The New England Patriots carried a dynasty across nearly two decades in the 2000s and 2010s. And while no one is disputing their dominance or whether or not they deserved all that hardware, the run did not come without rumor and scandal. And they are pretty famous, infamous rather.
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Spy-Gate, when head coach Bill Belichick was found to have filmed the practices of opponents. Deflategate, when Tom Brady was suspended for tampering with game-day footballs, was the two most prominent ones. However, there are many more controversial theories abound online about other ways the Pats could have gotten the competitive edge.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger often clashed with those Super Bowl-winning New England teams, though he rarely came out on top. He went 4-9 against Tom Brady’s Pats overall, and he was 1-5 at Gillette Stadium specifically. And he has a grouse from those games.
Roethlisberger says that in many of those games — most notably in 2015 — the headset in his helmet would have functional issues. “Every time you went to New England, the headsets went down. Coincidence? Crazy,” said the former QB on his podcast, Footbahlin.
Big Ben was bringing up the headset issue while talking about a major snag the Steelers’ star QB, Aaron Rodgers, dealt with during the closing stages of the team’s dramatic, division-clinching Week 18 win over the Baltimore Ravens. During a fourth-quarter sequence, Rodgers was forced to burn Pittsburgh’s final two timeouts on consecutive plays because the headset in his helmet appeared not to be working.
After the game, Rodgers confirmed as much, even revealing that the replacement helmet’s headset was also out of order, prompting the second timeout. The technical difficulties, however, did not impact the outcome. The Steelers escaped with a 26-24 win.
While citing this latest example of “new is not always better,” Roethlisberger also talked about how he used to get around those technical difficulties.
“We always wore a wristband. In situations like this, Charlie can go, ‘Wristband, 32, wristband, 105. Wristband, 200.’ And it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m just reading this thing.’ You always had a bailout,” recalled the former QB.
However, Rodgers is a slightly newer-age QB. He has never really worn a wristband during his career, as teams became more and more reliant on technology when he got into the league in 2005.
“Aaron doesn’t have that. So then you are in trouble. So then you gotta either burn stuff or Aaron’s gotta call plays. So there it is different … I don’t think he’s ever wore a wristband.”
Big Ben on his headset not working when he played the Patriots:
“Because every time you went to New England the headsets went down. Coincidence crazy.” 😂😂#steelers
🎥Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger pic.twitter.com/VnyYqddtOQ
— Matthew Luciow (@matthewluciow92) January 7, 2026
The Steelers will host their Wild Card weekend matchup against the Houston Texans. So they will hope their headsets don’t betray them again in consecutive weeks.
If Rodgers does lead the Steelers deep into the postseason, however, he might have to prepare himself for some Gillette Stadium headset shenanigans. The No. 2 seed Patriots are looking frisky this year, too.
