September 14, 2020 • 13 mins
Before Deflategate, Spygate, and even Watergate there was Trench Coatgate. Right before the game-deciding play of a Patriots game in 1961, a mysterious Boston fan in a long jacket snuck onto the field and single-handedly secured victory for the home team in the most brazen way possible. Without a doubt, the greatest “12th Man” moment in football history.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Trickeration, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Back to Trickeration, the highest rated, most listen to, number
one show about deception sports probably who knows not important.
Thank you guys for tuning in. People are still buzzing
about last week's interview with Pete Ruppucci, the fake Mariners
(00:25):
doctor who convinced Harry Pitcher Rich DeLucia he was suffering
from werewolf syndrome. Make sure to check that one out
if you haven't already. This week, we've got yet another
explosive story about Patriots cheating that I wouldn't have believed
unless I saw the video with my own eyes. All right,
onto the show. They called him the man in the
(00:50):
trench coat, and the film of it is very clear.
You see this guy kind of sneaking in and the
next thing you know, you know, he's knocking down the past.
And just so we can put this to bed, are
we a hundred percent sure that the man in the
trench could was not Billy Sullivan? No? No. In nineteen
(01:11):
sixty a young businessman named Billy Sullivan wanted to bring
a professional football team to Boston. The stumbling block the
American Football League's price tag for a new team was
a quarter of a million dollars. My dad didn't have
to ut, so he put together ten guys and they
(01:32):
each put in twenty five grand apiece. Rumor had it
that Billy's wife wanted to spend the money on a
summer house, but Billy wanted a football team. That's absolutely true.
She had her eye on a house on the cape,
and he had his eye on a football team, so
he went out on that one. Uh. You know, my
dad was a real visionary guy, and um, I think
(01:54):
he saw the potential of football for sure. The voice
you're hearing is Billy Son Patrick, who was nine years
old when the team that eventually became the New England
Patriots joined the AFL. It was a blast, it was
you know, I mean the players were fabulous guys. You know.
They they all had other jobs. They practiced in the
(02:16):
morning and they go and they they teach school. Some
guys worked at banks, some guys work for insurance companies,
some guys sold cars. So everybody had a job and
it was, you know, football was fun for them. The
total payroll for the Patriots and the first year was
three thousand dollars for everybody you know that was thirty
five guys. I mean they'd be making nine or ten
(02:39):
grand a year, which was pretty good walking around money
in sixty one, the old dfl Um There was a
lot of fun to it. The relationship between the players
and the management of the team and the ownership of
the team was very informal. I mean, you know, we
used to have players to our house for Thanksgiving and
(03:01):
guys that you know, came from out of town and
had nowhere to go. I mean, it was just a
different way of life than it is today. And is
there anything that you could explain to demonstrate just how
shu string this league was back then compared to what
we think of football now. Well, the American Football League
(03:22):
was known for high scoring games. It was you know,
games would ut you know, stuff like that. So there
were a lot of field goals and extra points, uh.
I mean one thing that we did was we had
a squad of ball boys when somebody was going to
kick a field goal or an extra point. There were
(03:42):
no nets. Nobody thought about the nets at the time.
You know, my job as a little one was too
when the ball dropped, which inevitably did either drop through
the stands or on the ground somehow. Another my job
is to pick it up and run away, and you know,
I'd saved us about thirty five bucks a ball. The
Patriots through the years have become known as a team
(04:02):
that would push the limits of fair play. Obviously this
was a very different time, but would those Boston Patriots
push the limits of what was considered legal and fair.
I would say that probably the most nefarious thing that
we did that I was personally involved in is that
we used to spray our offensive lineman with silicon. And
(04:26):
you know it was it prevented a defensive lineman from
grabbing an offensive lineman's jersey, or at least it helped
prevent it. Now, they did not have a rule prohibiting that,
but they did after somebody figured out, I don't know,
one of the guys that we were spraying with silicon
went to another team and said, hey, you know England
doing this. So that was probably the most nefarious thing
(04:49):
that we did, and then the league outlawed that. But
you know, I mean, look a lot of people in
the league. Whatever they could possibly do to gain an
advantage without breaking the rules, they did, you know, And
that's part of being competitive, having an extra player on
the field was definitely against the rules, but what if
that player wasn't actually in uniform. This absurd scenario presented
(05:13):
itself in the final play of a game between the
Patriots and the Dallas Texans on November three. It was
a regular season game. Then I was seated up in
the almost a very top row of the stands, right
under the press box that was now Nickerson Field, and
the Texans were in a different division than we were in.
