Tony Dungy, the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, reminded everyone of those old whispers that the New England Patriots were listening in on conversations in the visitor’s locker room at Gillette Stadium in an appearance Thursday on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
Dungy’s former quarterback, Peyton Manning, had his suspicions and former Patriots players warned the Colts to watch what they said, too, back in the day, the ex-coach said.
“We would take precautions,” Dungy said (via the show’s Paul Pabst).
[ESPN apologizes for SpyGate misstatements]
The concerns of Dungy, who coached the Colts from 2002-08, might have paled next to those of his quarterback. SI.com’s Peter King wrote in 2010 that Manning watched what he said in the locker room. Dungy mentioned that Thursday, adding that he doesn’t know if the locker room was bugged or not. What he does know is how Manning felt.
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“I know that that is very true, and, you know, as Peyton talked to guys who played for the Patriots, some of the guys who came over — whether it’s true or not he treated it as true,” Dungy said. “We didn’t have a lot of strategy discussions inside the locker room there.”
Although the Patriots were punished for their role in SpyGate, that doesn’t mean they were bugging the locker room and Manning might just have been overly obsessive, Dungy noted.
“Peyton takes everything to the nth degree.”
By early afternoon, Dungy was cautioning people on Twitter about over-reacting to the interview.
Concerning my comments on @dpshow --Relax people. Same discussions had about Colts piping in crowd noise and turning up heat in the dome.
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) August 20, 2015ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLumw9JonJqqnK56rbHAnWawqF9nfXKBjmlvaGpgZMGwuthmm66ml656tK3YrGSpnampvK95zJqlp6GenHqmxIypmK2qmaTBtHnBnqOinaaaerWxwKZkm62XnLKledWiqqKsn6fAbrjOnKKeql2nvLC5jg%3D%3D