Pats / Bengals videotaping... still no punishment

[Inigo Montoya]

Members of the Patriot's organization were caught videotaping the Cincinnati Bengals sidelines while the Bengals were playing the Browns on December 8th.  The Pats were scheduled to play the Bengals the next week.  This was the first year for new Bengals head coach Zac Taylor who brought in new offensive and defensive coordinators with him.  I'm sure the Pats already had reams of film on Marvin Lewis's sidelines, but now there was a new coach and systems in Cincy and the Pats needed updated film on the Bengals.

 

On February 26th an article in Bleacher Report (see link below) said that the investigation was almost complete and the results would be handed over to Roger Goodell for him to look at and determine what, if any, punishment was going to be handed down to the Patriots. 

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2878088-report-nfl-nearing-end-of-investigation-into-patriots-videotaping-incident

 

Video taping illegally is nothing new for the Pats, they were already caught filming the Jets sidelines in 2007 and punished for it so they are repeat offenders here.  One would think that as repeat offenders they will face stiffer penalties than they received for the Jets' taping.  For taping the Jets, the Pats organization was fined $250,000.  Belichick was fined $500,000.  Most importantly, the Pats lost their 2008 1st round draft pick.

 

So we have an investigation into this Bengals taping that started in the beginning of December, almost 6 months ago, and still no announcement. To put this timeline into perspective, the Warren Commision report that looked into the Kennedy Assassination lasted nine months.  Two months ago the investigation was nearly complete, but we still have no announcements from the commish.  

 

I think Goodell had two main reasons for dragging his feet on this;  First, Goodell needed to make sure that the Pats were able to keep all of their 2020 draft picks to be able to field a competitive team just in case Brady did return to the Pats for one last run.  The League would love nothing better than for their Golden Boy to go out on top one more time.  Second, if Goodell had handed down the punishment before the draft, all the fawning sports talk about Tom Terrific and what he was going to do, and where he was going to go, would have been tarnished by the Patriots getting caught cheating again.  Not quite the feel good story the League wanted to see. 

 

There is no excuse for this ongoing delay.  Goodell needs to crush the Patriots' nuts.  They are consistently caught doing crap like this.  Bending the rules, pushing the boundaries, playing in the grey areas, and sometimes like in this instance, clearly breaking the rules.  There needs to be serious sanctions against the Patriots, multiple draft picks lost, and Belichick needs to be suspended. 

 

Enough with the B.S. delays.  Goodell needs to drop the hammer now.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Inigo Montoya

[Charles Romes]

My sense is that they did not want to put a damper on the draft, the only thing sports fans have had to look forward to.  

[Troll Toll]

I think they are hoping people will just forget. After all, they don’t like punishing the Patriots. 

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

If they lost a 1st for doing it against the Jets you would think that if they had the balls to do it again that the punishment would be more severe. 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

Roger is practicing social distancing so he can't slap their hands 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

5 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

If they lost a 1st for doing it against the Jets you would think that if they had the balls to do it again that the punishment would be more severe. 

 

That was a walkthrough practice for the game they were then playing against each other.  This was some film crew working on some random content for the patriots website talking about scouts and what they do.  

 

They're recording the sideline.. I guess you could get something from there that you couldn't from regular film?  Just seems like a lot of work to try and sync that with what is actually happening on the field.  All to see what, guys talking with clipboards in front of their faces?

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

Belicheat and Kraft do not deserve the benefit of the doubt on this one. Everyone and their mother knows that tape was going to Belicheat. This is total bull####.

[machine gun kelly]

Shocker.  They are cheating.  Goodell just wanted a positive draft, and something will happen if they have proof.  I just don’t care anymore about the Cheatriots.  Not worth my time.

[boco357]

NFL does everything in cycles. When they dont have a news story. They had the draft.  Schedule is coming out next week, so I would say after that and before Memorial Day we will hear something.

[4_kidd_4]

What’s gonna happen anyways? We’re gonna somehow rewind the last 20 years of the Pats taking everyone’s lunch money?

 

It’ll be a token slap, if anything, just like all their other “punishments”. 

 

So what? So let’s dance!

 

 

[Matt_In_NH]

1 hour ago, Troll Toll said:

I think they are hoping people will just forget. After all, they don’t like punishing the Patriots. 

 

I hate the Patriots too but not sure how you are saying this.  THey have lost multiple first round picks in the past and been fined larger amounts of money than I think other teams have.

[BeastMaster]

It is completely ridiculous, I agree. Unfortunately,  it's nothing new with the league and the Pats.

 

I'll hold off totally ripping them until I see what the "investigation" turns up and what the penalty is, but I don't imagine it'll be anything of significance. 

[sodbuster]

How great would it be if the Pats set themselves up to rebuild next year, and then get dinged a draft pick in 2021?

[YattaOkasan]

31 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

That was a walkthrough practice for the game they were then playing against each other.  This was some film crew working on some random content for the patriots website talking about scouts and what they do.  

 

They're recording the sideline.. I guess you could get something from there that you couldn't from regular film?  Just seems like a lot of work to try and sync that with what is actually happening on the field.  All to see what, guys talking with clipboards in front of their faces?

The problem is its very clearly understood you can not film the sidelines of other teams.  There are still a lot of hand signals on the sidelines and elsewhere so being able to key in on any coach (not just HC, OC, or DC) to understand a play would be very valuable.  The Pats know the rule and thats why the Cincinnati incident ended up being confrontational between the film crew and Bengals personnel when it went down.  Maybe not more severe than before but def same punishment.

[Don Otreply]

There will likely be no action taken, It would further taint Billy & Tawmy, and would again make the league look like the hypocrites they are, as well as cast an even bigger shadow on the pats legacy than is already present. There is no hope for the league office when it comes to this topic. There will always be the cheaters taint on that team and those that think highly of them. 

[Mr. K]

Nothing to see here, just the same ol' same ol' 

[BfloBillsFan]

This will get quietly swept under the rug just like Patrick Chung's discipline

 

[stuvian]

worse still, they didn't wash their hands

[Jerry Jabber]

Between the latest video taping scandal and Robert Kraft's arrest, seems these two issues are taking a long time and not much said about either.

[Florida Bills Fanatic]

Does anyone seriously believe that there will be any meaningful discipline handed out?  I don't.  Once the draft was here and gone with no disciplinary action taken, the probability in my mind dropped significantly.