Adam Hunger / Associated Press
The New England Patriots were fined $ 1.1 million from the NFL and expired on Sunday in the third round of 2021 after confirming in December that a member of the production team working for the team’s website the Cincinnati Bengals sidelines had filmed Cleveland Browns during their game at week 14 against the NFL.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss presented the league’s full penalty:
Mike Reiss @MikeReiss
Development of a message: The NFL has imposed the following penalties on the patriots for their television team filming the Cincinnati field and sideline during a December game between the Bengals and Browns (https://t.co/Co8kvuofR6)
New England met the Bengals at week 15, but Godfather head coach Bill Belichick firmly believed that the coaching team had not requested or used the video in question before the game.
“I’m not involved and I don’t know anything about it. I really have no idea what’s going on,” he said on December 10th. “I can tell you that, as a coaching staff, we have never, and I personally have never used video footage of anything that these production people have done other than what is shown on public television or anything.”
The Patriots organization also released a statement trying to clarify the situation:
New England patriots @Patriots
Declaration of the New England Patriots. https://t.co/rhXdwVvnr8
Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer received a video of a confrontation between a Bengali employee and the New England videographer, which also included part of the supporting material:
FOX Sport @FOXSports
FOX SPORTS EXCLUSIVE: @JayGlazer reveals footage of patriots filming Bengal. https://t.co/C7U7mopaEm
The Patriots scored a 34:13 win over the Bengals, who ended the regular season with an NFL-worst 2:14 record.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke at a press conference ahead of the Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers about the state of play:
“It is our responsibility to ensure that we are extremely thorough. We have a responsibility to 31 other clubs, we have a responsibility to our partners. We have a responsibility to the fans to understand everything that has happened and for that make sure something happens. ” We don’t know that happened, didn’t happen.
“From our point of view, we want to make sure that we are thorough. Our team focused on it. We focused on it. It wasn’t that long ago. We obviously focused on it, but we will do it right. If if we come to a conclusion, we will make sure that people are aware of it. “
It is the third high-profile punishment that New England and members of the organization have been given during their dynastic run of six Super Bowl championships since 2001.
In Spygate, Belichick was fined $ 500,000, the patriots fined $ 250,000, and the team lost their first choice in the 2008 NFL Draft because it was in week 1 of the New York Jets during a win about the New York Jets had filmed illegal train signals from an unauthorized place in the 2007 season.
In 2015, Pat’s quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for four games, and the team was fined $ 1 million and lost two draft picks (a first-round player in 2016 and a quarter-finalist in 2017) for Deflategate – the purportedly deliberate deflation of Soccer balls during the 2014 AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.
The 2019 season in New England and the recent title defense ended in a 20:13 loss to the Tennessee Titans in the wild card round.
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