Altoona Mirror, September 13, 2015

So there's Mike Tomlin, trying to beat the defending Super Bowl champion, and all he can get on the headset is a radio broadcast of the game.
And it wasn't even the Steelers' announcers.
As expected, the Steelers lost the season opener in New England, but the fresh wrinkle was the problem with communication between the sideline and the booth.
Somehow the wires or wireless signals were crossed, and Tomlin's headset was delivering the Patriots' radio broadcast.
As Tomlin noted in his post game comments, it's not the first time there's been a problem in that regard with games played in Gillette Stadium.
Hard to believe in a high tech world where even an old school guy like Bill Belichick is punching things up on an iPad that the simple connection between the field and booth wasn't working.
Seems unbelievable that in a world where people instantly Tweet photos of their lunch 24/7, the NFL can't establish a simple audio link that spans about 300 feet.
Even harder to believe that Tomlin didn't go all Bill Cowher when the problems first arose. Cowher would have dashed out to the center of the field, slam dunked the headset on the 50-yard line and loudly let America know things were awry. He wouldn't have waited until after the game.
When the news broke, people naturally suspected this was another Patriots dirty trick, a way to gain an unfair advantage. But was it?
With the controversy over deflated footballs and espionage still hot in the news just hours before kickoff, would the Patriots really risk another crime?
There's a school of thought that cheaters are always going to cheat, and they don't see things in any other light.
But it's hard to believe the Patriots would deliberately jam the signals, or that they felt they needed that advantage against the shaky Steelers defense.
The Steelers went into the game knowing that Tom Brady-to-Rob Gronkowski was a significant weapon. They didn't seem to have an answer for it, whether the headphones were working or not.
With all the money the NFL has, and all the official sponsors for communications equipment, you wouldn't expect a simple link from the sideline to the coaches booth to be a problem.
Then again, you wouldn't think that team employees would be able to alter the inflation of footballs during a conference championship game.
It became another Patriots-related distraction for the NFL to consider. At this point, the league should have an entire division devoted to those.
Tomlin got one break: At least he wasn't getting a talk show on his headset.
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--WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
All sports leagues are publicly against gambling, for reasons that are understandable and obvious.
Yet it seems the major leagues have no problem aligning with Draft Kings, which is essentially a fantasy sports gambling enterprise.
You pay an entry fee, you select players you think will rack up points in various categories, and you stand a chance to win a prize. Their saturation advertising campaign is unavoidable if you watch or listen to sports programming. (Hey, it may even be on the coaches headsets at Gillette Stadium).
That isn't gambling?
Seems like it's a convenient way for people to wager money on their sports knowledge, even if they don't have a current number for Vito the Bookie.
But maybe it's just a natural progression since most of the leagues have gone into the ticket reselling business via Stub Hub.
Wonder if Pete Rose has a Draft Kings account?