Shawn Harrington

Much has been made of the Patriots’ mysterious “Pink Stripes.” How about yellow ones? I went through more than a decade of TV broadcasts and uncovered a diabolically clever piece of Patriots gamesmanship. When opposing kickers lined up at Gillette Stadium, the video board displayed a reverse view of the kick, placing a second, offset set of yellow uprights directly behind the real ones. In windy conditions, even the orange streamers on the video board appeared to point in the opposite direction from those atop the physical uprights, making the illusion even more disorienting. I found dozens of examples. In the same games, I reviewed 52 Patriots field goal attempts. The illusion appeared on Patriots kicks exactly zero times. We actually tried copying the idea when I was in Philadelphia, but the location of the video boards at Lincoln Financial Field made it nearly useless. It is the perfect encapsulation of the Patriots dynasty. No detail was too small, and no possible edge was left unexplored. We talked about this tactic and more on tonight’s episode of the Paganetti and Underhill show, out now on Youtube