Faulk said the Patriots seemed prepared for plays that the Rams had not run all season.
Marshall Faulk, left, remains bitter about losing to Ty Law, right, and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl.
Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, now an analyst for the NFL Network, dredged up the New England Patriots’ “Spygate” scandal Tuesday when asked about being back at the Superdome in New Orleans — the site of St. Louis’ 20-17 loss to New England 11 years ago in Super Bowl XXXVI.
"Am I over the loss? Yeah, I'm over the loss,” Faulk told Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. “But I'll never be over being cheated out of the Super Bowl. That's a different story. I can understand losing a Super Bowl, that's fine. But how things happened and what took place … Obviously, the commissioner gets to handle things how he wants to handle them, but if they wanted us to shut up about what happened, show us the tapes. Don't burn 'em."
That was a reference to commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to burn tapes the Patriots made of opposing coaches relaying defensive signals in 2006 and 2007. As punishment, Goodell fined Bill Belichick $500,000, fined the Patriots $250,000 and stripped the team of its 2008 first-round pick.
In 2008, Goodell said he had no evidence that the Patriots had taped the Rams’ walk-through before the Super Bowl, as had been speculated.
But Faulk says the Patriots seemed remarkably prepared for new plays in the Rams’ red zone offense at Super Bowl XXXVI.
“I understand Bill (Belichick) is a great coach," Faulk said. "But No. 13 (Kurt Warner) will tell you. (Former Rams coach) Mike Martz will tell you. We had some plays in the red zone that we hadn't ran. … We hadn't ran them the whole year (and the Patriots were ready for them).
“… It's either the best coaching in the world when you come up with situations that you had never seen before. Or you'd seen it and knew what to do."