Former NFL analytics staffer Ryan Paganetti says he reviewed more than a decade of Patriots home broadcasts and found ?dozens? of examples where the video board behind the uprights displayed a reversed view of the kick, creating a second set of yellow goalposts directly behind the real ones.
The result was an optical illusion that could make opposing kickers see what looked like four yellow uprights instead of two. And when wind was a factor, the flags on the actual goalposts could be blowing one way while those shown on the video board appeared to be blowing in the opposite direction.
But here's the best part for Patriots fans: Paganetti also reviewed 52 New England field-goal attempts from those games and says the illusion appeared exactly zero times when the Patriots were kicking. He described the tactic as ?diabolically clever? and said it perfectly represented the Patriots dynasty?s obsession with finding every possible competitive edge.
Here comes Illusion-gate with a potential fine on Robert Kraft, suspending Drake Maye and Tom Brady, and loss of draft picks. Haters be thinking "Always somethin fishy going on in Foxboro"