Sep 14th 2008 3:00PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Browns, Steelers, AFC North, NFL Coaching, NFL Media Watch, NFL RumorsAccusing another team in the NFL of cheating, without proof, is a pretty aggressive move. Unless you’re accusing the Patriots, in which case you probably have some sort of grandfather clause that you can work with.

Which probably explains why the Steelers are not directly calling the Browns “a bunch of dirty cheaters”. They’re just letting everyone else read between the lines.
There are other ways teams cheat besides the Patriots’ videotaping espionage. We blew the whistle on the crowd noise that was being amplified illegally in Indianapolis by the Colts three years ago, and they stopped doing it.

Here’s another: Steelers players say privately that whenever they play in Cleveland, they almost always have problems with the communicator in the quarterback’s helmet.

[…]Funny how they always crash in Cleveland, the players say. We were told to watch Ben Roethlisberger often looking at the plays on his wrist/forearm in Cleveland because the receiver on his helmet did not work, and his coach had to signal a play. It’s one reason Steelers QBs have the plays on a sheet wrapped around their forearm.
That’s a pretty aggressive stance to take. Almost as aggressive as Pittsburgh becoming some sort of cheating watchdog for the entire league. On the other hand, if I was pretty sure that Romeo Crennel — what coaching tree is he from again? — was sabotaging my ability to mic in plays to my quarterback, I’d start jumping up and down and screaming like a 10 year old who got his lunch money stolen.

And also via PFT, it appears as if “the NFL has employed former CIA agents” to determine if there are any microphone infractions or disruptions in the audio devices. So yeah, Cleveland quit it. Before Pittsburgh tells on you for real.