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It's well-known that the rivalry between the Colts and Patriots goes back further than just the deflategate saga that is ongoing. The Patriots had previously been caught cheating in 2007, but reports have suggested that's not the only time the Colts have thought the Patriots cheated.
Former Colts head coach Tony Dungy appeared on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday and revealed that former Colts quarterback Peyton Manning thought the Patriots had bugged the visitor's locker room and wouldn't discuss much strategy there.
"I know that that is very true," Dungy said, confirming the rumor (per Pro Football Talk), "and, you know, as Peyton talked to guys who played for the Patriots, some of the guys who came over — whether it's true or not he treated it as true. We didn't have a lot of strategy discussions inside the locker room there." He added that, whether or not the Patriots actually did cheat, "Peyton takes everything to the nth degree."
Dungy also said, according to ESPN, that, "We had a few ex-Patriots that said you better be careful what you do in the locker room and what you say and that kind of thing." To be clear, Dungy didn't accuse the Patriots of cheating nor did he say they weren't cheating, but he simply told about what the Colts did in the locker room, thanks to Peyton Manning not wanting to take any chances. Everybody in the league is always looking to gain an advantage and, at the same time, not to give the opponent an advantage - something he clarified in a tweet later.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Concerning my comments on <a href="https://twitter.com/dpshow">@dpshow</a> --Relax people. Same discussions had about Colts piping in crowd noise and turning up heat in the dome.</p>— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyDungy/status/634395138979155968">August 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
So while Patriots fans will surely get upset at Dungy for accusing them of cheating, that's misguided. Rather, he was simply telling of what went on in the Colts locker room. Whether they needed to be so careful or not, the reality is that the Colts and Manning didn't trust the Patriots enough to talk strategy in the locker room because of the fear that it was bugged.