(05:35):
But they had a really good team and we had
a good team, and I think they came in with
a similar recordnoires at that time, and the game was
sold out. I mean, it was really a great scene.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Patriots lead
by a touchdown, the Texans are on the three yard
line trying to punch in the tying score. In their excitement,
(05:56):
a large faction of the over twenty thousand Boston fans
in attend to that day get out of their seats
and surround the end zone as the Patriots are able
to hold on for the win. But supposedly the referees
award the Texans one final and faithful play because the
fans were actually partially in the end zone. That is true,
that that in fact did happen. And you can see
(06:19):
if you look at the film. It's film, it's all
black and white film. You can see, you know that
they're trying to push people back with ropes, using ropes
to keep them off the field. But what you don't
see is that crush of people that came on the
field before the cause the referees to say, Okay, we're
gonna give you another shot at this because it's not
legitimate of all these people in the end zone. And
(06:42):
so they did, and you know that was sort of
part and parcel to the old DFL. The referees were
always very um, you know, they were flexible, and I
do know that they were given an extra play. So
the last player of the game, take me through this one,
and Davidson was a quarterback and they call a pass.
(07:04):
He was throwing acrossing pattern to Chris Chris Burf who
was a wide receiver for them, and the fell bother
is very clear. You see this guy kind of sneaking
in and the next thing you know, you know, he's
he's he's knocking down a pass. I highly recommend you
watch this play on YouTube. From the right of the screen,
(07:25):
a man in a gray trench coat jogs into the
end zone and basically lines up at middle linebacker for
the Patriots. The ball snapped and the Texans quarterbacks game
tying passes floating towards his open receiver, but just before
it reaches him, the man in the trench coat extends
his right arm and knocks the ball to the ground
as time expires. It was, you know, it was amazing
(07:47):
because he actually went right by a referee and referee
and do you know, it was kind of it was
just I don't know, it was. It was the whole
set of circumstances was kind of funny. And you know,
there was very little mentioned of it in the papers
the next day, and it's funny, you know, for years, nobody,
nobody asked me about it, and you know, it just
was one of those things that happened. Searching through newspapers,
(08:10):
dot com all the game stories from that day, detail
and exciting back and forth game, but I found only
one mention of the man in the trench coat in
the third paragraph of a sidebar chucked into page thirteen
of the Boston Globe. Here's what it says. Quote the
Patriots had a twelve man on defense. In that final play,
a spectator in a gray jacket lined up on the
(08:32):
Patriots secondary and raced into a million group of players
to rush past their cotton Davidson end quote. And that's
all it says. And then the article ends. And do
you remember seeing this fan at the time or you,
like most people saw it on film after the fact,
(08:56):
on film after the fact. And has there been any
attempt to figure out who the man in the trench
coat was? I don't know the answer to that. It's
just as I said, you know, it was something that
was like a non incident, you know, which just didn't
really have the kind of legs that the other controversial
things ahead in the in the a f l And uh,
(09:18):
I guess sort of the ultimate funny result of this
was that Lamar Hunt, who owned the Texans, who was
an absolutely marvelous man, you know, and was the founder
of the a f L. Um he he accused my
dad of being the guy that knocked the past down.
(09:39):
And when Lamar Hunt was inducted into the NFL Hall
of Fame, he notes that he always thought that Billy
Sullivan was the man in the trench coat in And
when Lamar Hunt levied this fun charge against your dad,
what was your dad's response? Did he try and keep
it alive or did he quickly said no, that was
(10:01):
not me. No, he actually said, you know, that's for
somebody else to determine. And he kind of got a
kick out of it. And you had to understand my
father and his relationship with Lamar, and he would never
said no, not that wasn't made. He actually enjoyed it
and had they had fun with it until the day
my dad died, and just too so we can put
(10:22):
this to bed. Are we a hundred percent sure that
the man in the trench could was not Billy Sullivan?
