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The Patriots are on the verge of their fifth Super Bowl title, but their very first, back in February 2002, still leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Marshall Faulk. The Hall of Fame running back played for the "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams that lost to the Patriots, 20-17, in Super Bowl XXXVI.

Part of the reason, as far as Faulk is concerned -- even 15 years later -- is because the Patriots illegally taped the Rams' walkthrough the day before the Super Bowl. The Boston Herald originally reported the story but later issued this apology: "While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed."

And that, along with the Spygate controversy in 2007, is why Faulk thinks any conversation about Tom Brady as the best quarterback in NFL history should come with an asterisk.

"... [T]here's always that little asterisk when you start talking about greatest ever," Faulk said on "GameDay Morning," via NFL.com.

Host Rich Eisen asked, "What's the asterisk?" which prompted this response from Faulk.

"Come on Rich. I don't even want to get into that. Man is about to play in his seventh Super Bowl, he has a chance at winning five, it's been great. But some things has happened and we know what those things are -- when you talk about Super Bowls and things that has happened along the lines with the Patriots and we just cannot pretend like they didn't happen."

And here's what Faulk said last week about the Patriots cheating ahead of Super Bowl XXXVI.

"[The practice] before the Super Bowl. The guy who worked for the Patriots. If you remember, that was someone mysteriously living in Hawaii, who made his way back to the states and delivered the tapes," Faulk, who now works for NFL Network, said during Thursday's media availability, via WEEI.com. "[Roger] Goodell then watched those tapes and said there wasn't enough there to deem anything being done.

"Now, I didn't see what was on the tapes, because we didn't get to see that. The only thing I could say is that they taped our practice. That was wrong."