Mike Felger Suggests the Patriots are Cheating by Claiming He's Not Suggesting They're Cheating

For all the Patriots undeniable success so far this season, as great as all this has been and will continue to be as they pull off the most dramatic one-year turnaround since they went from 5-11 to Super Bowl champions, this franchise can never truly return to their former glory until they get accused of cheating. That will be when we know they are truly BACK. 

And it can't just be some one-off, like Raheem Morris blaming them for his own team cocking up a snap with a game on the line:

It has to be more than one frustrated coach pointing fingers instead of taking accountability. It has to be pervasive. A constant suspicion from opponents and media alike that nothing is on the level. Spy cameras. Bugged locker rooms. Helmet radio jamming devices. Trick formations. Low-level operatives answering to Dorito Dink and The Deflator becoming the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of a nationwide tragedy that winds up in federal court. That sort of thing. 

And when it comes to a presumption of guilt in all these matters, there's no better place to turn than the No. 1 sports radio program in New England. Who took a little matter like the Patriots giving up a lot of scores the opposition's opening drives before playing lights-out defense, and suggesting they're cheating. By using the oldest rhetorical trick in the book, which is suggesting they're not actually saying they're cheating:

Mike Felger: "All of a sudden you're stopping them. I don't know. You tell me wha --. I'm not say-- Did I say 'cheating'?"

Tony Masseroti - "I never heard that word." 

Well played, gentlemen. The classic saying something by not saying it. The life's blood of getting listeners wound up and filling phone lines. 

The term for this is "apophasis." Defined as, "a rhetorical device where a speaker or writer brings up a topic by pretending not to mention it or denying they will discuss it. This often happens when someone says, 'I will not mention X,' thereby drawing attention to X."

It's the terrestrial talk radio version of "I'm not claiming my opponent is a serial killer with a well in his basement where he starves his young female victims until he can skin them and make a suit out of them to feed his monstrous urges. I don't know what he does in his personal life. I'm talking about his fiscal policies." And Felger and Mazz have used it to perfection here. I'd be shocked if they had an empty phone line the rest of the show. 

Even if there's a much simpler explanation for why Mike Vrabel's defense get much better after the opening drive:

Look, I'm even not mad. By way of full disclosure, these guys have done a lot for me in my career. Felger got me hired to the Patriots pre- and postgame show on local cable. He and Mazz gave me a regular weekly call-in spot, which indirectly led to a full time job on their competition. For two years my show went up against theirs in the 2-6 time slot. And while we were No. 2 in the market each of those eight quarters, we could never really get close thanks to content like this. It's all part of the game, and they play it as well as anybody in the business. In a world where everyone can listen to whatever they want whenever they want, getting them to tune in at a particular time and sit through ads for personal injury lawyers and penis meds isn't as easy as it was even five years ago. So you've got to throw rocks at the nest at every opportunity and keep the hornet's buzzing.

I don't think any Pats fan should be mad, either. This is what we've been missing. The Pats are getting back on top, and that means being the wrestling heel. The monster in every closet. "Make way for the Bad Guy. There's a Bad Guy comin' through."

So embrace it. While I admit I'm getting ahead of myself here, when the Patriots do achieve greatness again, Dynasty 2.0 won't get the same fawning treatment the Chiefs have. No more than Original Recipe Dynasty was treated like the Rams or whomever came before them. The institutional memory of the Brady-Belichick Era is too fresh in everyone's minds. And they're going to catch the same withering fire from the Morrises, and the Felger & Mazzes. 

So enjoy these moments. It means we're back.