NFL greats weigh in on the Belichick/Brady legacy

PHOENIX – Former NFL greats Bob Griese, Dan Reeves and Kurt Warner all share similar viewpoints about the New England Patriots.

Yes, they believe Bill Belichick is a great coach. And of course, they believe Tom Brady is a great quarterback.

But they also wonder about their relationship with the rulebook – and their legacy.

"It's tough, because I really like their owner, Robert Kraft, and I like Brady, but these things keep popping up," said Griese, the Hall-of-Fame former quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. "Do they have to do this to win?"

It's not just about the mysteriously under-inflated footballs found in the Patriots' possession against the Indianapolis Colts. It's about Belichick and the Patriots getting fined $750,000 for using video to steal signals from opposing coaches in 2007.

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To Reeves, it's also about what he labeled "deceptive" player substitutions employed by the team earlier this month.

"Do they stretch the rules? You know, yeah, they do," said Reeves, who played or coached in nine Super Bowls.

While spread over time, it's a pattern. Yet that pattern looks decidedly different to various former NFL players interviewed this week by USA TODAY Sports, including Hall of Fame quarterbacks Warren Moon and Fran Tarkenton.

With an investigation pending into why the air pressure of the Patriots' footballs was below the league minimum, some of the former players believe the next few weeks could tip the scales of judgment one way or the other. If Brady is found to be complicit in a scheme, his golden-boy legacy could be tarnished, especially if he also loses Sunday's Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks.

On the other hand, if Patriots win and Brady escapes blame over the balls, his career storyline arcs back toward being possibly the greatest QB of all time.

"We judge people on how they play and how they perform," said Tarkenton, a Hall of Famer who played for the Minnesota Viking and New York Giants. "That's what we do in sports, and we like to ague who was the best… This is much more serious than that. How about integrity? How about doing things the right way?"

Creativity or rule bending?

While Brady and Belichick have denied wrongdoing, a jury of their peers already has generally formed into two camps.

– Those who respect them both but see signs of trouble with these issues, sometimes because they believe in sticking closer to convention and not getting cute with the rules.

– Those who find these issues to be insignificant to the Patriots' success, just an indication of their creative aggression in pushing the boundaries of the rulebook.

Among the latter is Merril Hoge, an ESPN broadcaster and former NFL running back. He told USA TODAY Sports that these controversies are not "going to affect or change or diminish or dilute what they've done, or how good they are, or how good Brady is."

Hoge believes the signal-stealing scandal known as Spygate was overrated because it's in many ways the same as scouting opponents and watching film to better understand opponents' tendencies. He also believes that reducing the air pressure in a football by a small amount doesn't affect all the other things that matter in football, such as blocking, strategy and preparation.

As for Belichick's recently sneaky player substitutions, Hoge noted it was all legal and that the Patriots have been wildly successful because they're innovative – which also makes them a target.

Opponents who protested the substitutions were simply "were outcoached," Hoge said. The Patriots "were being creative. Everything was within the rules there. None of that should even be in the same category (as Spygate and the deflated balls)."

Just don't tell that to Reeves, who sees the substitutions as a bigger problem because they tried to catch the opponent off guard with a tricky shell game of sorts. Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh considered it illegal and protested.

"The game shouldn't be decided upon deception," Reeves said. "It should be decided by execution. To me, they don't need to do it. They're extremely good, period. So they're just stretching the envelope, I guess. That I don't like. I don't think (the sneaky substitutions) are right. Is it illegal? No. Is it done as if it is illegal? Yeah."

The footballs are another story. League rules require them to be inflated to at least 12.5 pounds per square inch. But ESPN reported 11 of the Patriots' 12 game balls were found to be underinflated in the first half of the AFC Championship game against the Colts. The problem was corrected at halftime, with the Patriots leading 17-7, and New England went on to outscore the Colts 28-0 in the second half.

Brady previously has expressed his preference for slightly under-inflated footballs – all the better to grip, especially in bad weather – though he said last week that meant he likes them at 12.5 psi instead of the league maximum of 13.5.

Moon, another Hall-of-Fame former quarterback, said the issue is overblown.

"If he would have asked the Colts before the game, 'Do you mind if I just deflate my footballs two pounds?' They'd probably be, 'Oh, we don't care. Why not?" Moon said. "Why would you make a big deal over how Tom wants his balls?"

He also predicts the controversy will fade. "You take a guy with the achievements he's had over the course of his career – I mean this is the only thing he's ever been involved in," Moon said. "Spygate wasn't Brady. Spygate was the Patriots. But they're trying to put it on Tom because he has more connection with the balls."

`What else have you done?'

Many teams routinely try to scuff the slippery shine off of new balls to make them easier to grip. Under-inflation still differs from that because it's against the rules if is below the NFL minimum. It also could theoretically become a competitive advantage if it's afforded to one team and not the other.

And it wouldn't just benefit Brady. Softer footballs are easier to grip and therefore less likely to be fumbled by all ball carriers. Since Belichick became coach in 2000, the Patriots lead the league with the fewest fumbles lost (136), tied with the Houston Texans, who have 32 fewer games because they didn't start playing until 2002, according to STATS, LLC.

"If someone figured out you can throw it better, catch it better and fumble less if you deflate the ball, guess what they're going to do?" Tarkenton said. "Somebody is going to deflate the balls and think it's so silly and insignificant that nobody will ever catch them."

Tarkenton says he's a big fan of both Brady and Belichick and isn't condemning either one. He just didn't find Brady very adamant in his denials in his press conference last week.

"He's 37 years old, experienced, talented, a smart guy right? This is not his first rodeo," Tarkenton said. "He looked like a deer in headlights."

Jerome Bettis, a former NFL running back and current Hall-of-Fame finalist, uses stronger language.

"Do I think Tom cheated? ... Someone did," Bettis said. "Maybe Tom didn't… But it was under his direction of how he liked his footballs."

Brady, who is from northern California, often has been compared to his childhood idol, legendary former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana. Montana, a third-round draft pick in 1979, won four Super Bowls. Brady will win his fourth if he beats Seattle, continuing an American success story that includes two NFL MVP awards after being drafted in the sixth round in 2000.

But Montana's legacy was – and still is – virtually spotless. By contrast, Brady's is pending even if you ask some of his best admirers.

Warner, a former Super Bowl MVP and current Hall of Fame finalist, says Brady and Belichick are the greatest quarterback/coach combo in history. But if they were complicit in a plot, Warner said that will lead to questions about whether they did this before without getting caught.

"Spygate we know that they did things outside the rules," Warner said. "Now if we find they did something else outside the rules, it's 'OK, what else have you done?'… In the big picture because of the past, now it's become the bigger story. And now it creates more speculation and doubt, and now you've got people talking about how it affects their legacy."

It likely won't keep Brady out of conversations about the best quarterbacks ever. It also might never leave the conversation completely, either, depending on the outcome of the investigation.

"Human nature tells you, `Gosh, look at what they did, and could they have accomplished it (without these issues)?'" Reeves asked. "There will always be that question mark there."

Follow sports writer Brent Schrotenboer on Twitter @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com