I'm not sure although watching the guy move, it didn't
look like my dad. And he always sat right next
to me during the games, and I don't remember if
he was actually sitting next to me at that very
point in time. And knowing your father two things, One
(10:46):
did he often wear trench coats? And two was this
the kind of thing he would have done to win
a football game. He definitely would have done it to
win a football game, but he never wore trench coats,
So I can't definitively say wasn't him, except you know,
just looking at the film, it was not the kind
of way that my dad moved around. You know, it
(11:10):
was probably not him. And say this happened last year.
You know, Deshaun Watson drops back to pass the text
and they're playing Patriots, and and Deshaun throws the slant
and Pats fan runs out slaps the ball in the
last play. What do you think the response would be
with a play like that? Well, you know, be crazy,
(11:31):
who is this guy? And you know they'd be research
about what his psychology is? I mean it would be
you know, I mean it would be it would be
seven ways to Sunday, researched and thought about. It would
be I don't know, that would be an act of God,
you know, to do something like that and we all
see how much replay has infected I would use as
(11:55):
the word sports today looking back. Is there something sort
of nice about the act that this wasn't something that
was reviewed a million times, that it just happened and
life moved on, as opposed to now where every inch
of every play is is reviewed. Uh yeah, I think
that's a great question. I think there's a lot of
things about the start of the a f L. There's
(12:20):
a lot of um there was a lot of charm
to it, and it was you know, it was another
great twist to what the a f L really represented,
which is just you know, they call the NFL they
no fundly the FL was always fun. It was always fun,
(12:48):
all right. A big thank you to Patrick Sullivan for
sharing this caper. Now comes the hard part. If you
or anyone you know has any information about the identity
of the man in the trench coat, the tip line
is a open email us at Trickeration Nation at gmail
dot com. It's high time to solve this unsolved sports mystery.
And if you are someone you know is ever run
(13:09):
out of the stands and helped decide a professional sporting event,
we'd also love to hear from you. What else? Um? Oh,
and please rate and review the show if you're liking it,
and don't forget to join us Next week, as I
speak with a tennis hack who tried to win the
member guest doubles tournament at his country club by teaming
up with the number one player in the world, be
sure to tune in and see how that worked out.
(13:30):
And finally, as we always do. We check in with
the legend Chris mad Dog Russo. Chris, how do we
do this week? Maddie, good job, keep up to good work.
All right, thanks Chris, Let see you next week. Trickeration
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
(13:50):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Trickeration, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Back to Trickeration, the highest rated, most listen to, number
one show about deception sports probably who knows not important.
Thank you guys for tuning in. People are still buzzing
about last week's interview with Pete Ruppucci, the fake Mariners
(00:25):
doctor who convinced Harry Pitcher Rich DeLucia he was suffering
from werewolf syndrome. Make sure to check that one out
if you haven't already. This week, we've got yet another
explosive story about Patriots cheating that I wouldn't have believed
unless I saw the video with my own eyes. All right,
onto the show. They called him the man in the
(00:50):
trench coat, and the film of it is very clear.
You see this guy kind of sneaking in and the
next thing you know, you know, he's knocking down the past.
And just so we can put this to bed, are
we a hundred percent sure that the man in the
trench could was not Billy Sullivan? No? No. In nineteen
(01:11):
sixty a young businessman named Billy Sullivan wanted to bring
a professional football team to Boston. The stumbling block the
American Football League's price tag for a new team was
a quarter of a million dollars. My dad didn't have
to ut, so he put together ten guys and they
(01:32):
each put in twenty five grand apiece. Rumor had it
that Billy's wife wanted to spend the money on a
summer house, but Billy wanted a football team. That's absolutely true.
She had her eye on a house on the cape,
and he had his eye on a football team, so
he went out on that one. Uh. You know, my
dad was a real visionary guy, and um, I think
(01:54):
he saw the potential of football for sure. The voice
you're hearing is Billy Son Patrick, who was nine years
old when the team that eventually became the New England
Patriots joined the AFL. It was a blast, it was
you know, I mean the players were fabulous guys. You know.
