The NFL’s investigation on the New England Patriots added a new wrinkle on Tuesday morning.
An investigation began on Monday after reports came out that the Patriots’ staff recorded the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline in their matchup with the Cleveland Browns. New England had members of its production crew in the Browns’ press box to record a project for Patriots.com that narrowed in on an advanced scout.
The Patriots released a statement shortly after saying that their production team inappropriately recorded the field from the press box.
In a statement, Patriots admit their production crew "inappropriately filmed the field from the press box. The sole purpose of the filming was to provide an illustration of an advance scout on the road." It was footage for New England's "Do Your Job" series on the Pats' website pic.twitter.com/f65pSsjp4S
— Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis) December 10, 2019
Tuesday morning’s reports from The Athletic Boston, claim that the Patriots have eight minutes of footage that’s focused in on the Bengals’ sideline.
According to sources who have viewed the tape, it shows about eight minutes of footage focusing on recording the Bengals’ sideline. It’s a direct view of the sideline as players run on and off the field and coaches make signals for plays.
The investigation is ongoing and Bill Belichick denied any involvement with the accusation on Monday.
“As I understand it, they were taping him — trying to show kind of what an advanced scout does,” Belichick said. “A scout can’t film the opponents as an advanced scout. Our video people are not even allowed to point the camera at the opponents in pregame warmups or their side of the field or anything else to test out their equipment. They 100 percent know — all of our scouts and all of our video people — what that is. Again, I have nothing to do with TV production shows.”
The Patriots play the Bengals this week after losing in Week 14 to the Kansas City Chiefs.
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