been feeling this way for about six years now. I’ve been this way for a long time, but I’ve just been controlling my anger.” Former St Louis Rams defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson’s words are not mixed, and they’ve been basted with a billious venom that’s been marinating since the Rams lost Super Bowl 36 against the Patriots at the conclusion of the 2001 NFL season.
Jackson was a guest on The Press Box with Frank Cusumano today, and he had plenty to get off of his chest in light of the story released by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham today on ESPN. Said Jackson, “If it’s little cheats like Deflate-gate, or HUGE cheats like Spy-gate, or the cheats we don’t yet know about, there seems to be a pattern here that they will do what it takes to get an illegal advantage against the team they’re playing against.” While this is a somewhat obvious conclusion to the casual observer, it has a different and more profound meaning to Tyoka Jackson; as he added, “I certainly don’t think Tom Brady is the greatest QB who ever lived anymore, and I DEFINITELY don’t think Bill Belichick is the greatest coach who ever lived. He’s certainly a great coach, but he’s also a cheating coach. And for me, that knocks them down the rung.”
To achieve the ability to play football at the highest level in the world, it takes hard work, dedication, sacrifice, blood, sweat, tears, and recognizable talent. Nearly 1700 players a week suit up to put their bodies on the line, and every single one of them does so knowing full well that it could be the last game of their respective careers. But to men like Jackson and the members of the 2001 St Louis Rams, it’s a price they’re more than willing to pay. Professional football is a sport of controlled violence coupled with strategic planning and reliance upon surgical execution. And there was no team more surgical than the Mike Martz-led 2001 St Louis Rams. For the third straight year (1999-2001), the Rams scored over 500 points on offense; averaging just over 31 points per game, and ranking first in the league in points scored.
But somehow that precision was stymied in Super Bowl 36 by a team that, earlier in the year, gave up 482 yards of total offense to the Rams. The 2001 Patriots team was certainly no slouch, as they ranked 6th in points allowed while ranking 6th in points scored, but one has to wonder just how legitimate those rankings are now. Tyoka Jackson clearly has his reservations as well, saying: “We shifted into this play we had never run before, a play nobody has ever seen, and the Patriots check into the perfect defense to take away the play.” Then Jackson further explained how making such adjustments is easy when you have the gift of foresight. “Just imagine if you had an idea 50-75% of the time what the opposing team was running. Now you can just go out and play with that extra step and confidence because you know what’s coming.” In real time, and on the outside looking in, those kinds of in-game adjustments simply look like good coaching; but upon further scrutiny, it certainly seems now that the Patriots had one additional scout who played a very important role in their success.
“Remember they had a guy whose express written job was to film the other guy’s signals, and then they would just compare the signals to the plays after the game was over, and you got it.”, Jackson said. He’s obviously referencing the 2007 NFL season wherein the Patriots were discovered taping the New York Jets signals on the sideline, from their own sidelines, and were subsequently fined the league maximum and docked their first round draft pick. While that incident occurred six years after Super Bowl 36, it’s fair to say that everything the Patriots have done for years prior can legitimately be called into question. And this is further confirmed today by the report published at ESPN alleging at least 6 years of improprieties starting in 2001.
That “little birdie” caused a lot of damage. And for Tyoka, that damage is widespread. “The Aeneas Williams’ of the world … and other guys like Chidi Ahanotu who SHOULD have a ring on their finger … it was stolen from them. It’s my teammates I think about. And myself — what a great dream for a marginal athlete who worked his butt off to become an NFL player and had the chance to be at the top of the mountain …. and who thought we lost fair and square … well it turns out we probably didn’t.” And he’s probably right. Now that we know the Patriots Organization has used nefarious means to gain an unfair advantage to defeat the Rams in Super Bowl 36, a great many men who could have capped off stellar careers with a Championship ring are now left with nothing but regret and anger over having been cheated out of their ultimate prize. Meanwhile the Patriots parlayed their ill-gotten gains into multiple Championships by stepping on the backs of players and coaches who honored, and continue to honor, the integrity of the game.
For Tyoka Jackson, these arbitrary investigations and punishments doled out by the league (and subsequently overturned in court) for scandals like Spy-gate and the recently botched Deflate-gate, offer little solace. Even if the Patriots are discovered to have blatantly cheated their way through all of their Super Bowl wins, no amount of repercussions levied onto them will turn his NFC Title Ring into a Super Bowl Championship Ring. But that won’t keep him from telling his story to all who will listen from now until the end of his days. “I wear this losing ring all the time because it sparks conversation, and I don’t want anyone to forget what happened to us and what the Patriots did.”
As stories like Tyoka’s start flooding the internet on the heels of this ESPN story, many Rams fans will feel their wounds picked open again. But it’s important to not lose sight of the bigger picture. The NFL is now at war with the New England Patriots, and their allies are assembling. When Bill Belichick’s legacy is forever ruined by mountains of evidence damning his cheating ways, both new and soon discovered, it will be HIS ultimate prize that will be forever out of reach.
Because Canton Ohio has no room for cheaters.
“I’m angry. I’ve been feeling this way for about six years now. I’ve been this way for a long time, but I’ve just been controlling my anger.” Former St Louis Rams defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson’s words are not mixed, and they’ve been basted with a billious venom that’s been marinating since the Rams lost Super Bowl 36 against the Patriots at the conclusion of the 2001 NFL season.