They they all had other jobs. They practiced in the
(02:16):
morning and they go and they they teach school. Some
guys worked at banks, some guys work for insurance companies,
some guys sold cars. So everybody had a job and
it was, you know, football was fun for them. The
total payroll for the Patriots and the first year was
three thousand dollars for everybody you know that was thirty
five guys. I mean they'd be making nine or ten
(02:39):
grand a year, which was pretty good walking around money
in sixty one, the old dfl Um There was a
lot of fun to it. The relationship between the players
and the management of the team and the ownership of
the team was very informal. I mean, you know, we
used to have players to our house for Thanksgiving and
(03:01):
guys that you know, came from out of town and
had nowhere to go. I mean, it was just a
different way of life than it is today. And is
there anything that you could explain to demonstrate just how
shu string this league was back then compared to what
we think of football now. Well, the American Football League
(03:22):
was known for high scoring games. It was you know,
games would ut you know, stuff like that. So there
were a lot of field goals and extra points, uh.
I mean one thing that we did was we had
a squad of ball boys when somebody was going to
kick a field goal or an extra point. There were
(03:42):
no nets. Nobody thought about the nets at the time.
You know, my job as a little one was too
when the ball dropped, which inevitably did either drop through
the stands or on the ground somehow. Another my job
is to pick it up and run away, and you know,
I'd saved us about thirty five bucks a ball. The
Patriots through the years have become known as a team
(04:02):
that would push the limits of fair play. Obviously this
was a very different time, but would those Boston Patriots
push the limits of what was considered legal and fair.
I would say that probably the most nefarious thing that
we did that I was personally involved in is that
we used to spray our offensive lineman with silicon. And
(04:26):
you know it was it prevented a defensive lineman from
grabbing an offensive lineman's jersey, or at least it helped
prevent it. Now, they did not have a rule prohibiting that,
but they did after somebody figured out, I don't know,
one of the guys that we were spraying with silicon
went to another team and said, hey, you know England
doing this. So that was probably the most nefarious thing
(04:49):
that we did, and then the league outlawed that. But
you know, I mean, look a lot of people in
the league. Whatever they could possibly do to gain an
advantage without breaking the rules, they did, you know, And
that's part of being competitive, having an extra player on
the field was definitely against the rules, but what if
that player wasn't actually in uniform. This absurd scenario presented
(05:13):
itself in the final play of a game between the
Patriots and the Dallas Texans on November three. It was
a regular season game. Then I was seated up in
the almost a very top row of the stands, right
under the press box that was now Nickerson Field, and
the Texans were in a different division than we were in.
(05:35):
But they had a really good team and we had
a good team, and I think they came in with
a similar recordnoires at that time, and the game was
sold out. I mean, it was really a great scene.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Patriots lead
by a touchdown, the Texans are on the three yard
line trying to punch in the tying score. In their excitement,
(05:56):
a large faction of the over twenty thousand Boston fans
in attend to that day get out of their seats
and surround the end zone as the Patriots are able
to hold on for the win. But supposedly the referees
award the Texans one final and faithful play because the
fans were actually partially in the end zone. That is true,
that that in fact did happen. And you can see
(06:19):
if you look at the film. It's film, it's all
black and white film. You can see, you know that
they're trying to push people back with ropes, using ropes
to keep them off the field. But what you don't
see is that crush of people that came on the
field before the cause the referees to say, Okay, we're
gonna give you another shot at this because it's not
legitimate of all these people in the end zone. And
(06:42):
so they did, and you know that was sort of
part and parcel to the old DFL. The referees were
always very um, you know, they were flexible, and I
do know that they were given an extra play. So
the last player of the game, take me through this one,
and Davidson was a quarterback and they call a pass.
