McGinest: If Pats had cheated, ‘it would have been a blowout'

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Willie McGinest has a simple answer to Marshall Faulk's never-ending charge that the Patriots cheated their way to victory in Super Bowl XXXVI:

"If . . . we had any extra information, then that game wouldn't have been as dramatic as it was, coming down to a field goal," the former Patriots defensive lineman said Wednesday on 'Felger & Mazz' in response to questions about Faulk's continued complaints about being "cheated" out of a Super Bowl victory. "Trust me. It would have been a blowout."

The Patriots beat the heavily favored Rams, 20-17, on a field goal by Adam Vinatieri as time expired. When the Pats were penalized six years later for taping other teams' signals, Faulk immediately charged that the only reason New England was able to beat St. Louis was because it had taped the Rams' workouts and knew what plays they were going to run.

McGinest, saying the players never received any information gleaned from tapes, scoffed at the notion.

"If . . . we knew the plays that were coming and what was going on, then there wouldn't have been a comeback by the Rams," he said. (St. Louis rallied from a 17-3 deficit and tied the game with two fourth-quarter touchdowns.) "Everything would have been shut down and the game wouldn't have come down to a last-second field goal."

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