FOXBORO, Mass.  As the NFL levied multiple fines on the New England Patriots and their head coach Bill Belichick for filming the New York Jets' defensive signals last Sunday, insiders say the league has ignored evidence of cheating by the three-time Super Bowl winner for years.

Wesleyan University

"You know how he cuts the sleeves off his sweatshirts?" asked retired Rams' scout Mark Mortensen.  "He started that when he was in college at Wesleyan.  He'd write exam answers on the inside of his sleeves, roll them up during the test then cut them off afterwards to destroy the evidence."

The "sleeveless" sweatshirt.

As proof, Mortensen produces a Wesleyan sweatshirt with the numbers 1066, 1215, 1776 and 1941.  "The first three are easy," he notes.  "Battle of Hastings, Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence.  The fourth is the tipoff that this is legit."  How so, a reporter asks.  "1941 was the year Don Faurot invented the split-T formation at Missouri." 

Don Faurot: Inventor of the split-T formation.

Others who have known Belichick have come forward to corroborate the allegations made by Jets' coach Eric Magnini.  "I played squash against him at Wesleyan," says Carter Wirtz, an investment banker in New York.  "We were tied at 13 all when he nicked the tin on a reverse three-wall boast.  I've never forgotten how brazenly he denied it."

"Practice hike--hike!"

Several of Belichick's boyhood playmates from Annapolis, Maryland say the man who is credited with bringing the "homeless" look to NFL sidelines was cutting corners before he hit puberty.  "We were playing two-hand-touch-below-the-waist, three-Mississippi before you rush the passer, and Billy was always sacking me," says Ernie Weiss, now a local hardware dealer.  "I finally figured out that he was abbreviating it to 'Miss.'"

Copyright 2007, Con Chapman