Bill Belichick’s Patriots won with a relentless attention to the minutiae.Sure, the details could refer to the air pressure in footballs. To hand signals from opposing coaches. Or, as former Eagles analytics staffer Ryan Paganetti explained on social media yesterday, the video boards in front of kickers. This article is from The Athletic’s NFL newsletter. Sign up here to receive it directly in your inbox. It’s free to subscribe. Patriots field goal trick: Kickgate?Yes, Belichick had a field goal strategy. Here’s how it worked: When opposing kickers lined up at Gillette Stadium, the video board displayed a reverse view of the kick, placing an off-center set of yellow uprights behind the real ones. See a few examples:Diabolical. And perfectly legal, it seems. I couldn’t find a rule against it.It also looks like it worked. Gillette Stadium opened in 2002 but didn’t add those video screens until 2010 (and Belichick’s tenure ended in 2023). Here are some kicking stats from 2010-2023:
84.3 percent: That was the league average for all field goals, per TruMedia.
83.9 percent: The average road percentage was nearly equal. Away games were more difficult for kickers, but only slightly.
77.6 percent: That’s the opponent’s rate in road games against Belichick’s Patriots, 6.3 percentage points lower than typical road kicks. 👀
