#Spooked espionage definition license

Told later of the incident, Davis smiled. 'Damn you, Al Davis! Damn you! I know you are up there,'' Svare swore. San Diego coach Harold Svare once suspected Oakland's Al Davis (above) had bugged his locker room. He wound up shouting at a light fixture on the ceiling. Harland Svare, head coach of the San Diego Chargers, even felt his locker room at the Oakland Coliseum had been bugged. Every rival believed Davis was up to something sinister. He could be a spy.''īefore there was a George Allen, there was Al Davis, reputed master of the dark art in Oakland. But he's sitting up there in a green Eagles warmup. I don't know who the hell he is or how he got in here. 'Look at that guy up there in the stands. 'How do I know Tom Landry hasn't sent someone here to spy on me?'' he told reporters. He once was further agitated by an old man wearing a green Eagles warmup in the stands before a game against the Cowboys. But that didn't prevent him from distrusting the overhead Goodyear blimp that was making a pregame rehearsal. He closed practice and chained the gates at Veterans Stadium to withstand access by outsiders. When he coached the Philadelphia Eagles, Dick Vermeil was terminally sensitive to being watched by aliens. 'He was basically a crook the Richard Nixon of football,'' said Cowboys defensive back Mel Renfro.Īll coaches are spy-conscious. 'Any helicopter that came over, the coaches would look up like, damn, that's George Allen up there with a notebook,'' recalled Cowboys running back Walt Garrison. That still didn't stop the Cowboys from wondering how Allen would circumvent their security. As Eagles coach, Dick Vermeil closed practices and chained the gates at Veterans Stadium to prevent access by outsiders. To prevent an Allen confederate from peeping, the Cowboys rented every room with a view and kept them vacant for a week in advance of Allen's coming to town. For example, the top floors of a motel located behind the north end zone overlooked the Dallas practice field during the early 1970s. Washington Week in Dallas became a lockdown from every angle. In other words, they were paranoid of the thumb-licker and what he might do next that was illegal, immoral or both. Hence when Allen transferred to Washington, the Cowboys already thought him devious and all-round no good. Allen not only had the better comeback, but the Rams went to Dallas and whipped the Cowboys 35-13. Kilroy weighed in the vicinity of 300 pounds and did well to climb out of shoes much less up a tree. Allen said the man looked like Cowboys scout Frank (Bucko) Kilroy. Allen responded with a hilarious countercharge.Īllen claimed that the Rams discovered a man sitting in a eucalyptus tree with binoculars, spying on their practice. Other than to chuckle privately, Rozelle never reacted to Schramm's plea for punitive action. Schramm drew himself up in righteous anger and filed an official complaint with NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle.

#Spooked espionage definition license

Alert and inquisitive, he alleged a license plate check traced the car rental to Johnny Sanders, head scout of the Rams. Cowboy exec Tex Schramm said a suspicious vehicle had been parked near the team's practice field. Allen and the Cowboys historically are entwined by a Dallas-Washington rivalry, but in truth they fell out even before he coached the Redskins.Īllen was coaching the Los Angeles Rams in 1967 when the first dustup occurred. This pretty much was how the Cowboys described boogeyman George Allen, although it wasn't all they said about him. People used to throw tantrums in concert with screams that they had been wronged by spying rivals who were immune from fair play and good manners. This is not the way it should be, because it never was in the distant past. Especially since Green Bay officials claimed he did the same thing to the Packers in November.

A guy caught videotaping defensive signals by Jets coaches mostly revealed a lack of imagination and stealth. This latest flap in which the New England Patriots spied on the New York Jets in their opener Sunday fell far shy of a classic case of NFL espionage. Those were days when undercover agents were clever, stealthy and in some cases imaginary, which was all the better because they spooked the other side anyway. NFL spy stories once had spice and suspense, besides all of the friction they created between the innocent accused and outraged accuser.