If the Patriots and Rams end up meeting in Super Bowl LIII, that could make for an awkward week in Atlanta, and that's mostly because a lot of former Rams players are still convinced that New England cheated to win Super Bowl XXXVI.
Although the Patriots were actually accused of cheating in a Boston Herald story that claimed the team illegally filmed the Rams' Super Bowl walkthrough, the paper was later forced to retract the story and apologize to the Patriots.
Despite the retraction, many former Rams players are still convinced that the Patriots cheated, including Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson. During a recent appearance on FS1, Dickerson was asked who he'd potentially like the Rams to play in the Super Bowl and he picked the Patriots for one very specific reason.
"We want a rematch [against the Patriots]. We want them back again, because they cheated us," Dickerson said. "They cheated us. They cheated us. They know they cheated us back in New Orleans. They watched our film, so we want some more of them."
Dickerson isn't the first former Rams player to bring up the cheating accusations, and he probably won't be the last, since someone with ties to the organization seems to bring it up every year.
Not only did we have Dickerson accuse the Patriots of cheating, but two other former Rams players -- Orlando Pace and Isaac Bruce -- still seem convinced that the Patriots cheated during their 20-17 win over the Rams in February 2002. The Patriots were a 14-point underdog in the game, making it one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.
Former Rams quarterback Kurt Warner has also had doubts about whether or not the Patriots won fairly and he expressed those doubts in 2015.
"I don't want to believe that there was anything outside of his team beat our team. That's what I want to believe," Warner said at the time. "There's a sliver of a doubt because I think, as a human, you can't help it."
Former Rams coach Dick Vermeil also threw out the C-word when asked who he would be rooting for this week. Spoiler alert: He's cheering for the Chiefs because they haven't been accused of cheating.
During last season's Super Bowl, the Eagles actually admitted that they ran a fake walkthrough practice just in case the Patriots were spying on them.
Basically, if the Rams and Patriots end up in the Super Bowl, we might have to get Jerry Springer to fly to Atlanta for the week to deal with all the cheating accusations that are going to be tossed around.