TEAM: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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.

• G Carl Bax (1990)
• FB Rick Razzano (2005)
• OT Luke Petitgout (2008)
• CB Aqib Talib (2012)
• CB Eric Wright (2012)
• FB Jorvorskie Lane (2014)
• DE Da'Quan Bowers (2014)
• CB Jude Adjei-Barimah (2016)
• RB Doug Martin (2016)

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? Yes

PUNISHMENT: Lane was suspended for two games and the other players were suspended for four games each for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TB#PEDSgate-1990

AWARDS EARNED: Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 9.0

TEAM: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took steps to intentionally tank their 2014 week 17 game against the New Orleans Saints in order to secure the top pick in the 2015 NFL draft.

As reported by Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports:

In Week 17, Tampa Bay led the New Orleans Saints 20-7 at the half. If the Buccaneers won, the Tennessee Titans would get the top pick of the draft. So the Buccaneers pulled starters.

Receiver Mike Evans and linebacker Lavonte David, two of the team's top three players along with defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, were healthy scratches in the second half. McCoy was already on injured reserve with a knee injury. Receiver Vincent Jackson was taken out, and the Buccaneers yanked three starters on the offensive line, according to NFL.com.

Quarterback Josh McCown was 12-20 for 106 yards in the first half. He didn't attempt a pass in the third quarter, and went 2-of-3 for 9 yards in the fourth quarter without his best receivers on the field. The Saints had the 25th ranked pass defense in the NFL last season.

A pivotal moment came with less than six minutes left and the Buccaneers leading 20-14. McCown threw not to Evans or Jackson, who were benched, but to Tavarres King, who had never caught an NFL pass before Week 17. King had the pass go through his arms and the Saints picked it off, and seven plays later New Orleans' offense scored a touchdown to take the lead.

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No but ... it's more probable than not that this was cheating

PUNISHMENT: If you are wondering, this is some serious "integrity of the game" cheating.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TB#Tankgate-2014

AWARDS EARNED: Schoolyard Cheating!Goalie for the Dart Team!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 5.0

TEAM: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Prior to Super Bowl XXXVII, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson paid some guys $7,500 to scuff and break in the 100 footballs that were to be used in the Super Bowl.

Johnson, who led the Buccaneers to a 48-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, says he broke the rules to make sure the footballs in the game were more comfortable in his hand. According to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Time, Johnson struggled to grip wet, cold or out-of-the-box footballs and was forced to wear a glove in the preceding NFC Championship game. With the NFL supplying 100 new footballs for the Super Bowl, Johnson said that he made sure the balls would be prepped to his liking.

Admitted Johnson, "I paid some guys off to get the balls right. I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them."

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? No

PUNISHMENT: Although Raiders QB Rich Gannon threw five interceptions in the loss, he was allegedly informed by Johnson about the planned ball manipulation. It doesn't matter much, though, because the NFL wouldn't really care about teams manipulating footballs until 12 years later. Nonetheless, what Johnson confessed to was not legal.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/TB#Ballsgate-2003

AWARDS EARNED: Serious Infraction!Champs of the Cheat!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 4.0

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/TB#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/TB#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/TB#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/TB#Scrapsgate-1960

AWARDS EARNED:Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 0.0