NFL Probe of Patriots Taping Bengals Finds No Link Between Video Crew & Team Operations, Say Reports

NFL Probe of Patriots Taping Bengals Finds No Link Between Video Crew & Team Operations, Say Reports

The NFL investigated the New England Patriots after the team’s video crew was seen in the press box taping the Cincinnati Bengals in December,

Now, reports are now saying the Patriots will only be faced with a possible "gameday infraction."

“The Patriots have said that the team’s video crew that violated league policy by filming the Bengals sideline during a December game against the Browns had no connection to their football operations staff and, per a report, a league investigation into the matter hasn’t turned up any evidence to the contrary,” reported NBC Sports on Wednesday. 

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According to Josh Alper with ProFootball Talk:

Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that the investigation is winding down and that there has been nothing to show that the football operations staff had any link to the video. 

If that remains the case, the Patriots are likely to face a similar penalty to ones imposed on other teams for gameday infractions in recent years.

Those penalties have included fines, dropping a draft pick to a later position and stripping a draft pick. The last penalty was given to the Falcons for playing fake crowd noise during home games.

Maske reports that the investigation could wrap up as soon as this week, but there’s no word on when a final ruling would come from the league office.

Patriots Initial Statement

After the incident in December, the Patriots had released the following statement.

"For the past year, the New England Patriots content team has produced a series of behind-the scenes features on various departments within the organization. The seven previous “Do Your Job” episodes are archived on patriots.com. On Sunday, Dec. 8, the content team sent a three-person video crew to the Bengals-Browns game at FirstEnergy Stadium in order to capture one part of a longer feature on the Patriots scouting department, in this case a Patriots pro personnel scout while he was working in the press box. 

While we sought and were granted credentialed access from the Cleveland Browns for the video crew, our failure to inform the Bengals and the League was an unintended oversight. In addition to filming the scout, the production crew – without specific knowledge of League rules – inappropriately filmed the field from the press box. The sole purpose of the filming was to provide an illustration of an advance scout at work on the road. There was no intention of using the footage for any other purpose. We understand and acknowledge that our video crew, which included independent contractors who shot the video, unknowingly violated a league policy by filming the field and sideline from the press box. When questioned, the crew immediately turned over all footage to the league and cooperated fully. 

The production crew is independent of our football operation. While aware that one of the scouts was being profiled for a “Do Your Job” episode, our football staff had no other involvement whatsoever in the planning, filming or creative decisions made during the production of these features. 

We accept full responsibility for the actions of our production crew at the Browns-Bengals game."