Latest Allegation Could Cost the Patriots Bigtime

The team's video crew was caught illegally filming the Bengals sideline
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 15, 2019 3:15 PM CST
'Spygate II' Strikes in New England
A screen capture from the video that prompted "Spygate II."   (YouTube/Fox Sports)

Looks like Patriots SpyGate II is here, and TMZ says "it's reallllllly bad for the Pats." In footage obtained by Jay Glazer, an NFL on FOX reporter, a Cincinnati Bengals security guard confronts a Patriots video crew that appears to be illegally filming the Bengals sidelines from a high rear angle. The crew claims they're shooting a segment for the Pats web show "Do Your Job," about an advanced scout, and the exchange goes partly like this:

  • Bengals security: "And, this is a piece your filming on your advanced scout?
  • Pats crew: "Yeah."
  • Bengals security: "Yeah? C'mon guys! I don't see the advanced scout in this footage!"
  • Pats crew: "No, that's not. We were trying to get some field perspective. That's my bad."
  • After the Pats crew offers to delete the footage, the security guy says: "The damage is done my friend!"

The NFL is investigating, but the penalty could include a fine running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly a lost or value-reduced draft choice, per the Washington Post. As Jason LaCanfora writes at CBS Sports: "The Patriots are repeat offenders for violating the league's game-day operations regulations in the past—twice being stripped of first-round picks for either illegally doctoring footballs or illegally taping an opponent—which [sources say] will also factor into the ultimate discipline in this case." Meanwhile, the Pats admit they broke league video rules, but say the crew did so unwittingly, and the team's football operations department didn't benefit in any way. The videographer, of course, has been suspended. (More football stories.)

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