Jackson was a guest on The Press Box with Frank Cusumano today, and he had plenty to get off of his chest in light of the story released by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham today on ESPN. Said Jackson, “If it’s little cheats like Deflate-gate, or HUGE cheats like Spy-gate, or the cheats we don’t yet know about, there seems to be a pattern here that they will do what it takes to get an illegal advantage against the team they’re playing against.” While this is a somewhat obvious conclusion to the casual observer, it has a different and more profound meaning to Tyoka Jackson; as he added, “I certainly don’t think Tom Brady is the greatest QB who ever lived anymore, and I DEFINITELY don’t think Bill Belichick is the greatest coach who ever lived. He’s certainly a great coach, but he’s also a cheating coach. And for me, that knocks them down the rung.”
To achieve the ability to play football at the highest level in the world, it takes hard work, dedication, sacrifice, blood, sweat, tears, and recognizable talent. Nearly 1700 players a week suit up to put their bodies on the line, and every single one of them does so knowing full well that it could be the last game of their respective careers. But to men like Jackson and the members of the 2001 St Louis Rams, it’s a price they’re more than willing to pay. Professional football is a sport of controlled violence coupled with strategic planning and reliance upon surgical execution. And there was no team more surgical than the Mike Martz-led 2001 St Louis Rams. For the third straight year (1999-2001), the Rams scored over 500 points on offense; averaging just over 31 points per game, and ranking first in the league in points scored.
But somehow that precision was stymied in Super Bowl 36 by a team that, earlier in the year, gave up 482 yards of total offense to the Rams. The 2001 Patriots team was certainly no slouch, as they ranked 6th in points allowed while ranking 6th in points scored, but one has to wonder just how legitimate those rankings are now. Tyoka Jackson clearly has his reservations as well, saying: “We shifted into this play we had never run before, a play nobody has ever seen, and the Patriots check into the perfect defense to take away the play.” Then Jackson further explained how making such adjustments is easy when you have the gift of foresight. “Just imagine if you had an idea 50-75% of the time what the opposing team was running. Now you can just go out and play with that extra step and confidence because you know what’s coming.” In real time, and on the outside looking in, those kinds of in-game adjustments simply look like good coaching; but upon further scrutiny, it certainly seems now that the Patriots had one additional scout who played a very important role in their success.
“Remember they had a guy whose express written job was to film the other guy’s signals, and then they would just compare the signals to the plays after the game was over, and you got it.”, Jackson said. He’s obviously referencing the 2007 NFL season wherein the Patriots were discovered taping the New York Jets signals on the sideline, from their own sidelines, and were subsequently fined the league maximum and docked their first round draft pick. While that incident occurred six years after Super Bowl 36, it’s fair to say that everything the Patriots have done for years prior can legitimately be called into question. And this is further confirmed today by the report published at ESPN alleging at least 6 years of improprieties starting in 2001.
The Patriots’ game plan had called for a defender to hit Faulk on every down, as a means of eliminating him, but one coach who worked with an assistant on that 2001 Patriots team says that the ex-Pats assistant coach once bragged that New England knew exactly what the Rams would call in the red zone. “He’d say, ‘A little birdie told us,'” the coach says now.
That “little birdie” caused a lot of damage. And for Tyoka, that damage is widespread. “The Aeneas Williams’ of the world … and other guys like Chidi Ahanotu who SHOULD have a ring on their finger … it was stolen from them. It’s my teammates I think about. And myself — what a great dream for a marginal athlete who worked his butt off to become an NFL player and had the chance to be at the top of the mountain …. and who thought we lost fair and square … well it turns out we probably didn’t.” And he’s probably right. Now that we know the Patriots Organization has used nefarious means to gain an unfair advantage to defeat the Rams in Super Bowl 36, a great many men who could have capped off stellar careers with a Championship ring are now left with nothing but regret and anger over having been cheated out of their ultimate prize. Meanwhile the Patriots parlayed their ill-gotten gains into multiple Championships by stepping on the backs of players and coaches who honored, and continue to honor, the integrity of the game.
For Tyoka Jackson, these arbitrary investigations and punishments doled out by the league (and subsequently overturned in court) for scandals like Spy-gate and the recently botched Deflate-gate, offer little solace. Even if the Patriots are discovered to have blatantly cheated their way through all of their Super Bowl wins, no amount of repercussions levied onto them will turn his NFC Title Ring into a Super Bowl Championship Ring. But that won’t keep him from telling his story to all who will listen from now until the end of his days. “I wear this losing ring all the time because it sparks conversation, and I don’t want anyone to forget what happened to us and what the Patriots did.”
As stories like Tyoka’s start flooding the internet on the heels of this ESPN story, many Rams fans will feel their wounds picked open again. But it’s important to not lose sight of the bigger picture. The NFL is now at war with the New England Patriots, and their allies are assembling. When Bill Belichick’s legacy is forever ruined by mountains of evidence damning his cheating ways, both new and soon discovered, it will be HIS ultimate prize that will be forever out of reach.
Because Canton Ohio has no room for cheaters.
