TEAM: The San Diego Chargers

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.

• FB Andrew Pinnock (2004) - Received a four game suspension for taking a banned substance
• FB Luis Castillo (2005) - Tested positive for androstenedione at the 2005 NFL combine
• LB Shawne Merriman (2006) - Banned four games after a positive test for steroids
• LB Stephen Cooper (2008) - Tested positive for a banned stimulant
• TE Antonio Gates (2015) - Banned four games for a positive PEDs test
• DE Tenny Palepoi (2016)
• C Max Tuerk (2017)

VICTIM: The entire league

PUNISHED? Yes

PUNISHMENT: Each player was suspended for four games for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/SD#PEDSgate-2007

AWARDS EARNED: Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 7.0

TEAM: The San Diego Chargers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: Steroid usage was introduced by Alvin Roy, strength coach of the San Diego Chargers in 1963. Alvin went on to introduce the use of steroids to the Chiefs, Cowboys, and the Raiders, spreading the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) throughout the NFL.

Said Roy in his first address to the Chargers during training camp: "Because you're going to be lifting weights in addition to working out twice a day, you're going to need more protein." He continued, "When I was a trainer for the U.S. [weightlifting] team in the Olympics, I learned a secret from those Rooskies." He held up a bottle of pink pills. "This stuff is called Dianabol and it's going to help assimilate protein and you'll be taking it every day."

After that, it showed every day on the training tables in cereal bowls. Dianabol was the brand name for methandrostenolone, an artificial form of testosterone designed to promote healing and strength in patients. In 1963, it had been on the market for only five years, and used by U.S. weightlifters for fewer than three.

VICTIM: The entire league

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

PUNISHMENT: The Chargers were not punished for introducing PEDs to professional football. However, as a thank you from The Commish of YourTeamCheats.com, we grant you a small fraction of all CheatPoints earned by other teams for their own PEDs violations. Consider it a CheatPoint annuity.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/SD#Steroidgate-1963

AWARDS EARNED: Spawn the Spoof!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 6.0

TEAM: The San Diego Chargers

SEVERITY:

SUMMARY: During their Oct. 15, 2012 game with the Broncos, officials questioned a towel which a member of their equipment staff carried onto the field during a timeout. While the Chargers were not penalized for their alleged use of a stickum, they had to pay a $20,000 fine for not immediately following directions of game officials (obstruction of justice?), according to Michael Gehlken of U-T San Diego.

Unfortunately, because of a Colts hissy-fit after the 2015 AFC championship we now care a lot more about the integrity of the game. In particular, we now care deeply about the legality of every single game football used to play this beautiful sport. So in hindsight, the Chargers' soulless attack on the fundamental competitive integrity of the game must be reassessed in relation to all of the other ball manipulation cheats in NFL history.

Explained CSNNE's Tom Curran: "They didn’t cough up towels when told to do so. They tried to hide them. The towels had sticky crap on them which – if they were being hidden – makes it more probable than not that an advantage was being gained that the Chargers wanted concealed. And the NFL’s Competition Committee laid down a new [rule]. No sticky towels."

VICTIM: Denver Broncos

PUNISHED? Yes

PUNISHMENT: The Chargers were fined $20,000. They apparently appealed the fine and won. There was no "independent investigation." No one was suspended. No players were fined. No cell phones were demanded and no club staff were interviewed.

Since it is more probable than not that this sticky towel was used to alter the Chargers' game footballs to give them a competitive advantage -- and especially since there was deception involved -- this cheat is punished at the same level as the many other ball inflation, deflation, heating and scuffing cheats.

SHARE: http://YourTeamCheats.com/SD#Towelgate-2012

AWARDS EARNED: Avoid Media Scrutiny!Everyone Was Doing It!

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/SD#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/SD#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/SD#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/SD#Scrapsgate-1960

AWARDS EARNED:Everyone Was Doing It!

CHEATPOINTS EARNED:+ 0.0