{"id":943450,"date":"2026-07-12T10:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943450\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:15:32","slug":"james-harrison-claims-patriots-stole-super-bowl-from-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943450\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harrison Claims Patriots Stole Super Bowl From Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SteelersPITTSBURGH, PA – DECEMBER 10: Pittsburgh Steelers Linebacker James Harrison (92) looks on during the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 10, 2017 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa. (Photo by Mark Alberti\/ Icon Sportswire)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison<\/a> thinks the New England Patriots stole at least one Super Bowl from the Steelers due to \u201cSpygate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a little [finagling] over there,\u201d Harrison said on his Deebo & Joe<\/a> podcast. \u201cThat one year [2004], the year that we was [15-1], we popped them and Philly back-to-back, and then they came to the AFC Championship Game. Bruh, when I say they caught us, they only missed one blitz. What in the world, Joe? How many times in your career have you ever seen where an offense get ya\u2019ll on every blitz you do but one?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026That\u2019s like playing Tecmo Bowl, and I get your play. It\u2019s over with. \u2026I was like, \u2018Yeah, we about to get to the Super Bowl.\u2019 And we at home. We were at the crib. That was upsetting and disappointing. That should have been a back-to-back because the next year we won.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers lost to the New England Patriots, 24-17, in the AFC Championship Game in the 2001-2002 season. The first of the Steelers\u2019 two losses to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game during Spygate, the other coming in 2004.<\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s co-host, Joe Haden, a former Steelers cornerback, told Harrison the Patriots \u201cstole a two-piece\u201d from Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Harrison wasn\u2019t on the team in 2001, but he believes they got robbed in 2004 at least. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey stole a one-piece at least,\u201d Harrison said.<\/p>\n

\"FormerDETROIT, MI \u2013 OCTOBER 29: Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison (92) runs off of the field at the conclusion of the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions on October 29, 2017 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Scott W. Grau\/Icon Sportswire)<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, former Penn State offensive lineman Landon Tengwall shared a story<\/a> on X regarding Spygate from his father-in-law, Kenny Jackson, who was the Steelers wide receivers coach from 2001-2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father-in-law always talks about Spygate. He was the Wide Receivers coach for the Steelers in 2002, the year they lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game,\u201d Tengwall wrote. \u201cHe told me he took the game film to Hawaii with him (the staff that lost the conference championship coached their conference in the Pro Bowl) and locked himself in his room to review it obsessively. He couldn\u2019t figure out why it seemed like the Patriots knew exactly what the Steelers were doing on offense, and said it drove him nuts. Needless to say, he felt vindicated when the Spygate news broke. To quote, \u2018Those cheating sons of bitches.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spygate scandal was at the center of former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick<\/a> not being a first-ballot Hall of Famer<\/a>. Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.<\/p>\n

Many were shocked and outraged over Belichick being snubbed. Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson wrote on X<\/a>, \u201cI would like to know the names of the assholes who did not vote for him..they are too cowardly to identify themselves\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Spygate and Deflategate are speculated as the main factors to keeping Belichick out of the Hall in his first year of eligibility.<\/p>\n

Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher<\/a> came up short against Belichick\u2019s Patriots in the 2001 and 2004 AFC Championship Game. Despite Spygate, Cowher has always defended Belichick.<\/p>\n

While many former Steelers players disagree, Cowher thinks the Patriots just out-played the Steelers in the AFC Championship Games. Former Steelers outside linebacker Joey Porter Sr. famously said after the game<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s like they knew exactly what we were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only cheating if you get caught,\u201d Cowher told The Athletic\u2019s Ed Bouchette in 2021<\/a>. \u201cLike any player, if you\u2019re going to hold him, don\u2019t get caught. If you get caught you\u2019re wrong, if you don\u2019t you\u2019re right. I always thought we never lost the games to New England because of Spygate. If he got the calls because we didn\u2019t do a very good job of making sure we signaled those in, that\u2019s on us, it\u2019s not on him. Because we\u2019re always looking for competitive edges. I think as any coach whether it\u2019s someone\u2019s stance, someone\u2019s split, someone\u2019s formation. You\u2019re looking at someone\u2019s eyes, how are they coming out of a huddle? You\u2019re always looking for those little things that give you a competitive edge and that to me is what that was.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mutual respect goes both ways. Belichick praised Cowher when he got inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021 as a member of the Class of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill had a tremendous NFL career that encompassed a lot \u2013 player, assistant coach, coordinator and head coach. He was a great defensive coach. Schematically his teams were one of the very best over the course of two decades,\u201d Belichick said<\/a>. \u201cOur teams had some fiercely competitive battles that made me a better coach. I admire and learned from his complete mastery of coaching essentials \u2013 motivation, strategy, fundamentals and physical play. Bill and I have been close friends for 35 years and I couldn\u2019t be happier for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Bill Belichick<\/a> Bill Cowher<\/a> James Harrison<\/a> Joe Haden<\/a> New England Patriots<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Spygate<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News PITTSBURGH, PA – DECEMBER 10: Pittsburgh Steelers Linebacker James Harrison (92) looks on during the game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[3851,19409,7,2710,30098,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,57,103220,426,2395],"class_list":["post-943450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-bill-belichick","tag-bill-cowher","tag-football","tag-james-harrison","tag-joe-haden","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-spygate","tag-steelers","tag-steelers-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116906487214843116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}