(07:04):
He was throwing acrossing pattern to Chris Chris Burf who
was a wide receiver for them, and the fell bother
is very clear. You see this guy kind of sneaking
in and the next thing you know, you know, he's
he's he's knocking down a pass. I highly recommend you
watch this play on YouTube. From the right of the screen,
(07:25):
a man in a gray trench coat jogs into the
end zone and basically lines up at middle linebacker for
the Patriots. The ball snapped and the Texans quarterbacks game
tying passes floating towards his open receiver, but just before
it reaches him, the man in the trench coat extends
his right arm and knocks the ball to the ground
as time expires. It was, you know, it was amazing
(07:47):
because he actually went right by a referee and referee
and do you know, it was kind of it was
just I don't know, it was. It was the whole
set of circumstances was kind of funny. And you know,
there was very little mentioned of it in the papers
the next day, and it's funny, you know, for years, nobody,
nobody asked me about it, and you know, it just
was one of those things that happened. Searching through newspapers,
(08:10):
dot com all the game stories from that day, detail
and exciting back and forth game, but I found only
one mention of the man in the trench coat in
the third paragraph of a sidebar chucked into page thirteen
of the Boston Globe. Here's what it says. Quote the
Patriots had a twelve man on defense. In that final play,
a spectator in a gray jacket lined up on the
(08:32):
Patriots secondary and raced into a million group of players
to rush past their cotton Davidson end quote. And that's
all it says. And then the article ends. And do
you remember seeing this fan at the time or you,
like most people saw it on film after the fact,
(08:56):
on film after the fact. And has there been any
attempt to figure out who the man in the trench
coat was? I don't know the answer to that. It's
just as I said, you know, it was something that
was like a non incident, you know, which just didn't
really have the kind of legs that the other controversial
things ahead in the in the a f l And uh,
(09:18):
I guess sort of the ultimate funny result of this
was that Lamar Hunt, who owned the Texans, who was
an absolutely marvelous man, you know, and was the founder
of the a f L. Um he he accused my
dad of being the guy that knocked the past down.
(09:39):
And when Lamar Hunt was inducted into the NFL Hall
of Fame, he notes that he always thought that Billy
Sullivan was the man in the trench coat in And
when Lamar Hunt levied this fun charge against your dad,
what was your dad's response? Did he try and keep
it alive or did he quickly said no, that was
(10:01):
not me. No, he actually said, you know, that's for
somebody else to determine. And he kind of got a
kick out of it. And you had to understand my
father and his relationship with Lamar, and he would never
said no, not that wasn't made. He actually enjoyed it
and had they had fun with it until the day
my dad died, and just too so we can put
(10:22):
this to bed. Are we a hundred percent sure that
the man in the trench could was not Billy Sullivan?
I'm not sure although watching the guy move, it didn't
look like my dad. And he always sat right next
to me during the games, and I don't remember if
he was actually sitting next to me at that very
point in time. And knowing your father two things, One
(10:46):
did he often wear trench coats? And two was this
the kind of thing he would have done to win
a football game. He definitely would have done it to
win a football game, but he never wore trench coats,
So I can't definitively say wasn't him, except you know,
just looking at the film, it was not the kind
of way that my dad moved around. You know, it
(11:10):
was probably not him. And say this happened last year.
You know, Deshaun Watson drops back to pass the text
and they're playing Patriots, and and Deshaun throws the slant
and Pats fan runs out slaps the ball in the
last play. What do you think the response would be
with a play like that? Well, you know, be crazy,
(11:31):
who is this guy? And you know they'd be research
about what his psychology is? I mean it would be
you know, I mean it would be it would be
seven ways to Sunday, researched and thought about. It would
be I don't know, that would be an act of God,
you know, to do something like that and we all
see how much replay has infected I would use as
(11:55):
the word sports today looking back. Is there something sort
of nice about the act that this wasn't something that
was reviewed a million times, that it just happened and
life moved on, as opposed to now where every inch
of every play is is reviewed. Uh yeah, I think
that's a great question. I think there's a lot of
things about the start of the a f L. There's
(12:20):
a lot of um there was a lot of charm
to it, and it was you know, it was another
great twist to what the a f L really represented,
which is just you know, they call the NFL they
no fundly the FL was always fun. It was always fun,
(12:48):
all right. A big thank you to Patrick Sullivan for
sharing this caper. Now comes the hard part. If you
or anyone you know has any information about the identity
of the man in the trench coat, the tip line
is a open email us at Trickeration Nation at gmail
dot com. It's high time to solve this unsolved sports mystery.
And if you are someone you know is ever run
(13:09):
out of the stands and helped decide a professional sporting event,
we'd also love to hear from you. What else? Um? Oh,
and please rate and review the show if you're liking it,
and don't forget to join us Next week, as I
speak with a tennis hack who tried to win the
member guest doubles tournament at his country club by teaming
up with the number one player in the world, be
sure to tune in and see how that worked out.
(13:30):
And finally, as we always do. We check in with
the legend Chris mad Dog Russo. Chris, how do we
do this week? Maddie, good job, keep up to good work.
All right, thanks Chris, Let see you next week. Trickeration
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
(13:50):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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