Browns' Karlos Dansby suggests Patriots cheated during 2008 game

Cleveland Browns linebacker Karlos Dansby added some more fuel to the "Patriots are cheaters" narrative during an appearance on "Pro Football Talk Live" on Thursday.

It was Week 16 of the 2008 season and Dansby's Arizona Cardinals were in New England to face the Patriots, who needed a win to remain alive in the playoff hunt. As Dansby recalled, the coach-to-headset communication system just refused to work that day.

"My headset was working fine, every game," Dansby said. "Until the very last game of the year. We get in Foxboro, they couldn't get my headset fixed, for nothing in the world."

Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart was also having difficulties with his headset and finished 6-of-14 for 138 yards, with one touchdown and an interception. The Patriots, led by Matt Cassel, ended up winning the game 47-7, though they finished the season just short of a playoff berth.

"I didn't have not one problem until I went into Foxboro," Dansby said. "You can ask anybody on that team that year. We didn't have no problems with my headset until I got to Foxboro. And, man, I tell you every time I came to the sidelines, taking my helmet off trying to fix it. They was trying to fix it, they couldn't get it fixed. So we had to give hand signals, and we were dead in the water. They ran when they wanted to run, they threw it when they wanted to throw."

Asked if he believes it was an accident or deliberate, Dansby replied, "'C'mon, man. C'mon. It's not a secret. They gotta do what they gotta do to win, man. They gonna do what they gotta do to win. It's just how they operate."

Dansby is the second person to accuse the Patriots of cheating this week. On Wednesday, former NFL quarterback A.J. Feeley said he personally witnessed Tom Brady and the Patriots using illegal footballs a decade before the "Deflategate" scandal.