TEAM: The Tennessee Titans

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) are used by players to illegally improve athletic performance above what legal training and preparation can do.

Players who illegally improve their performance unfairly penalize players who follow the rules. They not only put those players at risk for physical injury, but they also affect their economic livelihood by impacting their perceived value and their ability to secure appropriately-valued playing contracts.

SEVERITY = 0.5 video cameras per punished incident. Includes all documented infractions from 1960 to present with this Wikipedia page as the primary source.

• DT Josh Evans (2000)
• RB Chris Henry (2007)
• LB Gerald McRath (2010)
• FB Ahmard Hall (2011)
• WR Andrew Turzilli (2016)

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? Yes

PUNISHMENT: Evans was suspended for the entire 2000 season after a third violation. The remaining players were suspended for four games for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#PEDSgate-2000

AWARDS EARNED: Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 5.0

TEAM: The Tennessee Titans

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Former Jaguars defensive end Renaldo Wynn claims that the Titans’ upset of Jacksonville in the 1999 AFC title game resulted from former Tennessee defensive coordinator Gregg Williams doing something far worse than having a bounty program.

"You know why we fell short in that AFC Championship game? After that I ended up getting coached by Gregg Williams ... First thing he said when he came in the door was, 'Hey, you know why you lost?' With a lot of other explicit words with that. He said he had our playbook. Greg Williams had our playbook. Our game-plan on offense. [He] had our playbook."

"I know how he got them," Wynn said, presumably regarding his mutual stint with Williams in Washington. "He started getting playbooks when I was with him."

Williams coached for the New Orleans Saints, winning the Super Bowl, but was suspended from coaching for almost a year for 'Bountygate,' where it was found there were money payouts for big hits by his defensive players.

VICTIM: Jacksonville Jaguars

PUNISHED? No

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#Playbookgate-1999

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 2.0

TEAM: The Tennessee Titans

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: After the Dallas Cowboys scored a 5-yard touchdown on a running play in the third quarter of their 2006 regular season game against the Tennessee Titans, Cowboys offensive lineman Andre Gurode was on the ground helmetless. Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth — all 6-foot-6, 320 pounds of him — came over and stomped his right foot directly on Gurode's face in a move that you only see in the WWE (video).

Haynesworth was ejected from the game and suspended for five games, at that point the longest suspension in NFL history for an on-field infraction. To his credit, Haynesworth apologized for the incident calling it "disgusting." Gurode ended up with 30 stitches and, years later, the pair made peace and ended up becoming friends.

VICTIM: Dallas Cowboys (Specifically OL Andre Gurode)

PUNISHED? Yes

PUNISHMENT: Haynesworth was ejected and suspended for five games, the longest suspension in NFL history for an on-field infraction at that time.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#FaceStompgate-2006

AWARDS EARNED: Schoolyard Cheating!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 2.0

TEAM: All 32 NFL Teams

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Tampering with free agents is rampant, it's laughable and it is against the rules (PDF). It's so bad across every team in the league that the NFL had to create a three-day legal tampering period. However, tampering still regularly occurs long before that annual three-day window opens. On March 9, 2015 the league once again felt compelled to warn all 32 teams about not tampering.

Why is tampering considered a problem? Because tampering with players still under contract makes it difficult for clubs to re-sign their own talent. It also puts those few teams that actually follow NFL guidelines at a distinct disadvantage. In many cases, contract agreements are in place days before any negotiations are allowed to begin.

This isn't fair, it isn't legal, and it is blatant cheating by the teams who engage in the practice.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No but...

PUNISHMENT: NFL commissioner and former Jets public relations intern Roger Goodell is doing all he can to curtail and punish the "commonplace" practice, although it admits that there is so much tampering that it is hard to police it all.

The CheatPoints earned for this leaguewide cheat is for all of this team's tampering incidents that have gone undiscovered or unproven. If specific instances are discovered, they are punished on top of this leaguewide penalty.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#Tampergate-1960

AWARDS EARNED:Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 4.0

TEAM: All 32 NFL Teams

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: it's a common complaint around the NFL. In late, close games, the helmet communicators of visiting teams suddenly "malfunction" and stop working. It has been accepted as standard practice in the league. Are you on the road and the game is close? Then you are going to have problems with your headset.

In recent years, the Patriots have accused the Colts of doing it and the Jaguars have made the same charge of the Patriots. The Redskins accused the Buccaneers of disabling their headsets, and Tampa Bay accused Dallas. The Giants openly bragged about doing it way back in 1956. The charges go on and on and on.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#Headsetgate-1980

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 4.0

TEAM: All 32 NFL Teams

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Stealing your opponent's signals has always been common and never been illegal.

Said former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, "We had people that always tried to steal signals. Stealing someone's signals was a part of the game, and everyone attempted to do that." Admitted former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson: "When I came into the NFL, back in 1989, I talked to a Kansas City scout and he said, 'Here's what we do, we videotape the opposing team's signals and then we sync it up with the game film.' So I did it." Bragged, former Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan: "Our guy keeps a pair of binoculars on their signal-callers every game, with any luck, we have their defensive signals figured out by halftime. Sometimes, by the end of the first quarter."

NFL commissioner and former Jets public relations intern Rodger Goodell confirmed this himself in 2008, saying that the issue was not stealing signals, that is allowed "and it is done quite widely." The issue is where and how you record them. If you chose to videotape them, then (after 2006) you have to do that from a league approved location. If you hire lip readers, they can do it from your coaches lap, if you want.

After 2006, examples of allowed videotaping locations are: the luxury boxes, media booths and other enclosed spaces. Expressly prohibited locations are the sidelines, the field, locker rooms, the coaches booth or any other place accessible to team coaches and staff. The point of the rule is to not allow the footage to be useful in the current game.

Prior to the September 6, 2006 memo and, 2007 follow up, from NFL head of football operations Ray Anderson, there was no league restriction on filming location, which is the reason the memo was sent.

Many NFL head coaches have downplayed the significance of the practice, saying that attempting to decipher opponent's signals was a long standing practice and entirely common throughout the league.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

PUNISHMENT: NFL commissioner and former Jets public relations intern Rodger Goodell suggested that the responsibility was on teams to conceal their messages, not on the ones trying to steal them. During his news conference before the 2007 Super Bowl he said that any coach who did not expect signals to be stolen was "stupid."

Prior to 2006, every NFL team is assumed to have done it, but none of them broke a rule. You can't punish something that is not prohibited. Filming from the sidelines was not prohibited until 2006 and filming your opponent's signals from approved locations has never been prohibited, even today.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#Spygate-1960

AWARDS EARNED:Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 0.0

TEAM: All 32 NFL Teams

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Sign an opponent's recently-cut player to your practice squad to get intel on their plays, signals and tactics. This is not illegal and is a leaguewide practice.

Said one player, who chose to remain anonymous as he was still in the league as of 2015, "If teams have an opening at a certain position, they might not be looking for perhaps the best player to fill it on their practice squad. Instead, they might go for someone who has access to the opposing team’s playbook."

“Let’s say we’re playing the Jaguars in seven days and you want to know more about their playbook. From time to time teams will sign people off of practice squads. You don’t have to put them on active roster so if there’s a need for more depth at linebacker and you’re playing Jacksonville, there would be more of a chance to sign a linebacker off the team you’re about to play’s practice squad and hoping that the person you’re about to sign will divulge information about the playbook.”

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

PUNISHMENT: Not illegal.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TEN#Scrapsgate-1960

AWARDS EARNED:Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 0.0