Reuters

Karlos Dansby said in an appearance on PFT Live this week that he suspected the Patriots of wrongdoing in 2008, when the Cardinals visited New England and had trouble with their coach-to-helmet communications system. Dansby wasn’t the first to make such a claim against the Patriots.

After the Jaguars lost to the Patriots in the playoffs following the 2005 season, then-Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio said the headsets “mysteriously malfunctioned.”

In 2007, Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated reported that in a 2006 Lions-Patriots game in New England, then-Lions offensive coordinator Mike Martz had Detroit’s offense off to a good start until he lost the ability to call plays because the communications system went out. According to that report, it happened to the Lions twice, both times in the middle of drives when the Lions were picking up steam.

Zimmerman’s report also quoted Bengals coach Marvin Lewis as saying the same thing that happened to the Lions had happened to the Bengals as well: “Yeah, I know,” Lewis said. “Headset went out. It happened to me in Foxboro, too.”

The NFL has never substantiated any such accusations against the Patriots. Spygate and Deflategate, however, have cast a long shadow over the franchise, and opened the Patriots up to charges that those weren’t the only times they cheated. Just the only times they got caught.